F&B and retail companies see improvements in service standards

SINGAPORE: More than 100 companies in the food and beverage, and retail sectors have seen their business performance and customer satisfaction levels improve after tapping into a government fund aimed at boosting service standards.

Revenue growth increased by an average of 35 per cent while customer satisfaction levels grew by an average of 23 per cent.

Staff salaries also rose by an average of 17 per cent, according to a study commissioned by SPRING Singapore in 2012 on the impact of the fund.

The companies embarked on projects to streamline work processes and improve the customer experience. These projects are partially funded under the government’s Customer-Centric Initiative which aims to upgrade service standards.

The Customer-Centric Initiative is administered by Spring Singapore, National Trades Union Congress, Singapore Workforce Development Agency, Singapore Tourism Board, and the Institute of Service Excellence at Singapore Management University.

One example of a project that has made life easier for customers is the mobile app developed by BreadTalk.

The app allows customers to shop on the go and cut down the amount of time they spend browsing in a store. All customers have to do is choose the items they want, the store they want to pick them up from, and pay when they get there.

With the app, BreadTalk said in-store shopping time has been reduced by some 30 per cent and customer compliments have soared by 75 per cent.

While touring BreadTalk’s new headquarters on Monday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Secretary-General of the National Trades Union Congress Lim Swee Say urged more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to tap on the fund.

Mr Lim said: “SMEs should actually capitalise on this opportunity. When they are still small, the scale of operations is smaller. We should try to find ways to start doing the right things right so that as they grow bigger, they can evolve the system and scale up the system.”

He added: “Very often when we go out there to promote customer-centric initiatives, some of them have this idea that the big and successful companies are able to invest in the right technology because they have the resources to do so. In fact, our challenge would be how to convince them and help them understand the reason why companies are big and successful today is because they were able to do the right things right when they were small.”

This means being customer-centric, keeping workers motivated, and getting the right leadership in place.

During the tour, the BreadTalk Group – which also runs eateries – showed how it has redesigned workflow and leveraged on technology.

It is setting up a new central kitchen for its restaurant chain Din Tai Fung located at the Breadtalk Group’s headquarters to ensure consistency in certain products.

William Cheng, CEO of restaurant division at BreadTalk Group, said: “Some processes that will take place in our central kitchen will include the sauces, marinades, and also some desserts. Also, things that we use on a daily basis such as fillings will also be prepared there. If every individual kitchen has a different chef preparing these food items, there is a greater chance of mistakes and inconsistency. After all, people do have their emotions.

“Hence, there are a myriad of benefits by transferring these processes to a central kitchen. Instead of having 17 different chefs all having to do these same things, it is more efficient to have all of them done at one central location. This will also reduce their workload.”

The restaurant chain has also reduced its reliance on manpower by investing in a vegetable washing machine at the central kitchen. This has resulted in a 60 per cent decrease in manpower needed to complete the task.

The central kitchen will begin operations next month.

F&B and retail companies see improvements in service standards