SINGAPORE may have clawed itself up to No. 10 worldwide in international service rankings, but people here disagree. Customer satisfaction levels have dipped slightly, according to a survey of almost 35,000 respondents.

The survey, conducted by Singapore Management University's Institute of Service Excellence, found a drop in customer satisfaction across all eight sectors here - from finance to health care.

The biggest drop was recorded for the tourism, hotels and accommodation services industry, down 2.4 points from 71 out of 100.

The food and beverage sector was the next worst-performing with a decline of 2.3 points to hit 65.4.

These responses run contrary to the money and programmes pumped in to up service standards here in the last few years.

The Go the Extra Mile for Service - or Gems - campaign was initiated in 2005 after Singapore was ranked 17th for customer service in the World Economic Forum's global report. In 2006 it fell even further - coming in at 26th, before redeeming itself at 15th and then 10th in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Singapore Retailers Association (SRA) executive director Lau Chuen Wei said it was rather surprising to note a drop in SMU's survey scores.

In fact, she said that SRA's own mystery shopping programme, which measures service standards in 155 retail companies, had registered improved service levels.

Ms Lau said the SRA results show that the retail industry's average scores went up from 70.87 per cent to 73.61 per cent, contrasting with the national Customer Satisfaction Index, which rated the retail sector at 68.1 out of 100, down 0.4 points.

SRA's study was conducted between November last year and January 2009, the same period as the SMU survey.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.