In the latest release of the annual Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore on Monday morning, Singapore scored 67.8 out of 100 points in 2008, down from 68.7 in 2007.

United States led the pack with a score of 75.7, which was up 1.1 per cent from the previous year. In fact, the US and Sweden were the only two countries which saw a rise in their customer satisfaction scores. Every other country that uses a similar index saw a decline, from Finland, South Korea to Hong Kong and Denmark.

The biggest decline was seen in Denmark, which fell 4.1 per cent to bottom of the class with Singapore. Previously, it scored 70.7 out of 100.

Although the Singapore results were down, Ms Caroline Lim, director of the Singapore Management University's Institute of Service Excellence, urged industry players not to be unduly alarmed as this was only the second year of the ranking. The index was first introduced last year.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan, who was a guest of honour at Monday's event attended by more than 250 industry leaders, said more needs to be done for the services industry which accounts for 68 per cent of the Singapore's economy.

Mr Lee noted that the service sector's productivity growth has lagged behind the manufacturing sector since 1997.

'In the past two years, we have even seen negative labour productivity growth despite strong economic performance in 2007 and early 2008. We ought to understand why this is so and how we can intervene the trend,' he said.

This has prompted the Government decided to pump $100 million more into the second phase of the Go the Extra Mile for Service campaign, launched in 2005.

Mr Lee encouraged industry leaders to take 'training and upskilling' seriously.