Achievement Update on the ‘Go-The-Extra-Mile-For-Service ‘(GEMS) Movement

Introduction

1. The GEMS Executive Committee (EXCO), chaired by Raymond Lim, Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, has released a detailed report of the achievements made under the ‘Go-the-Extra-Mile for Service’ (or in short, GEMS ) Movement since its launch in October 2005.

2. The GEMS Movement set out to get everyone, from employers to workers to customers, to play their part and work together to build a culture of service excellence in Singapore. Since its inception, the GEMS EXCO had been rolling out initiatives to raise awareness of importance of service excellence and the need to enhance service levels across many industries.

Key achievements to date

3. The GEMS Movement work focused on four key areas, which are a) service leadership, b) service capabilities, c) service mindset and d) raising service standards in small & medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Four sub-committees were formed to look into each area.

Key achievements of Service Leadership sub-committee

4. The Service Leadership sub-committee, headed by Ms Jennie Chua and Mr John Cheston, reached out to business leaders to encourage them to pay greater attention to service quality and make it a key differentiator for business competitiveness. The achievements include :

1. A series of six service leadership seminars –Inspiring participants in areas of service excellence and leadership, these seminars were conducted for employers to reinforce the importance of service quality in improving the company’s bottom line. Over 700 industry leaders attended the seminars.
2. A GEMS Publication –Titled “Best of Singapore in Service Excellence 2007”, it was published to recognise and profile service leaders who have been outstanding in embracing and championing service excellence.

5. The Service Capabilities sub-committee, co-chaired by Mr Tan Pee Teck and Mr Octavio Gamarra, worked with service industry leaders to enable improvement of service levels by service staff through various tools and targeted training. The achievements include :

1. Customer Service Training Programme - The S2006 customer service training initiative was launched to train service staff, in anticipation of Singapore 2006 (S2006) World Bank meetings which was held in September 2006. About 35,000 service staff were trained over nine months to ramp up service levels at key tourist touch points. A survey on S2006 revealed that 85.5% were “very satisfied” with their experience, an affirmation of the success of the training.
2. Service Excellence Workforce Skills Qualifications (SE WSQ) - Following S2006, a national skills framework called the SE WSQ was developed to promote service excellence for the workforce through training. This ongoing qualification provides a comprehensive set of skills for operational, supervisory and managerial levels, thus raising service competencies at every point of the service chain of an organisation.

6. The Service Mindset sub-committee, led by Mr Kenneth Chan and Mr Douglas Foo, created a greater level of service awareness by promoting “Go-the-Extra Mile for Service” message and engaging different segments to encourage them to play their part in building a culture of service excellence in Singapore. The achievements include :

1. GEMS Service Awareness Programme –Targeting at employers, service staff and customers to raise service awareness, a TV commercial and outdoor advertising campaign was rolled out in three phases. A perception survey on the campaign revealed that there is a heightened overall awareness of the need for service excellence as well as an increased sensitivity and motivation to raise service standards.
2. GEMS Appreciation Initiative (GAI) –The GAI was introduced to encourage customers to commend service staff with high service standards. 90 companies covering 2,000 outlets island-wide participated in the month-long effort. A total of 2 million thank-you cards were given, with a return rate of 33%.
3. GEMS Youth Outreach Programme –With an aim to provide the young with a holistic picture of the services industry and cultivate in them a service-oriented mindset, a “Young GEMS Camp” was co-organised with Republic Polytechnic under the Youth Outreach Programme. 80 upper-secondary school students from 17 schools took part in the camp.

Key achievements of SMEs sub-committee

7. The SMEs sub-committee, headed by Ms Elim Chew and Mr Michael Ma, addressed the unique concerns of local SMEs and identified ways to increase their service levels. To date, some 1,300 SMEs have benefited from the programmes. The achievements include :

1. Customer Centric Initiative (CCI) –The CCI, a multi-agency effort to transform service standards in enterprises, was launched for the retail sector in August 2005. It currently has 37 retailers and 14 shopping malls on board, involving a total of 2,500 outlets. A study on 10 pilot companies showed the CCI had improved sales growth by 65% after one year. The CCI (F&B), launched in June 2007, attracted 40 F&B operators to date.
2. Mobile training for HDB heartlands –This initiative set out to bring service training to the heartlands, making it more convenient and cost-effective for SMEs, while providing them with networking opportunities. More than 400 SMEs have been trained on the WSQ “Provide GEMS Service” since its commencement in April 2006.

Going Forward

8. Various milestones have been achieved under GEMS and its initiatives have been well-received. A recent perception survey on the GEMS Movement and its advertising campaign had revealed a heightened overall awareness of service standards and greater motivation to deliver and appreciate excellent service amongst service staff and the general public. However, the business decision makers have been the least impacted of all the segments surveyed.

9. Going forward, we will be targeting the business decision makers as they are they are instrumental in motivating staff and driving cultural changes in their organisation to raise service levels. The Institute for Service Excellence@SMU (ISES) has thus been established to raise Singapore's service competitiveness and to proactively engage business leaders to embrace service excellence as a business strategy to bring about an impactful change in the service culture of Singapore.

10. In addition, efforts will be made to broaden the GEMS outreach to sectors beyond the hospitality-related ones, such as finance, logistics and healthcare sectors. These organisations also need to be customer-oriented and put in place efficient processes too in order to deliver the most optimal customer experience.

About GEMS

GEMS (Go-the-Extra-Mile-for-Service) was launched in October 2005 by Minister Raymond Lim as a nation-wide movement to raise service levels and develop a culture of service excellence. It is supported by an Executive Committee (EXCO), comprising members of diverse backgrounds, including businessmen, union leaders and representatives from the media and government agencies. The GEMS movement seeks to encourage everyone –from businessmen to service workers to customers –to play their part and take the initiative to improve service levels.

As a Service Worker - demonstrate the capability of performing ordinary task in extraordinary ways in the normal course of your duties.

As an Employer / Management - take the lead to create a service culture and system within your organisation to excel in service delivery.

As a Customer - encourage great service by showing simple gestures of appreciations such as smile, greet and thank for service rendered by the service providers.