DED releases annual report on service quality to support DSES members

Sunday 29 November 2015

Dubai - MENA Herald: The Business Excellence Department in the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has launched an annual report on the customer service standards and gaps across various retail segments in the emirate as part of the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme (DSES).

The report, which lists the strengths as well as weaknesses in service delivery, top performing brands, and best practices in improving customer experience in each retail category, is intended to serve as a benchmark for all businesses, including existing and potential DSES members.

Mystery shoppers from DSES evaluated 179 brands across 17 retail categories – Contact Centre; Jewellery; Footwear; General Retail; Travel Services; Retail Banking Services; Opticals; Money Exchange Services; Furniture; Clothing; Automobile Showroom; Café; Services; Pharmacies; Electronics; Leisure & Entertainment, Cinema & Gamezone; and Restaurants for the report.

The insights gathered in the report spans key points of the customer’s journey as experienced in terms of outlet appearance; comfort, health & safety; policy and criteria, employees, service delivery, cashier observations in addition to an overall assessment.

The report will serve as a useful reference and benchmarking tool for retailers in their efforts to improve service quality and customer satisfaction, according to Mohammed Bushanain, Executive Director of Corporate Quality & Management Excellence in DED.

“Throughout the DSES programme, DED works in close partnership with our members to help them improve service quality in line with the Dubai Government Excellence Programme. The annual report which we have now launched will serve as a user’s guide helping businesses to remain part of DSES and progress through successive stages of the scheme,” said Bushanain.

DSES is an initiative launched by DED in order to raise the quality of service provided to shoppers across the numerous outlets across the UAE. Members include various brands that have outlets located in the different emirates of the UAE.

Measuring service quality is an integral element of DSES and important for the overall happiness in the UAE as well as for overall development since retail contributes to 43 per cent of the national GDP and 73 per cent of the workforce in the country, added Bushanain.

“To retain customer loyalty in the fiercely competitive local market, retailers should not only benchmark their service quality within their respective sector but also against other sectors. A higher customer rating or service quality in another sector will impact what your customers expect from you,” Bushanain explained.

Users can find the best brands in each category as well as the score cards of the top five best performers and best practices adopted by these best performers in the report. The report also includes detailed analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the top-performing brands across the key metrics evaluated.

For a copy of the report, retailers can contact +971 4 4455833, or send an email to dses@dubaided.gov.ae  

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