The latest Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore revealed that the perceived service quality, one of the key drivers of customer satisfaction, has improved from 70.4 points in 2007 to 71.3 points in 2010. However, Singapore still lags behind Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo in service quality, while productivity in the sector is two-thirds to half that of other developed economies.

In the effort to encourage companies to adopt new technology to improve service delivery, SPRING Singapore will inject $75 million to boost productivity in the food services industry for the next five years. The money will be distributed as grants to help companies defray almost half the cost of improving efficiency - new technology, re-design workflow, train manpower and develop innovative food products and dining concepts.

The F&B service industry in Singapore comprises of 6,000 establishments, contributing $5.6 billion in operating receipts, with restaurants representing 35% of all F&B establishments.

The recent Infocomm Development Authority’s Call For Collaboration (CFC) for mobility solutions spurred the participation of DBS, Samsung, SingTel, Butterfly and Swiff to form a consortium with expertise to provide a complete wireless mobile payment solution to the Food & Beverage industry. The consortium (known as Genesis Consortium) provides an end-to-end mobile solution from ordering to payment over Wi-Fi or 3G connection. Restaurants will benefit from placing an order through a Samsung Galaxy Tablet reducing waiting time as orders are sent real-time to the kitchen. The bill is then be presented over the Tablet to the customer, while he verifies the amount and makes the payment with his credit card. The entire process and authorisation takes less than a minute to complete, and the customer has the option of receiving a printed copy of his receipt or have the receipt of the bill sent to him by email. The process which helps reduce billing errors while improving customer service give businesses the competitive edge.