Gov.-Invested Firms Earn Higher Customer Satisfaction Levels Last Year
- MPB commissions Korea Productivity Center to take survey

The Ministry of Planning and Budget in December last year commissioned the Korea Productivity Center to survey the 16 government-invested firms on the level of their customer satisfaction, which found that the level reached 79.4 point up from 76.8 point from 2003.
In 1999, it averaged 58.1 point, 63 in the following year, 72.3 in 2002, 76.8 in 2003 and 79.4 last year, showing that customers are generally satisfied with government-invested firms. Last year's survey conducted over diversified customer demand, ensuring objectivity and the expansion of the number of customers responding to the survey.
In case of the Korea Electric Power Corp.(KEPCO), its customers contacted for survey included customers for general power supply, industrial power supply, in addition to agricultural power supply, and street lights. In case of the Korea Highway Corp., the highway patrolmen were added to the usual customers who use the highways. The number of customers totaled 13,061 last year up 20.1 percent from 10,877 in 2003, who were selected on a random sampling basis.
The survey showed an improved customer satisfaction level last year because the firms under survey changed their management style to customer-oriented ones from the supplier-oriented one.
The significance of the finding is that customers are aware of what the customer-centered management can bring to them.
In case of KEPCO, KHC and Kogas, which earned high marks in the survey had done good works in the public business areas, in addition to raising public convenience. KEPCO operated account numbers for customers' exclusive uses, along with special discount rates for low-income households and severely handicapped people.
KHC provided traffic information on wire and wireless communication channels and eased traffic loads on main highways by building auxiliary byways. The company did all it can to ease traffic jams around the tollgates by setting up extra number of tollgates and drive ways. The company did its best to ensure that the rest areas are kept clean and services improved at all times by holding various cultural events at those places.
Kogas held meetings with customers on a regular basis and promoted the supply of natural gas. The company also held social service events by building gas science halls and public relations halls. The company also set up consumer service promotion committees to hike the level of customer satisfaction.
The Agriculture and Fishery Marketing Corp. built an electronic trading system for its agricultural commodities to cut time needed for transactions from three hours to one hour. It also provided consultations for exporting farm goods by utilizing its technical support teams with about 92 members.
MPB plans to have the survey results referred in the management result evaluation of government-invested firms coming up in March so that their level of services and customer service satisfaction would be maintained. Model best practice cases would be collected and published in booklets so that public firms have a chance to learn what other public firms had done to earn good points in the survey and learn to practice them. The ministry intends to get ideas on improvement through the analysis of good and bad points in the survey and has them reflected in the management reform plan of the government-invested firms.
The survey has been conducted since 1999 based on two categories of the government-invested firm; One for individual customers and the other for companies as customers. Seven of them were classified as those serving individual customers, while 9 were put into the category of serving companies as customers. The first group of companies included KEPCO, Korea Housing Corp., Korea Highway Corp., Korea Land Corp. and the Korea Airport Corp. The second group included KOTRA, Korea National Tourism Organization, Korea Gas Corp., Korea National Oil Corp., Korea Water Resources Corp. and Korea Coal Corp., among others.
The survey had questionnaires on customer expectations before the survey as well as those on the evaluation of quality after using the products or services. The survey was modeled after the National Customer Satisfaction Index developed by the University of Michigan, which quantified the satisfaction levels of customers using products or services.
KEPCO and the Korea Highway Corp. topped the list with 80 points each in the category of individual customers the same as in the previous year, while Korea Gas Corp. and the Agriculture and Fishery Marketing Corp. came on top in other category with 87 and 86 points each and up from 4th and 7th in 2003. nw