Korea Standards Association Announces First-Half Results of Korea Service Quality Index

The Standard of Trust for "Customer-Perceived Service Quality" in the High-Tech Era

The Korea Standards Association announced the results of the KS-SQI (Korea Service Quality Index) survey on July 3, which comprehensively reflects the quality level of the service industry in Korea and the degree of service improvement by company.

Now in its 26th year, the KS-SQI is a service quality evaluation model jointly developed in 2000 by the Korea Standards Association and the Seoul National University Business Research Institute. It consists of eight dimensions: accuracy, expertise, authenticity, kindness, proactiveness, convenience of use, appearance, and orientation toward social value. The survey is conducted twice a year, in the first and second half, taking into account the characteristics and seasonality of each industry.

Attendees of the KS-SQI (Korea Service Quality Index) certification award ceremony are taking a commemorative photo. Korea Standards Association

This year’s first-half survey assessed the service quality levels of 120 companies across 31 general service industries?including finance, telecommunications, retail, and after-sales rental?as well as 71 local government administrative services, based on responses from 53,750 customers. The average score for general service industries was 76.4 points, up 0.7 points from the same period last year, while local government administrative services scored 72.1 points, an increase of 0.5 points.

In particular, the ‘orientation toward social value’ dimension continued its upward trend. Since the introduction of the KS-SQI 3.0 model in 2021, when social value was first included in the survey, it has shown the largest annual increase. This is interpreted as evidence that companies are making more active efforts to fulfill their social responsibilities.

Chairman Moon Dongmin stated, “Now that AI and digital technology have become part of everyday life, consumers are evaluating not only service satisfaction but also the attitude and philosophy of brands.” He added, “While technology evolves rapidly, trust is a value that can only be built over time. In an environment characterized by uncertainty and volatility, it is more important than ever for companies to objectively assess service quality and strike a balance between technology and people, as well as between efficiency and responsibility, in order to secure sustainable competitiveness.”

He further commented, “The achievements of the companies that ranked first in this survey are not the result of short-term efforts, but rather the outcome of a consistent, customer-centric philosophy and practice.” He added, “I hope that the KS-SQI will help spread a leading service culture throughout our society.”