By KENNY CHEE

AN INITIATIVE could pave the way to raising service standards for information-technology retailers, against which consumers regularly lodge complaints.

Software giant Microsoft, the Singapore Institute of Retail Studies and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) announced yesterday a training course for IT-retail staff, with a focus on addressing customer needs.

The Microsoft Retail Sales Professional programme is the latest salvo in a national effort to raise service levels here.

It is also the first WDA-co-funded training course for IT-retail staff. The fee for the 42-hour course is $1,029, but Singaporeans and permanent residents have to pay only $45 after receiving subsidies.

The Singapore Institute of Retail Studies designed it to improve sales officers' knowledge of Microsoft products and services, as well as to improve their soft skills to better communicate with and advise customers on products.

This is because some complaints could arise from misunderstandings between customers and retail staff because of the employees' lack of understanding about the products or services offered, said the institute's director, Mr Lee Tong Nge.

Other misunderstandings could be due to the inability of the sales staff to understand the requirements of customers, meet their expectations during a sales transaction, or handle customer complaints, he said.

Figures from the Consumers Association of Singapore show that cases related to computer products and service, including complaints, are quite common.

Last year, the association received 410 cases in this area, a slight increase over 382 cases in 2008 and 386 cases in 2007. It got 1,325 cases for the electrical and electronics sector, and 858 cases for the mobile-phone sector last year.

Mr Lee said that training programmes such as the Microsoft course "could help to lower the number of complaints against IT-retail staff and improve the situation over time".

He added that similar courses by other vendors could be developed to improve the experience for consumers patronising IT stores here.

He said that while there is no concrete research on customer-satisfaction levels for the IT-retail sector here, anecdotal evidence indicates that they mirror general customer-satisfaction levels here. So, there is "room for improvement", he said.

In January, the Singapore Management University's Institute of Service Excellence said that the Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore last year was 68 out of 100. This is behind similar satisfaction- index levels of 70.9 to 76 for customers in the United States, Britain and South Korea.

The WDA said that the management of retailers in general have to put customer service, and not just profits, on the daily agenda to see how to address any shortcomings.

IT retailer Harvey Norman sent a batch of its sales staff for a pilot of the course last month.

It said that the course could help improve its sales as its service staff become more confident in selling the store's products, and its stores get more satisfied returning customers.

kennyc@sph.com.sg

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