Quality of China's service sector improves in 2017

BEIJING - The quality of China's service sector improved last year, according to a new official report.

The customer satisfaction index rose 2.86 points from 2016 to 74.75 in 2017, continuing in the range of "relatively satisfactory," according to the monitoring report from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Higher scores were given to telecommunications, civil aviation, online payment and online shopping services, the report said.

Customer satisfaction is an important indicator of service quality around the world, as survey showed that higher level of customer satisfaction is associated with higher return on assets in the future.

However, the report also showed that the service sector needs distinctive services and better personnel, as the sector got low scores in the areas of special services and attitude toward the customers.

The administration said it will work with other departments on legislation on service quality supervision, risk monitoring and hazards in the sector.

Last year, the service sector accounted for 51.6 percent of the country's GDP, and contributed to 58.8 percent of GDP growth.