Companies in Singapore ranked by reputation

Great Eastern jumped 4 spots from the 2011 survey to clinch the top spot this year. Survey respondents felt that good customer service was especially important in the insurance sector, suggesting that insurance companies should focus on investing in their agents.

In the general insurance sector, French AXA group overtook NTUC Income to emerge as the company with the best corporate reputation. Again, good customer service was cited as the most important factor in affecting a general insurance company's reputation.

Home-grown insurer NTUC income fell from the top spot in 2011 to second place this year, falling short of AXA's rating by a very fine margin of 0.04 points. Lack of transparency to customers and not paying claims are top factors that would threaten a company's reputation, the survey revealed.

The corporate reputation ranking for telcos in 2013 did not change from the 2011 survey. Singtel maintains its top spot in terms of corporate reputation among the telcos in Singapore. Singtel recently completed nationwide Long Term Evolution (LTE) coverage to support the high speed 4G mobile network. Acress all sectors, the telco sector's reputation is the worst: only 9% of respondents said that the telco sector's reputation was 'Good', the lowest percentage across all the sectors. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash/Files

Starhub maintained its second spot. Starhub recently announced that it would implement a 'one-minute minimum charge' starting May 1 2013. The survey found that 'disruption to network services' is the factor that affects telcos' reputations most adversely.

M1 stays in the third spot in terms of corporate reputation. Competitive rates offered by the telcos was one of the top factors that helped to boost a telco's reputation. M1 was the first to offer Singapore's first WiFi roaming service in Apr 2013. (AFP file photo)

Esso has overtaken Shell as the oil company with the best corporate reputation. The survey revealed that social media ranked low as a positive influence on corporate reputation, which is surprising given that Singapore has one of the highest smartphone penetration rates in the world. Photo credit: WENN.com

Caltex, subsidiary of American multinational energy corporation Chevron, emerged in third place. Bad customer service, unattractive rewards and high petrol prices affect a petroleum company's reputation the most negatively.