It is an undeniable fact that the human capital is the most critical for any organisation especially one in the service industry as a bank.
I had an interesting episode with my bank recently. I discovered that my son's account opened a few years ago was misspelled in their records due to a data entry error. When I tried to get this rectified, I was asked to fill up a new form. I asked them to check their records but was informed that the records were lost in the floods in 2005.
I escalated this issue to their head of service who deputed a junior officer to deal with me. She called me several times for routine information like account number, name of the officer I spoke to earlier etc. Yet there was no progress.
I then went to the bank and checked out in their system. There, I could see the scanned image of the original form which had the correct spelling. When the officer called me yet again for some minor detail, I told her that this info. is already available in the bank in the scanned image.
She had more questions for me like where did I see this, which branch, which desk etc. When I expressed my irritation with the delay and approach, she gave me a piece of her mind !! Rather than being apologetic, she seemed to be the one who was offended.
My bank later rectified the problem without any further communication with me, after I spoke to their head of service again. Yet, the whole incident left a bad taste and reduced my confidence and comfort with my bank.
A bank may have great technology, seamless systems, on line information etc. However, if it does not have the right people, it could end up losing clients. In my case, the operations staff were bureaucratic and not keen to find a solution. The customer service staff was not trained to look through the system and had an attitude problem too.
It is imperative for every bank to make sure that its staff are customer centric and sensitive. It is not enough for a bank to talk about service and it should also take steps to ensure this. Training and close supervision is critical. Every complaint and customer issue needs to be taken up earnestly to find a solution and fix the root problem. Every staff member who is found to be lackadaisical in approach needs to be retrained. If this is not bringing about a change in the attitude and performance, it is best to weed out such people.
In the long run, for a bank to survive and out-perform its peers, it needs to be filled with high quality people and the right culture in place. Any bank ignoring this key area will become unattractive for its customers.
I would love to hear your views on this blog. Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog or send me a mail at vish.sesh@gmail.com and I will quickly respond.
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This seems to be a common occurrence across all Banks w/o exceptions. I hv many similar stories with the 3 different Pvt Banks I deal with (Business & Personal). The yawning gap seems to only get wider..
ReplyDeleteSir
ReplyDeleteI would like to quote one example in support of customer centric approach. When I was working with XYZ Bank way back in 2005, we had approved a PL to an existing CASA customer of the bank. I was the ACM at that time when this incident happened.
This customer had applied for this PL since he needed funds to meet some emergency medical expenses for his father. We had initially some delay in approving this case and finally we approved it after 18 days ( after his father got admitted for surgery) even though he was our existing customer.
We had promised disbursement on a Tuesday, a day before his dad was supposed to undergo the surgery. The hospital insisted on an advance of Rs.1.50 lacs and the customer was planning to use the loan proceeds for paying up this advance. We again had some issues in disbursing the loans on Tuesday and the customer walked into the branch and blasted everyone and started weeping.
I immediately took him to the hospital where his dad was admitted and paid money from own pocket and the surgery was performed the next day. I asked the customer to return the money to me after he got the disbursement from the bank. We finally disbursed the case on Friday. The delay by the bank was purely technical in nature and in no way the customer was responsible for this.
The point that I am trying to make is that the employees of the bank should look at things from a customer’s perspective when they service clients. But today, we hardly have people who are ready to walk the extra mile
Best Regards
Good one.
ReplyDeleteIn my view very few customers demand quality service from its bankers. Our service levels would reach higher if there is customer activism which are of low quality today.
But as u have rightly mentioned nothing can be substitute to a good quality trained customer service team who have to be representative of customers when they seek resolution within the banking hierarchy.
Thanks & rgds
Lakshmi
While it may be fashionable to criticise private sector banks they provide superior service and experience to a lot of customers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, guys.
ReplyDeleteI would like to clarify here that this blog is not about private sector banks vs. public sector. Nor is this about my experiences with a specific bank. In fact, nowhere have I mentioned which bank this was or whether it was in private sector.
I have accounts in both private sector and public sector banks and am happy to see an overall improvement in service in both sides. There are banks in the private sector who give a lot of importance to service and have taken huge steps in that direction.
I have used a recent example not to criticise or complain about a bank but to drive home the message of the need to focus on customer delight. Every interaction with the bank is a moment of truth for the customer and, sometimes, years of good work can get destroyed in a few moments of bad attention or service.
Keep writing in your thoughts - they are so welcome (except anonymous irrelavent / malicious comments).
warm regards & best wishes
Sir, Your write up itself is self explanatory about the agony faced by you. But here you could contact the head of service and still get it resolved with less efforts...
ReplyDeleteThere are others ( usually illiterate persons) having accounts in different banks... Imagine the problems faced by them when their similar queries remain unresolved and have to interact with such customer service executives who either have attitude problems or do not have enough knowledge etc.... ?
@ Karthik : Appreciate the extended customer service provided by you ....:-)
Customer ownership and responsiveness is the key; as they say 'service is the only key and sustainable differentiator' is this commoditized world of banking.
ReplyDeleteNice blog..keep posting