Customer Care(less)

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work - he is the purpose of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to serve him. - Mahatma Gandhi"

Am sure each and every on of you (especially in India) would have come across the above quote in one form or the other...in a bank, restaurant or any other big outlet mostly right behind the cash counter. Mostly with Mahatma's picture, framed and kept in pristine condition. Though I always wondered is it something which is looked at from time to time by the employees...forget organisations taking pain to inculcate them?

Wonder why am talking about customer service all of a sudden? Well over the last 40-45 days there has been two instances which have filled me with anguish, irritation, anger and even feel violent!!!!

1. United Bank of India - The Bank that begins with "U" http://www.unitedbankofindia.com/

Am sure not many of you would even believe that a bank by that name exists. But according to their financial results for 2009 - 2010 they have done business of more that Rs. 1 lakh crore! I got a corporate account with the bank courtesy Air Deccan. And during my stint their had taken some loans which were to be paid via ECS. All was well till I moved jobs and with that my salary account also shifted. Yeah yeah you will say whats the big deal when there is net banking. Let me tell you they woke up much later on this. So I have been habituated to transferring money physically. First there were some restrictions and then there was a fees I would pay every month. One of these days I made the usual trip to the branch in T Nagar, Chennai to make the transfer. It was a Saturday and I was late by 10 mins. I was not only not entertained even after repeated requests I was told about how they are perfect in their systems. Irritated I went home to come back again on the next Monday. I was there at 9.15 am and the counter only opened at 9.30 am though the timings were 9 am! Eager to get back when I asked why the delay pat came a rather cool reply...systems take time. What upset me even more was when I was told systems have changed and there are restrictions to the amount I can transfer!!! This time I was not going to take it lying low. When argued I was shown a faded photocopy which stated the rule! When asked and examples given of how I have been transferring for the 18 odd months prior to the day these were the statements made

1. The old cashier didn't know the rules

2. We don't know how she did the transfer

3. You would have cajoled her.

Already irritated at the nuisance this answer literally blew my top. I got into a high pitch argument. This is when their 20 something manager tried to sight how all other customers don't have problem with their service. Little do they realise these customers are with them for various reasons not customer care! I was not surprise that they had their say! I had to make another trip to make the reminder of the payment.

A month later when I had to make my next month transfers given the deadline was a weekday I went to their branch next to my office with the idea of doing partial payment. On checking with the cashier much to my astonishment I was told there was no such rule and above a certain amount I need to furnish my PAN card number. When I asked him if he was sure he smiled. I did quickly narrate my entire ordeal to him, made the payments and went back to work. Being part of a telecom company and having successfully rolled out Mobile Number Portability in Tamil Nadu, as a part of which customer could change the service provider without changing the number on my way back I was thinking if there is MNP can there be a BAP? Bank Account Portability!!!

Will share the next incident in a few days...