Service levels in banks

Service levels in banks

An incident of today prompts me to write this message of absolute sorrow. In 1969, the then Prime Minister of India, Smt. Indira Gandhi, took a drastic step of nationalizing 13 banks in India. This move has hence been seen as the backbone of Indian Banking. The trustworthiness of these banks have never ever been questioned and the services rendered in the progress of the nation unquestioned. These banks made Indian economy strong and kept it running through the thick and thin. And for the common man it was a source of relief, where could get loans

In 2020-21 many of these banks were amalgamated to enhance the service quality. And the result was what I wanted to write about. Today after a month of applying for a cheque book and having not received it thus far, we went to the branch office for clarification. This was the beginning of a series of shocking customer service behaviour that has no comparison.

The manager was seated in a cubicle at the very rear of the bank and grunted when I wished him a Good Morning.  He did not even choose to look up and his attitude was one of absolute nonchalance. On being told of our concern we were told that there is nothing pending there. He did not even run a check on his computer. On my insistence he looked at me and demanded the account number. This a 13 digit number that is very difficult to remember, and the manager bluntly refused to run a check with the name.

Helpless I requested him to issue a loose leaf, to which he said that they have stopped issuing loose leaves. In fact he even had the gall to tell me that if it were a practice he would have done so long back. The absolute lack of respect was evident in every act of his.

I had to leave in absolute disgust. On checking back at office, I realised that we needed to speak with the Regional Manager and promptly did so. His response was that he was busy and we had to wait. However since Beena had been an employee of this bank, she rang up and checked with the higher ups.

In the meantime, I asked Mohan to raise a formal complaint to be lodged with the MD and CEO Sri L V Prabhakar. However on hearing that the matter was reaching higher management, the “busy” regional manager called up in a huff. He was ready to bring the cheque book to the office the very next day. The branch stoutly denied any off handed behaviour.

This is a bank, that millions held account with. The importance of a banking instrument for an establishment with our credentials can be scarcely be denied. And when the bank declines to give us this vital document, there is precious little any organization call rightly do.

The glory days of banking have all ended and it is now in the hands of some very unprofessional characters. No wonder then that private banks are thriving.