How customer centric is your bank?

I have my personal account with India's #1 private sector bank. I still have my good, old account with my previous employer (then the #1 pvt sector bank, not anymore...), more for loyalty and sentimental reasons. The new account is where I have most of my key relations, including a loan. 

I just logged in to make an urgent transfer 
- It asked me to change my password. There was no option to do it later, as I was in a hurry. 
- Twice, it would not accept my current password, even though I have logged in. Maybe I entered it wrongly. 
- The third time I was lucky, I could change my password
- Then I had to log in again and make the transaction. 

Wonder how customer-centric is our bank? 
How customer-centric is your bank? 

Chandra loves tapioca, Big basket customer service

Chandra still loves tapioca... one of the things that still connects him to his roots, Kerala.........ah!


His wife ordered from bigbasket when it was shown available, that too 'Fresho' brand. 

When delivered & checked, it was not of good quality. 

Quality tapioca is always a gamble. 

Chandra immediately called BigBasket call center, and informed, Fresho tapioca was not good, yet again. Asked call center executive to send back the delivery boy, who was at the apartment gate. 

The executive politely said the delivery boy cannot be sent back to pick up the stuff. Instead, the executive accepted the complaint, asked to dispose off stuff, refund being arranged (SMS received) and will take care in future! That was cool!

The prompt acceptance of the customer version, no lack of trust or inquiry. Just simple acceptance almost made Chandra feel guilty. The bigger challenge for Chandra was to dispose off :( 

It was almost like Zappos.com like customer service, Tony Hsieh fame!

Pesticide-free, organic store: Why this makes it interesting? Chandra had a different experience with another fruit-vegetable premium (not 'thela' types) store. 
Last Thursday he asked the store-head for a recommendation of best mangoes. He was pointed to cardboard boxes (thankfully no plastic) dasheri mangoes. One of the staff helped Chandra to select the best box! 
By Saturday, four mangoes had got rotten, almost indicating the use of chemicals! (And they sell non-chemical/organic stuff only, their USP! Only vegetarian). 
Chandra took the mangoes to the store on Saturday afternoon. The store head was not there, someone else was officiating! (delegation at corporate or these small stores, are never effective).  

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown...

He asked for the bill. Chandra retorted, 'you expect me to save your bills?' (like we do for GST, Income tax purposes, he wanted to add, but did not!). The expression on his face was, 'I don't trust you'!.... 
he just messed up a 6-year-old relationship. 

Customer may not be always right. But it pays to trust the client. 

Gyan: 

Big Basket may not need SRK or Ratna Patakh, both superstars. They need policies, customer orientation, and empowered, committed employees. Bliss for customer, success for the brands. 

Death of customer service in India

Death of customer service in India:

Behaviour by brain - 'In recent times, the focus on customer care as a core business strategy seems to have lost its importance'

Chandra has several recent, but unresolved customer-services (CRs) issues with 

1. #Uber - two drivers cancelled a prior-appointment for an important meeting. Multiple reminders, incl tweets, have not been responded to. No closure even after 10 days! 
2. #3M car care - they just decided to save water, get environment-friendly with retrospective effect, thus unilaterally nullifying annual maintenance contract (AMC)
3. #Airtel 4G wifi - connectivity is an issue for over 2 years now - not dependable, when most needed
4. #HDFC Bank - multiple issues, for they don't see multiple products as one relationship. So much so, he decided to downgrade from 'Imperia' to 'cattle-class'!
5. #HDFCLife - poor returns, over and above wrong #CrossSell by the bank RM himself :(
6. #JetAirways - a packet of sweet disappeared from his checked in baggage. 
7. #CrownePlaza, Chennai - he lost his power-bank
8. #DTDC - the Diwali gift he had sent to his mother is still missing. DTDC is not responding

Chandra conducts training/visiting faculty engagements for young leaders and BSchools students (aspiring leaders!). He seems to be attracting a lot of case-studies :((

20 yrs or 30 yrs back, when many of us were in the corporate world, at lower/middle level leadership roles, the customer was still important. Customer complaint was not measured scientifically like it is today. But then it was not mere a process management, but managing relationships. What caused this?

- Is it our obsession with top-line and bottom-line, come what may?

- Is it our myopic view of quarterly, monthly or even weekly targets vs achievement?

- Is it the expanding market where it is a deliberate strategy to acquire customers, vs retention?

Would these sustain in the long run? 

Make in India or any variant thereof, including the focus on Services, will have no impact unless we bring back the customer centricity, at its holistic level. 

It is about #leadership. Moving from selfish to at least partly selfless? #I2We2He

Our Leadership has to move to #ServantLeadership #CustomerDelight as primary focus

Glad Biju Dominic wrote about this and Mint carried the article on November 23, 2017 (when I was away on a spiritual retreat, in bliss, and no expectation of customer service - I was 'serving' some 'customers', or guests at the Ashram) 

Luxury sales satisfaction not different from mass-market

This is surprising... a confirmation that luxury brands are not giving the customer-experience different from mass-segment. 
In line with the feedback from owners of the top international brands. Customers feel a Maruti or a Hyundai salesman is just as good as a luxury car salesman (Merc, BMW, Audi or VW). 

The reason is the brands are not investing enough in this element of sales & marketing. Would they do that elsewhere ?
Or is it because they feel the price-conscious (and also mileage!) Indian car buyer do not value customer service?

Wish the TV programs on auto included a section on customer service/experience. Not just car reviews...

Luxury sales satisfaction not different from mass-market

I have a habit of being the best in class for customers: Is that your habit ?

"I do not have a religion of market share, I have a religion of being the best in class for customers. I have the religion to be profitable. "  (response to the last question -chk the link below)

• How many of our telecom operators, retail & otherwise, can make this statement? 
• How many of our products and services can claim this? 
• More importantly, how many organisations have taken concrete steps to trickle it down, presuming leaders share this value.

Over the last decade, I have personally seen a drop in quality of customer service at broader levels, across all services surely, and also among products, in India. Banking, telecom, call centers, etc have hit notorious levels.

One primary reason is mad chase of top-line/bottom-line/market-share/quarterly-results ?
We conveniently forget it does not work in the long term unless it is holistic. Customer service has to be part of DNA, passion, habit in organisations... only then it will manifest across all levels.

I have a habit of being the best in class for customers: Alcatel-Lucents Michel Combes

Disclosure - I am personally not connected with Alcatel directly, in any way. 

CRMnext to help ICICI Group revamp consumer strategy | Business Standard

Initiatives such as these to integrate all relationship, across product & services within the bank will immensely help.
It would be still better to integrate also the cross-sell on insurance/MF within group.
If such systems are capable of integrating the family accounts, it would help, both banks & customers thereof.

The critical differentiator will be when every customer-encounter or touch-point is captured to guarantee holistic customer satisfaction... leading eventually to Customer Enchantment. ( across all banks, of course)


CRMnext to help ICICI Group revamp consumer strategy | Business Standard

Apple Apps

The Calender on Apple products (iphone, ipad& Macbook pro) has several options to give reminder before event (at event, 5 mts, etc) , or after the same (weekly/monthly/yearly).

It does not have the option to remind during event.
For eg., I am expecting a call from a business associate, between 9-10AM. I do not have an option to remind her at 930 AM or 945 AM, 'hey, I am waiting for your call'!

It could be simple enhancement ?

Disclaimer: A die hard Apple fan!

Future of Banking : Boring to Exciting !

MBank And The Future Of Responsive Banking | TechCrunch

"Banking is boring... "
One of the last innovations to come out of banking ?? ATM :)
Lot of innovation has gone into creative products, some of which took us down into the financial crisis !!

Here is a Polish bank, trying to be slightly innvoative and creative to make the banking experience at least different.

While the on-line options of most banks are as outright boring, apart from user-unfriendly, at least mBank is attempting to give a new touch & feel. It is built on a very responsive design that uses HTML5.

MBank And The Future Of Responsive Banking | TechCrunch

Compared to the 20K plus banks world-wide, this on-line interaction would be a different experience. And as per their claim, the response has been positive.

For more  check out : http://pinterest.com/michalpanowicz/new-mbank-screenshots-video-captures-uiux-look-and/

Indeed, this is applicable to any B2C experience 
Which one of our banks will take this kind of initiative to make banking a little less boring, esp on-line experience ?!

Tell the Customer's Story, Not Your Story | Inc.com

 So very true, very often we are clouded by what we want to give and not what the other person wants.
The other person my be a customer, client, partner, business-associate, student, coachee (coaching client).

In my current training assignment to young bankers, they clearly indicated their desire to learn also from videos. If I don't customise, but just stick to "my" PPT's, I am not trying to aim a higher level of training, which we all dream of, in all our endeavours ( but not often we take steps!)

I feel even our political leaders, community leaders and NGO's should ideally take such a holistic view. Definitely possible, though not easy! Ask the Powerful Question, 'What is the Objective?'. The answer will be often obvious...


The 'customer' can be at work/business, but also at home, family and community.
Is that not essence of marketing-communication ?Here it is not manipulative marketing that I talk of.. But at a holistic level.

I am just building on a brilliant thought I got @ WBECS 2013. "all of us are salespersons, always selling something" !

Just Serve The Customer !

Tell the Customer's Story, Not Your Story | Inc.com