AT THE MERCY OF A COUNTER OFFICIAL

Having an account with The State Bank of India could be one of the worst decisions of life. I had no hand in opening and maintaining my account with them. I just happened to be employed with this great Bank. They employed me as a Probationary Officer in the year 1975. I was one of the 250 people who were employed as such. By virtue of being their employee, I had to open my account there. After having this account since then, I am loathe to go elsewhere. In fact after my taking retirement after 30 years of service, I am still required to maintain my account with them to get my pension.

For 30 years, while working at the bank, I had no problem in getting the best service, as I had sufficient clout, position etc. etc. As a Retired Officer of the bank, I still get excellent service from the Branch Manager, where I maintain my account. Maybe my rapport with him, is good enough for him. Other than him, very few people in the Branch know me, although frankly, I have a good amount of deposit with them, and the Branch is not a huge one.

There was a time when the employees of the Branch used to maintain rapport with their customers and recognise their customers. There is such a dearth of human factor in The State Bank of India that one feels sad, rejected, disappointed and sore for still being a customer of this bank, which once upon a time was a great Institution. How proud was I to work here!! Today entering the Branch in my neighbourhood is an ordeal. If the BM is not there, or one wants to transact one's business in due course, one comes back with the feeling of total dejection.

I had gone to give my Life Certificate today. I waited in the line for my turn. I was third in the line. A customer came asking where he was supposed to give his application for withdrawal from PPF. Not a single person disdained to answer him. The customer asked at least 3 times. Then the Official at the counter said, "Please wait in line." The Customer again asked if he was to give his application at that counter? No reply again. The customer then said, "You will make me wait at the counter, then when my turn comes, you will say that I have to go to another counter. I was waiting for the last 1 hour at another counter, from where they have told me to go in this direction. " Again there was no reply from the Official at the desk. Seeing the plight and rising temper level of the customer, I said,"This is the counter where your problem will be dealt with, so please wait."

We were all waiting for our turn, when the official, very sweetly turned to me and said, "Madam, you will have to wait. I will attend to this customer first." I didn't know the reason for this break in line, but I simply said, "Your wish. I think I will come back some other day."

Having said that I left the Branch and came home. Since then I have been thinking about this sort of behaviour of the official at the counter as well as my own reaction. I am a customer like any other. I was waiting in the queue. I did not ask for special treatment or out of turn attention. Why was I then asked to wait and give up my turn?

I also could not understand why I left the Branch without giving my Life Certificate. Why should I go again on some other day? Why should I again wait in the Queue? Will I again get this treatment ? Now I feel that there is only one remedy for me. I should remove my deposit from this Bank and take it somewhere else where they will give me my due respect. Where they will recognise me as a customer. Where I need not have to go straight to the BM.

I need to maintain my account with SBI only so that I get my pension, then I need not go to the Branch except once a year to give my Life Certificate in November.

Sad that in this huge Institution, with its humongous size, number of employees, excellent spread in every metro, city, town and village, the employees of the Bank have lost their sense of being human beings. In this competitive world where excellent service should be given to each customer, The State Bank of India has obviously lost it's sight of the Customer, who are the real reason for their very existence. What is a Bank without its customers? Without us what will the employees do?

All those who are working today, will retire tomorrow. You may get service from those who remember you for a few years, what after that? Is it not imperative that we build up a sense of duty, in the employees. Perhaps at every branch the importance of the customer needs to be re emphasized regularly. Memory is short and until some issues are repeated and reminded, those who for all their lives have thought of customers as a nuisance, will not be able to focus properly on the importance of this nuisance for their existence.

This Bank gave me a lot in 30 years. I saved, built my house, bought my car, educated my children. I still feel loyal and grateful. I therefore am writing as it pains me to see the attitude of the employees. Attitude of employees and the treatment that a customer gets from the person behind the desk is of utmost importance. No customer wants to waste time, neither his own nor the officials. If only proper signage are displayed which will tell a customer which desk to go to for specific work, there would be less heart burning and need for answering questions from the lost customers. Single window concept is all very good in theory, in practice it seems to exist nowhere.