Business in Today’s World: Customer Service Betterment is the Key to Success

By Dr B K Mukhopadhyay

At the very outset let me refer to few days’ back incidents. I was visiting a local private sector bank branch, when one senior citizen customer was asking for issuance of a pass book related to his SB Account opened a few months back. The concerned officer, not to speak of offering a chair, asked him to come after the election [scheduled to be held after15 days], though all of the banking machineries were available on that day itself ! The same experience I gathered in a LIC Branch – asking the customer to come after annual closing [that is after 10 days]!! Such is the plight of customer service in a number of offices, be it private or public sector. Such incidents actually insults not the customers only, but it insults the good services rendered by many other employees also !!

Forgetting the Customer Tantamount to Business Loss
Often we forget that the customer is the king and delighting the customer has got no alternative. Can we really claim that what is being done is as per norms / code of conduct/ citizen’s charter and the visitor is extended due respect in some of the public sector banks? Regrettably the gaps have been widening so far as some private sector banks are concerned. Even in some cases the visitor is not offered a chair to sit on, forget about offering a glass of water or a cup of tea. The very etiquettes and manners are more in breach than observance. But the training programmes go on as rituals! Is there any machinery to assess the impact of such programmes. Simply no. Even promotions are given in some cases to the worst performers. Thanks to the god-fathers!

So, it is better not forgotten that ultimately it is customer delighting that matters most. In the words of Peter F Drucker: the purpose of any business is to locate a customer. To ascertain the position CSI [Customer Satisfaction Index] a host of indicators are to be taken into account : actual experiences of customers over last 12 to 18 months, every aspect of service support, quality of service, performance, reliability, style and technology, service network across the length and breadth of India, existence of trained personnel service and obviously the extent of meeting to all of the banking-related needs of the customers, etc. And obviously, driving one home is just the beginning of a committed relationship. Commitment, attitude and dedication of the employees of the Institution-family merge to finally say the specific words – thanks a lot! The winner is that Institution who successfully meets the criteria.

Continuous Efforts Make the Difference
So, focusing on, measuring and redesigning the customer-facing and internal processes improvements could be there in areas like: cost, quality, speed, profitability and other key areas. Arranging for such change-over calls for more than rearranging work- flows – which does what tasks, in what locations, as well as in what sequence.

So for making the new process work the need is there to ensure that the jobs are redefined broadly backed by updated training system to support these jobs and at the same time enabling decision making. The process and the outcome are to be studied for next course of action.

The broad areas under such a change-over method include, among others:
reshaping organisational cultures to emphasise on team performance, fixation of personal accountability, customer’s importance; managers overseeing the tasks rather than supervising and realigning the information system so that the cross-functional processes work smoothly than simply support departments.

Even when the BPO is resorted to the need remains as to managing the outsourced matters. Process implementation road map must be developed.

Actually: business processes must become more mature and the Institution must be able to deliver higher performance – spatially, temporally, hierarchically and functionally. Obviously, to achieve the same the starting point is designing [ the comprehensiveness of the specifications as to how the process is to executed ]; followed by the performers [ people executing the process based on skill and knowledge ]; owner [ persons shouldering the responsibility for the process as well as the results ]; infrastructure [ information / M I S that support the process ]; and of course the metrics [ the measures the company uses to track the process’s performance].

For developing high performance processes, Institutions need to offer the very supportive environments. It is that greater competent Institutions that emerge as the victor; while others struggle to keep the heads over water.

Enterprise capabilities are the crucial factors for the ultimate achievement – leadership [ executives who support the creation of processes ]; culture [ values of customer focus, teamwork, personal accountability and of course the very willingness to change ]; expertise [ skills in / methodology for , process design ]; and governance [ the very mechanisms for managing complex projects and change initiatives ].

Paying Respect to Others Actually Means Paying Respect to the Business
In the words of Peter F Drucker: the purpose of any business is to locate a customer.

To ascertain the position of CSI [ Customer Satisfaction Index ] a host of indicators are to be taken into account : actual experiences of customers over last 12 to 18 months, every aspect of service support, quality of service, performance, reliability, style and technology, service network across the length and breadth of India, existence of trained personnel service and obviously the extent of meeting to all of the banking-related needs of the customers, etc. And obviously, driving one home is just the beginning of a committed relationship. Commitment, attitude and dedication of the employees of the Institution-family merge to finally say the specific words – thanks a lot! The winner is that Institution who successfully meets the criteria.

To become one of the toppers in customer satisfaction is an unparalleled feat for a market leader anywhere in the world and to do it for a number of times are simply incredible. Especially when there are a good number of players on the road the scale of achievement becomes clear! Still, when it happens the Institution should not only thank their soldiers but also must owe that entirely to the faith that millions of customers have in the Institution.

It is a process – continuous and spontaneous!! So : it is simply acquiring, retaining and moving towards improved customers’ value.

The writer is a Noted Management Economist and an International Commentator on Ongoing Business and Economic Trends, can be located at m.bibhas@gmail.com