SERVICE WITH A SMILE

It was a good fortnight since I took charge of the new branch. It was the first day of November and the bank was thronged by many seniors waiting to claim their pensions.  In those days, the pensioners had to appear in person before the bank official, fill out the withdrawal slip and submit it along with the passbook at the counter after which it would be posted in the account and passed for payment. The first of any month was truly a mela! There were more than a thousand pensioners in our branch and one can imagine the chaos caused by seniors and super seniors who lined up for getting their tokens and payment.

It was a Day Out for most of them, who looked forward to the Pension Day. They would meet old friends and colleagues, exchange pleasantries and gossip… Their talks would mostly revolve around their sons and daughters-in-law, latest ailments, sleeplessness, and of course politics. Our branch manager would put up a large shamiana, make elaborate seating arrangements and even ask the chaiwallah to open additional stalls to cater to the needs of the senior customers who looked forward to their reunion every month.

I was in charge of the Pensioners’ Savings Bank Cell. From day one, I was appalled at the way the pension accounts were being handled. Payment of arrears of Dearness Allowance was in arrears since August. The ledgers had not been balanced, the signature cards were not properly filed, and the standing instructions had neither been complied with nor diarised … I felt hopeless as only one clerk was allotted to my Cell. Mrs. Vajandar was quite a portly woman who had just resumed after exhausting her maternity leave, sick leave on full pay, half-pay, and even loss of pay! Whoever worked in her place bothered only about the day-to-day work as a result that the work had piled up over the months.

Not one to tolerate such a situation, I used my influence and got another young boy to replace her and got her posted in the Despatch section, where there would be less contact with customers. 

Niranjan came up to my expectations and by the weekend had completed the calculation of the arrears of Dearness Allowance and had kept the lists ready for posting. I sat up that evening and checked all of them and on Monday, all the pensioners’ accounts had been credited with the overdue arrears! Truly swift work and commendable too!

It was with a song in my heart that I sat behind Niranjan on Monday morning. Both of us were happy that there was nothing pending and we would

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start with a clean slate. Niranjan, an efficient employee attended to all the pensioners diligently, updated their passbooks, and arranged for their speedy withdrawals. It was with a great sense of job satisfaction that both of us carried out our duties that day. No pensioner had to wait on the bank’s premises for more than three minutes – such was the clockwork precision with which we worked!

It was, therefore, very strange that one of the pensioners walked up to me and inquired about Mrs. Vajandar. I told him that Madam had kept a lot of things pending and that the Bank could not afford to lose its clientele on account of the shirking of responsibilities of the staff.

I was taken aback by his request: “Please have Madam back on that seat!”, he implored. I was caught by surprise when all of a sudden, this lone voice got collective, and more than a hundred pensioners followed suit demanding the reinstatement of Mrs. Vajandar in the Pension section.

I tried my best to argue with them that Niranjan had calculated and paid the arrears due to each of them in the shortest possible time! His answer made me sit up and think –

“We all are very Senior, if not Super Seniors. We have our mundane quarrels at home. Madam was very kind and would always enquire about my wheelchair-bound wife’s health. She knew the names of all my children and grandchildren. We did not mind at all that she had kept our pension arrears pending – it gave us another opportunity to get away from our homes on the pretext of enquiring about the arrears from the Bank and spend a couple of hours here. Madam was so kind that she would even offer us tea whenever we came to her desk. Now Niranjan Babu has completed all the work in no time. Now we do not have an excuse to leave the house even for a few minutes!”

This was a revelation to me! Having prided myself on having bagged the trophy for Excellent Customer Service many a time, this was indeed an eye-opener. I had never thought of serving customers in this light at all. Service with a smile, courteousness, accuracy, and speed were all in my dictionary, but not this kind – where even dis-service too is very good Customer Service!! 

Needless to say, my outlook changed from that day onwards. Satisfying the customer, taking time to interact with him, and lending a personal touch in dealing with them made a great difference! Alas, nowadays, thanks to computerization, mobile banking, and online banking, all clients are mere numbers or codes!