Whats ur clock set to??

i was driving in the morning and my eye went to my radio clock to check whats the time and to see if i crossed the right point at the right time.. u see my office has this rule, if u come after 10am 3 times in a month, 1/2 days salary is cut. so keeping track of time is very important and 1 1/2 yrs of driving to this place has made it possible to realise when i would be late irrespective of the amt of traffic on the road. my GPS tracker (my brain) mapped with the time gives me a fair idea when i would reach office.. 

so coming to the blog topic..  

so i was driving and my clocks set 5 mins ahead of the time on my mobile.. just for safe keeping of my half days salary.. !! :) the time that the RJ said was 8 mins behind what i had set.. doing the math, it was 3 min behind my phone time.. so! it got me thinking.. what do u set ur clock to??? 

mine now is set to the office punch in machine.. so that i dont get late.. but i realised thats fast also.. 

when i travelled by train -- it was the train timing clock

when i went to college/school - it was that clock

for people who have kids - i think it would be the school ka clock

for my parents - its the TV time so that they dont miss their shows.. but thats a problem too.. each channel has a diff time!! :)) specially the news channels where the time shows..

or should u have ur clock tuned to Happy Hours time.. for savings!! recession u see!! heheh

or should u have ur clock set to the internet/phone network... who sets that time!!

or should u depend on the swiss for time!! arent they the most accurate watch makers!! :) 

so the profound thought is... is there like an accurate time.. should we see the stars, the sun and the moon to get the universal accurate time.. or for that matter, do we need to be that accurate in time anyways!! heheh 

 like the big giant clock at CST station.. that would be a good clock to match ur time.. bombay runs on that clock.. but with indian mentality, is that clock serviced ever... is that the accurate time.. i dont even know if thats serviced!! i wish i had access to such infor.. "Is the clock at CST serviced? How accurate is that time? " 

with the lack of this info or info on a master time keeper clock, i shall simply say... tune ur clock to what makes ur life simple!!  if that at some point in time in the future changes, makes life less simple, change the time to make it more simple.. Simple!! hehehe

Customer care stories... Chapter 3

In your daily life, u come across some really small stuff which if made better and someone would have thought abt them, would have made life so much more easier!! :)) 

i have come across loads of such small instances that i am combining into a single blog.. not so elaborate to have a separate blog for each.. so here goes...

Please Note: this blog will be updated  as and when small experience keep happening. 

u would think that applying for a credit card is simple and easy work.. u fill a form, submit it, someone calls, takes ur details and supporting documents, confirms what u have written is what u are and voila u have a credit card. easier said than done... 

1) the easy process is made complicated by numerous processes and levels of touch points

2) the touchpoints arent all the time accessible, be it the internet page or the call centre number. 

3) Banks dont seem to be in the mood to give credit cards. credit in this time of recession is becoming a taboo word... 

4) Delay in the process to close the loop!! one dept takes the request, the 2nd dept doesnt respond.  

Situation 1: ICICI Bank- online application for credit card. 

one way that ICICI allows u to apply for a credit card is through their online banking. once u have logged in using your login details, u get to apply for a credit card. Logic says, if i have logged in and the bank has authenticated my details, the credit card application should be a click away or relevant detail that are pre-existing in the database should be prepopulated and u should be asked to fill in the rest.. nopes!! u have to fill 4 pages of details and more than once ur connection gets disconnected, the page doesnt load on submit and u have to fill in the details all over again. 

ease of website creation results in loss of logic results in repeated work and waste of time for people. 

Situation 2: Citibank - application for a credit card- 

Citibank allows u to apply for a credit card on their call centre. u do that once giving them similar 4 page  details, they give u a ref no. The search option for status of application is only the ref no. if u forget there is no other way to check on the status. u simply need to apply again.. 4 pages long info to be told again.. poor cc exec will become ur best friend if in case u get to speak to the same person.. will know more abt u in a call then ur partner would know in 3 dates!! :D

incomplete database mapping results in one ref no search option results in repeated work and and waste of time for both the applier and the cc exec.  

Situation 3: Club mahindra- Mail exchange for basic information

Club mahindra membership works in funny ways.. u pay abt 2 lacs for their 25 yrs of free holiday but unfortunately never get to go on vacations when u wanna go.. thats another blog altogether.. this ones a place for small situations. the customer care at club mahindra likes to exchange more than 1 mail to answer to questions.. the same thing happened to me once more this time. to find out 2 info on what is a House unit and what is the impact of the house unit booking on my membership, there were 4 mails exchanged. if only the cc exec had read the mail well, work would be better done, time would be saved!! 

Customer care stories... Chapter 4

Chapter 4: ICICI Prudential!! 

not all customer care stories are bad. there are these few occasional good ones that u come across which re-inforce the fact that somewhere some customer care execs know their jobs.. this was a particularly interesting and nice story for me, specially cause this was a rather round about situation and needed to be tackled by someone who knew the systems and was well versed with her work. (her only cause this cc exec was a lady.. no reference to a gendre of the society!! :))

the background is: i have a health insurance with ICICI Prudential and i pay the premium for it once a yr.  so when i had to make my payment this yr, it so turned out that i accidently made the payment twice, once from my credit card and the 2nd time from my bank account. the 2nd attempt from the bank account was made only cause the online interface gave me an error message when i tried the credit card payment..  thats besides the point. so ICICI Pru people call me and tell me that i have made a premium payment twice and if i can show either proof they will refund my amount. credit card statements come once a month, mine was not due for another 20 days, so bank account statement was the best thing. 

so as instructed, i take my bank statement, go to the nearest icici pru branch.. there are 2 execs sitting there, just abt on their way out to have what i think is a cup of tea at 330pm. one of them stays back.. (shes the hero of my story).  i explain the whole story to her and all she needed was my policy no to check on the status and straighten things out. she gave me a plain paper and told me to just write an application to reverse and voila it would be done. 

(now comes the delight part) the TAT for a reversal is 7-10 days with a DD coming in at ur postal address. i mentioned to her that, that was a long time and i needed the money faster if possible. (month end that yaar!! paise khatam ho gaye the.. :D) she asked me, if i had an  icici bank account and if i can get an ECS on the account and have a direct credit done into the account. TAT down to 4 days. music to my ears. the last formality was to fill the ECS form. of course as unprepared as i was, no cheque, no details. so she waited patiently till i got all my details in place and filled the form and gave it to her. in 4 days like she said, the money comes into my account.. :) 

learning: 

1) cc execs who know the systems are better at their jobs. knowledge comes from good training, transparent and logical systems and longitivity in the job.

2) a little patience and straight thinking can solve all the problems. this comes from a good state of mind and a sense of belonging to the company - called employee satisfaction. 

Customer care stories... Chapter 2

theres a fight for Chapter 2 cause there are 4 more chapters that have come up since chapter 1 has been put in place.. 

so personal experience is chapter 2.. 

neeru at icici bank, mahalaxmi...

Once upon a time.. i bought a car "Super Sexy Silver Santro" and took a 4 yr loan for it. i am now the proud owner of this beautiful piece of machinary as my loan is cleared. Please Note: You need to take a NOC from the bank where ur loan was and take it to the bombay RTO registrar office to have it attested on your registration book. that proves that u own the car. 

(i like this please note section, my way of imparting my learning to the world :D ) 

So with all my car papers, i head to the ICICI bank, Mahalaxmi branch twice to get this NOC letter. 

The 1st experience, i was truly impressed and delighted with the whole transaction. The sweet lady (cc exec) took my papers, checked her system for my account, there was some outstanding, asked me to clear that. So i go stand in front of an empty cashier counter waiting. another sweet lady (cc exec) calls the cashier from inside to make sure i dont wait long. truly appreciated!! once my payment is done, all clear, the 1st sweet lady puts in a request for the NOC in her system and tells me it shall be couriered to my billing address. (Now starts the reason for the 2nd visit.. pls read on). The billing address turns out to be of my old office and now that i dont work there, i have it changed to my residence. i shall live there for a while that was sure..!! :) so!! address change and NOC requests put in place into the ICICI system. NOC TAT given as 4 working days. too good to be true but it went on very smoothly.. 

Within this TAT, i get a call from a courier agency saying I dont work at the billing address and i cannot deliver the NOC letter there... I realised, too good to be true.. my address change did not go through. so post a conversation with the courier guy, he tells me that it shall be sent back to the branch, pls go collect it from there. (See 2nd visit reason shows face) its already been a week since i put in the request. So i head back to the branch and explain to them, this is what happened.. they check their records, ask me to fill in an envelope with the RIGHT address (which is by the way no different than the one in their system) and tell me that in 4 working day the NOC will be posted to the right address. (Now starts the brilliance of the cc execs) I ask them, when i had already put in an address change request, why has it NOC been delivered to the wrong address.  there comes the brilliant answer - "the updating and courier happen from 2 diff locations, we only update the address, why it has not been couriered to it, we cant tell u" hello!! isnt it the same system!!! million dollar question, and then the tubelight glows!! the exec with the help of the 1st sweet lady, checks a few things and finds out that the address change happened after the courier request was processed. so not effective.. on not so happy realisation, the NOC shall be couriered in 4 working days only. I told them, its already been 6 days, cant it be done quicker.. they put things into motion and tell me that in 2 days i shall get my NOC at the right address and i got it!! :)

3 good things: 

1) 1st interaction was hasslefree, smooth and delightful

2) courier came in within 4 days

3) rectification post not so happy realisation was done - prompt action taken

3 bad things: 

1) major system goof-up, address change not getting effective before courier request resulting in 2nd visit and 8 days delay 

2) Not taking responsibility as a company.. "this happens from 2 diff locations", talking and being defensive as a department. 

3) Redo of the entire process for the exec - waste of time and enery for both parties. 

my policy: systems generally dont work as u want them.. they are programs put together in isolation of each other. when u mix them, they shall react. keep that in mind. 

cc execs need to know that they are the company's representatives and not representatives of their job profiles... keep that in mind and u shall always check before u speak.  

Customer care stories... Chapter 1

Abhi in the mulund icici branch saturday 23rd may 2009..

A simple thing as depositing cheque n exchanging foreign currency took 45 mins at 10 in the morning... Why because cc exec knowledge in systems was incomplete... N incompetent people are employed or replaced to do a job.

Lets start at the very begining.. (i love this part) 

Once upon a time... Heres what happened... He goes into the branch n a clerk is sitting to take cheques.. He gives his cheque with the deposit slip duly filled to the clerk sitting at the counter.. The clerk takes the cheque, tears the deposit slip and doesnt stamp it, simply hands it over to Abhi. On asking for a stamp the clerk says "stamp nahi milega, yahan stamp nahi hota..." ahmmm... When did that process change... as always u need to take a stand and fight for ur rights, abhi asked for the branch manager and then the clerk stamps the deposit slip.. couldnt he have followed the process and just done it the 1st time.. 

if that was not enough... 2nd incident on the same day in the same place.. The cc exec had no clue on how to convert foreign exchange  n if it can be deposited into someone elses account..  

Please Note: for future foreign exchange transactions "u cant do that cause u need to submit it into the account who's passport copy u r submitting.. "

so without prior clarification given, abhi fills up a form with the other account number, the entire page with all the required details and submits the form to get the process completed. the exec tells him that he cant do it.. (pls refer to "Please Note:" portion of the blog). so abhi fills another form and hands it over to the lady. now as all of us know, exchange rates change.. and logically when u r exchanging foreign currency, the prevailing rate is what u apply. unfortunately our lady was a little confused cause she wasnt sure whether to change currency on yesterday's rate or today's. she did go to the branch manager and confirm but precious time was wasted in that process. then, she has no idea about when the money would get deposited to the account.. TATs are missing.. now if the bank cant give a TAT for an activity done by them, then theres something wrong... yet again!! :) it finally did get done.. but at the cost of a lot of patience and a lot of time.. in the age where time is money...at the cost of money too.. (only notional)... 

common line of problem: Issue with every cc exec is defensiveness n hurry to just get the work done, even if thats not the right way to do it..

my policy: Listen, understand, plan and THEN act. good lineup of words.. only if they are followed!! :)) 

Customer care stories... Preface

i am now using my blog to do my bit for betterment of mankind.. (kinda not possible cause my blogs read only by my friends who are in the same field as me and also in the same state as me.. ) 

i am going to write abt all the fantastic and unique customer care stories my friends and i are having.. ranging from service industries to ur normal pan tapri guy on every street!! lets see how these stories go... u never know mite just end up compiling a book on this also.. hahahah

it all started with my friend Abhishek telling me that because i had soooooooo many experiences with cc execs and generally blew my top, i sld write abt them... so cause it was his idea, his exp is what i pen down 1st.

also, i will not be masking names and details.. this is my blog and i truly holly swear by its authentication and back each work that i write.

also to make it clear, these are just stories - incidents that are heartfelt, time consuming and wasted (may i add) true stories of innocent hardworking people, no claims, no feedback requests, no finger pointing.. :)) 

exaggeration is allowed and to an extent expected... and facts can be skewed.. i dont remember details very well.. look at the bigger picture!! details can be twisted!! :D

Disclaimer: "All characters in this blog are not fictitious, and any resemblance to anyone, dead or alive, is purely coincidental and intended."