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.