Wake up sid!!

wake up sid turned to be a good watch.. time well spent!! the story line like most hindi films was predictable.. u knew what was going to happen in the next 5 mins of the movie beforehand!! except of a couple of occasions!! like when aisha walks out of the house in the middle of the night because of the mess.. shes not on the terrace but at sonia's place.. :)

this is not going to be a movie review but a cute and not so cute insights of the movie from me!! read it and enjoy!!

Disclaimer: if u dont enjoy..well u cant do anything expect mite be leave a comment (which i can delete too.. :D) .. i am the writer here!!

PS: sounding pompous.. nopes!! just the truth!!

cute and not so cute insights!!

- aisha from calcutta wanting to make it big in bombay - people like me who have grown up in bombay take the opportunities this city has to offer for granted!! i believe theres no place like bombay..

- sid knowing/realizing that his father too was a photographer at some time and he got his eye for photography cause of that... i know very little abt my parents - what they did... when they were young, when they were my age, when they got married cause thats when they started dating the same person (i am assuming), when they wanted to have some fun, their hobbies, their fav passtime.. hmmm.. questions i have never asked my parents!! i think i should..

- love finds u in the strangest of places!! u never know when or where love can hit u and u never ever know how u would react when u realise!! stereotypes of the perfect boyfriend/ perfect husband or my type of guy dont hold true when love hits u!!

- bandra reclamation has a fantastic terrace view flats.. me want one!! :D

anyways i liked the movie.. like all movies which depend on how much u take off them...

Wake up sid rocked for me.. got me off my slumber!!

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.