1. Introduction
In the
present scenario of competitive banking, excellence in customer service is the
most important tool for sustained business growth. Customer complaints are part of the business
life of any corporate entity. This is
more so far banks because banks are service organizations. As a service
organization, customer service and customer satisfaction should be the prime
concern of any bank. The bank believes that providing prompt and efficient
service is essential not only to attract new customers, but also to retain
existing ones. This policy document aims at minimizing instances of customer
complaints and grievances through proper service delivery and review mechanism
and to ensure prompt redressal of customer complaints
and grievances. The review mechanism
should help in identifying shortcomings in product features and service
delivery. Customer dissatisfaction would
spoil bank’s name and image. The bank’s policy on grievance redressal
follows the under noted principles.
·
Customers be treated
fairly at all times.
·
Complaints raised by customers are dealt with
courtesy and on time.
·
Customers are fully informed of avenues to escalate
their complaints/grievances within the organization and their rights to
alternative remedy, if they are not fully satisfied with the response of the
bank to their complaints.
·
Bank will treat all complaints efficiently and
fairly as they can damage the bank’s reputation and business if handled
otherwise.
·
The bank employees must work in good faith and
without prejudice to the interests of the customer.
The
policy document would be made available at all branches. The Compliant handling
process and procedure is of general Nature.
It should therefore be made known to all employees to ensure better
customer service and general awareness in the bank / branch.
1.1 The
Customer compliant arises due to :
a. The
attitudinal aspects in dealing with customers.
b. Inadequacy
of the functions/arrangements made available to the customers or gaps in
standards of services expected and actual services rendered.
The customer is having full right to register
his compliant if he is not satisfied with the services provided by the
bank. He can give his compliant in
writing, orally or over telephone. If
customer’ s compliant is not resolved within given time or if he is not
satisfied with the solution provided by the bank, he can approach Banking
Ombudsman with his compliant or other legal avenue available for grievance redressal.
2. Internal
machinery to handle Customer complaints / grievances
2.1 Customer
Service Committee of Board
The committee would formulate a
Comprehensive Deposit Policy incorporating the issues such as the treatment of
death of a depositor for operations of his account, the product approval
process and the annual survey of depositor satisfaction and the tri-enniel audit of such services. The Board would also examine
any other issues having a bearing on the quality of customer service rendered
& review the functioning of Standing Committee on Customer Service.
2.2 Standing Committee on Customer
Service
The Standing Committee on Customer
Service will be chaired by the Chairman of the bank. Besides Chief General
Manager, three senior executives of the bank, the committee would also have two
or three eminent non-executive drawn from the public as members. The committee
would have the following functions.
· Evaluate feed-back on quality of
customer service received from various quarters. The committee would also
review comments/feed-back on customer service and implementation of commitments
in the Code of Bank’s Commitments to Customers received from BCSBI.
· The Committee would be responsible
to ensure that all regulatory instructions regarding customer service are
followed by the bank. Towards this, the
committee would obtain necessary feed-back from regional heads / functional
heads.
· The Committee also would consider
unresolved complaints/grievances referred to it by functional heads responsible
for redressal and offer their advice.
· The Committee would submit report
on its performance to the board at regular intervals.
2.3 Nodal Officer and other designated officials
to handle complaints and grievances.
Deputy General Manager, Planning
& Development, will look after the implementation of customer service and
compliant handling for the entire bank. The bank may also appoint /designate
Quality Assurance Officer at Regional offices to handle compliant grievances in
respect of branches following under their control.
3.
Mandatory display requirements
Every branch of the bank is
provided with information as to ;-
· Appropriate arrangements for
receiving complaints and suggestions.
· The name, address and contact
number of Nodal Officer.
· Contact details of Banking
Ombudsman of the area.
· Code of bank’s commitments to
customer/Fair Practice code.
4.
Resolution of Grievances
Branch Manager is responsible for
the resolution of complaints/grievances in respect of customer’s service by the
branch. He would be responsible for
ensuring closure of all complaints received at the branches. It is his foremost
duty to see that the compliant should be resolved completely to the customer’s
satisfaction. When an issue remains unresolved after expiry of the stipulated
period and if the customer is not satisfied, then he should be provided with
alternate avenues to escalate the issue. If the branch manager feels that it is
not possible at his level to solve the problem he can, refer the case to
Regional Office for guidance. Similarly,
if Regional office finds that they are not able to solve the problem such cases
may be referred to Head Office.
4.1 Time frame
Compliant has to be seen in the
right perspective because they indirectly reveal a weak spot in the working of
the bank. Compliant received should be analyzed from all possible angles. If
customer’s compliant is not resolved within one week the same shall be referred
to respective Regional Office for redressal within
two weeks. If the customer still feels
unsatisfied, he can refer the matter to Head Office. Such complaints will be disposed off within 3
weeks. Evenafter
one month if the compliant is not satisfied, he may approach Banking Ombudsman
appointed by Reserve Bank if India
or other legal avenues available for grievance redressal.
Branch manager should try to resolve the compliant within specified time
frames, decided by the bank.
Communication of bank’s stand on
any issue to the customer is a vital requirement. Complaints received, which
would require some time for examination of issues involved should invariably be
acknowledged promptly. Branch and Regional office must send action taken report
on complaints received to the head office at the end of every month. Specific time frame to acknowledgement and redressal of complaints has been stipulated at paragraph
7.1 of the code made available to the customers.
5.
Interaction with customers
The bank recognizes that customer’s
expectation/requirement/grievances can be better appreciated through personal
interaction with customers by bank’s staff. Structured customer meets, say once
in a month will give a message to the customers that the bank cares for them
and values their feed back/suggestions for improvement in customer
service. Many of the complaints arise on
account of lack of awareness among customers about bank services and such
interactions will help the customers appreciate banking services better. As for
the bank the feed back from customers would be valuable input for revising its
product and services to meet customers requirements.
6.
Sensitizing operating staff on handling complaints
Staff should be properly trained
for handling complaints. We are dealing with people and hence difference of
opinion and areas of friction can arise.
With an open mind and a smile on the face we should be able to win the
customer’s confidence. It would be the
responsibility of the Nodal Officer to ensure that internal machinery for
handling complaints/grievances operates smoothly and efficiently at all levels.
He should give feed back on training needs of staff at various levels to the HR
Dept.
