The Hindu Business Line : Can service and smile co-exist?

According to a recent report, doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, ward-boys and ayahs of 270 secondary care hospitals in the 29 districts of Tamil Nadu are undergoing a week-long course to make them patient-friendly exemplars of service with a smile. The Institute of Public Health and the trainers of the consulting firm Ma Foi are facing a daunting task.

The attitude, set like hard granite, of the so-called public servants in India, especially those in the fields of health-care, education and social welfare, is usually one of indifference, if not contempt, towards citizens approaching them for help.

In fact, they take out their frustrations on fellow-human beings whom they are meant to serve, by being rude and abusive. One can be sure that, if a survey were to be taken, this would be the experience of 95 per cent of people in the country.

Before liberalisation and privatisation, there was a widespread impression that the private sector stood for prompt attention to customer demands. That hope has been belied.

Private firms in the manufacturing, engineering and services sectors are finding themselves unequal to the sudden spurt in the increase of customers and failing to measure up to the minimum standards of customer service.

A feature "Service without a smile" published in the Metro Plus supplement of The Hindu of January 6 this year begins with the sardonic statement: "The world is filled with unhappy souls who have been left high and dry by inefficient and callous after-sales service".

After giving a number of examples of customers being pushed around, and also taken for a ride, without any qualm or compunction, it nails them with this quote typical of hundreds of customers these days: "There is a special place reserved in hell for these people....They promise you the moon while making a sale; but once that's done, we are left talking to answering machines or worse still, perky young things in call-centres who know nothing about your problem."

The write-up tellingly concludes: "Is there no sanctity to the promised after-sales service? Most people try once, twice, thrice and then just give it up as a bad joke and either pay through their nose to have their product serviced elsewhere, or just get another one."

SERVICE FIRST

Neither the much-trumpeted Citizens' Charters of Ministries/ Departments of the Central and State Governments, nor the oft-talked-about Codes of Governance of private sector corporates have made much difference to the situation.

They are mostly pious sermons of the BOMFOG (Brotherhood of Man and Fatherhood of God) variety and do not lay down any severe penalties for neglecting to redress the grievances of citizens/customers. The service providers, therefore, feel answerable to none and are free to carry on merrily with their callous ways.

The former British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, in his very first term, set up under his personal supervision an office under the title Service First (with a Website which served as a best practices database and scorecard of performance). Its aim was to sensitise the systems and practices of the Government to the needs and expectations of the people by setting norms and standards of service.

This was followed by the stipulation of nine principles to be followed by every public service to bring about the fullest possible sharing of information; widest possible range of consultation and involvement to instil a spirit of innovation , fairness and transparency; effective use of resources; freedom from political intrusion and interference; and mutual reinforcement by synergistically collaborating with all service providers.

A similar set-up in the Prime Minister's Office in India, under the charge of the Cabinet Secretary, in conjunction with the corporate sector, is long overdue.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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