The Hindu Business Line : ‘Customer experience needs more attention’

Discerning and demanding: Mr Analjit Singh, Co-Founder and Chairman, Max India Ltd, and Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor, RBI, at the BANCON 2007 in Mumbai on Monday. –

L.N. Revathy

Mumbai, Nov. 26 The Indian banking consumer market is growing like never before. This market is highly segmented, not homogeneous. The customers, albeit loyal, are price sensitive,’ observed Ms. Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India.

With these opening remarks, she commenced a panel discussion on ‘Delivering Superior Customer Experience’, with Mr. Sam Swaminathan, Consultant, Centre for Creative Thinking, California, Mr Analjit Singh, Co-Founder and Chairman, Max India Ltd and Mr. Sanjay Nayar, Chief Executive Officer, Citi India, she reiterated the importance of addressing customer experience.

Citing anecdotes, Mr Swaminathan said one of the biggest challenges was the ‘lack of process simplicity. The ease of doing business is something we have got to get .’ he said and added that the situation was not peculiar to India.

He called upon the bankers to do a ‘service recovery’ exercise, delight repeat customers by raising the service bar and create pride and policies for customer delight.

Mr Singh appeared more conscious of sticking to the time allotted to him. According to him, ‘nothing just happens, everything has to be made to happen,’ and quality-driven.

Mr Nayar admitted to customers becoming more discerning, while stressing the need for a right business model for every set of clients.

He urged bankers to have customer champions who would take up the cause of customers and ensure they take customers complaints very seriously.

He said the incidence of customer complaints could be significant but would have to be taken up at the CEO level, lest it manifests itself in many ways. “It is a critical service to have an annual agenda for this.”