• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Poornima Mohandas

Mumbai , Nov. 11

WITH retail banking being the order of the day, the market leader in retail finance, ICICI Bank is attempting to `clone' its sales and branch level staff in customer service.

But ICICI Bank is not alone in imparting behavioural training to its employees; there are also the likes of HDFC Bank and UTI Bank, who realise that the customer is key to success.

"The thrust of behavioural training programme in the bank is for the customer-interfacing staff since a customer makes his impression of a bank based on his personal interaction with the employees at the branch level or on field," said Mr K. Ramkumar, General Manager, ICICI Bank.

ICICI Bank, which has four training centres, spends an average of Rs 20 crore per year on training, out of which Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore is spent on behavioural training.

These sessions are to commence for its 4,000-odd branch level staff in the first week of December. The exercise, to be completed in five months, attempts to make customer service levels uniform.

"The training sessions will enable our employees to handle an irate customer without being aggressive or defensive; instead reassure him/her and work towards a solution in the right attitude.

It will also help the employee handle difficult situations such as 5 customers appearing at the counter at one time," explained Mr K. Ramkumar, General Manager, ICICI Bank.

Training sessions will be in grooming, etiquette, on presenting one's company, product and oneself, identification of customer needs, listening and so on. Training for the outbound sales team of 3,000 was flagged off in July 2003.

Mostly service companies in sectors such as telecom, IT, IT-enabled services and banking were interested in behavioural training since customer acquisition and retention were critical to the company's business, said Mr Ranjan Banerjee, Head, Renaissance Strategic Consultants Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based training consultancy which has worked with the likes of Hutchison, Shoppers' Stop, Pantaloon and Allahabad Bank.

Companies focus on developing communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, team building, leadership, self-motivation and even on body language and these are carried out through a series of interactive modules, role plays, case studies and mental and physical exercises, according to Mr Banerjee.

HDFC Bank with spends of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore in training, spends 40 per cent in training of softer skills and 60 per cent in technical training such as banking and product knowledge.

The bank outsources most of its behavioural training and imparts leadership to its senior management and training on how to mentor, manage conflicts, perform appraisals and motivate others.

UTI Bank too has behavioural training sessions across departments at both the junior and middle level and makes for 3-4 days in a year.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Fed in bond dilemma

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line