In India, customer service is often overlooked, especially when the customer is a consumer (individual) rather than a corporate entity. This story is about a bank in India, which recently made me rejoice because of its IT systems.
Indian Bank is a public sector bank in India. A decade ago, almost all national banks in India looked like Government Offices. People living in India will not find it difficult to visualize the scene. The bank would typically operate in an old building, with long hanging fans; people crunching numbers between piles of paper; common man waiting for their service forever. However, it is all changed now and many banks are IT enabled, at least in cities. Indian Bank is no different.
My requirement: Send money to someone who got an account in the same bank but in another town. So, I visited a local branch in Bangalore.
The first appearance of the bank made me wonder if it was a private bank. The ambience was pretty good.
The moment I entered, there was a machine which gave me a token on pressing a button. It had a serial number. I had to simply wait for my turn whch would be announced by a voice and show up in a LED display along with the counter number. The way they have integrated this machine with their workload and the way they juggle the counter numbers based on the traffic is amazing for a national bank!
The story does not end here. Usually if we want to send cash to someone in another part of India, we typically get a Demand Draft (DD) from the bank in the recipient's name, seal it in an envelope and send it across using courier/mail. As such, getting a DD is not difficult, but you have to pay a hefty commission and also do some effort to send it yourself. But, now it is all easy, thanks to a Core Banking Solution deployed by these people. All I needed was the recipient's core banking number and the money was instantly credited to the recipient's account. No commission, no need to send it through (snail) mail and no delay.
Total time to send money: 20 mins. Life has been definitely made easier!
Do you have a story where you got good service or saved time because a business was IT enabled?
Indian Bank is a public sector bank in India. A decade ago, almost all national banks in India looked like Government Offices. People living in India will not find it difficult to visualize the scene. The bank would typically operate in an old building, with long hanging fans; people crunching numbers between piles of paper; common man waiting for their service forever. However, it is all changed now and many banks are IT enabled, at least in cities. Indian Bank is no different.
My requirement: Send money to someone who got an account in the same bank but in another town. So, I visited a local branch in Bangalore.
The first appearance of the bank made me wonder if it was a private bank. The ambience was pretty good.
The moment I entered, there was a machine which gave me a token on pressing a button. It had a serial number. I had to simply wait for my turn whch would be announced by a voice and show up in a LED display along with the counter number. The way they have integrated this machine with their workload and the way they juggle the counter numbers based on the traffic is amazing for a national bank!
The story does not end here. Usually if we want to send cash to someone in another part of India, we typically get a Demand Draft (DD) from the bank in the recipient's name, seal it in an envelope and send it across using courier/mail. As such, getting a DD is not difficult, but you have to pay a hefty commission and also do some effort to send it yourself. But, now it is all easy, thanks to a Core Banking Solution deployed by these people. All I needed was the recipient's core banking number and the money was instantly credited to the recipient's account. No commission, no need to send it through (snail) mail and no delay.
Total time to send money: 20 mins. Life has been definitely made easier!
Do you have a story where you got good service or saved time because a business was IT enabled?
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4 comments:
Ramesh,
You are right. IT has changed the scene in the nationalized banks. The working has changed dramatically and for good. Though this change needs to propogate at all places across India, there is atleast some start.
I am currently in Lucknow and can see that IT is yet to reach even some capital cities.
Prajakta Kashalkar-Joshi
Hmm...not all is well, as my next post reveals!
Ramesh,
Couple of questions on my mind...
a) Money order is an equally viable option if the amount being sent is less (& so are comission charges)
b) Havent you heard of wire transfer? from any CBS account to any other CBS account (supported by ICICI etc).
c) Infact even in HDFC atms/online you can transfer money from one account to another.
Karthik, here is what I have to say:
1. The amount I transferred was Rs.15000
2. What I did was indeed wire transfer within the same bank. Does ICICI support wire transfer across banks?
3. The same point applies. AFAIK, in HDFC you can only transfer money from one of your account to one of your another account. Or do they support more now?
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