Beware of Customer Expectations

Today morning, as part of my job, I visited the technology office of a bank in my work city. This visit reminded me of my relationship with them over 7 years back. Then I was a software project manager in my previous company. As a typical software professional from India, I was required to travel to different geography based on the location of my client.

During this period I was posted to a branch in southern most part of Mumbai. There was only one ATM nearby. This belonged to the bank I had visited in the morning. I called up the call center and expressed my interest in opening a savings account with the bank. The call center agent took down my contact details and stated that a representative from the bank will be contacting me before the end of the day.

True to her work, I got a call from the bank representative in the noon and he landed up at my office around late in the afternoon. I handed over my identification papers and the initial cheque to open the account. When it came to filling up the customer acquisition form, the representative just asked me to sign the form and mentioned that he will fill it from the information available in the identification papers. I was impressed.

He mentioned that the welcome kit will be delivered within 7 working days. Again, true to his word, on day 4 I received my welcome kit containing my cheque book as well as the ATM card. Again, I was impressed.

I had a lovely relationship with the bank while it lasted. I still do not know which branch owned my account. All requests were handled over the phone. Again, I was very impressed. I recommended this bank to everyone I knew.

Then, I was drafted to an onsite project. This meant I was not transacting anymore. But I did maintain my minimum balance as required. After sometime, the bank deactivated my account. I called them and requested that they re-activate my account. They asked me to come to their branch and apply for reactivation of my account. I explained that I was on an onsite project and cannot visit the branch. The agent was cold in her response that I have to come to the branch and they cannot help me otherwise. After a few such followups, I was frustrated and stated that I would like to terminate my relationship. The response I got "for that also you have to visit the branch".

After a couple of months, the bank started deducting a "inactive charge" from my account every month. This led to my balance falling below the required minium. This led to the bank making additional deduction as "non maintenance of minimum balance". In the next 6 months, my entire balance was wiped off.

It was real sad that the bank started at such a high note on customer service and satisfaction. But failed in their process when it was really needed. I blame the acquisition process of the bank which set up such excellent acquisition process that I had very high recommendation of the bank. But now, I tell everyone to beware of the bank.