Banking Industry: Should customers pay more for better service?
by Vijay Iyer
This is the first gutfeel I am posting. I often wonder about the service industry in India, thinking whether it is for real? I will in this article restrict my comments to the Banking industry. I am working as a Senior Manager in a MNC Bank in credit. I have seen this service industry evolving in the past decade. Yes, the things have changed in the past decade in the banking industry, but are they up to the satisfaction of the customers. The most important question that arises in my mind: Is anybody paying for the enhanced services?
About fifteen years back all of us were used to the traditional banks with their bureaucratic practices. Nobody was aware of an ATM machine, had not heard of a debit card or a credit card, Internet banking or phone banking. The nationalized banks reached the pinnacle of inefficiency and could not cater to the growing needs of both corporates and individuals, which resulted in impeding the economic growth of India. At that time, there was a silent revolution happening in India, where financial institutions like HDFC, ICICI and UTI were eyeing to fill the vacuum created between the needs of the customers and the incapability of the nationalized banks to fulfill those needs. They succeeded and now the scenario is, as everyone knows, that the nationalized banks are trying hard to woo the customers from the new generation private sector banks and even some foreign banks.
The next thing, which comes to my mind, is whether the new generation banks are able to satisfy most of the customers. I am saying most of the customers and not all of them because I believe that Service Industry is a "Thankless Industry", where it is impossible to satisfy every need of all the customers. No doubt these banks have invested chunks of money to cater to the special needs of the customers, but they are anyways recovering their investments from...no prizes for guessing...obviously from the customers. I think that it is fair and just because every business has a motive of profit making. I am not trying to be overcritical about the age old nationalized banks nor I am going "ga-ga" over the new generation banks. The ethics of nationalized banks are very socialistic as compared to the new banks. Thus my conclusion is: if the customers want to get better services, pay for it else be happy with the traditional banking.
What is your gutfeel? Click here to read the views of GutFeel members and to express your own thoughts on the issue. |
|
|
|
Home | What is GutFeel | Topics | Your GutFeel | Forum | Contact Us