Every Saturday at 2:00 pm, once the branch has closed for the day, staffers at ICICI Bank’s 1,500–odd branches will assemble for an army-style drill. Over the next two hours or so, they will be drilled by their branch manager on customer service covering everything from how to greet a customer to the necessary follow-up needed when a customer leaves.
According to K Ramkumar, executive director and head of human resources at ICICI Bank, the lender has drawn up a list of issues faced by customers most of the time and branch staff will be trained how to deal with these issues through such drills.
The lender, facing brickbats for its poor services and disputes with customers, plans to shore up its customer relationship through this move.
“Customer service is a liberal art, not a science. It can only be perfected through continuous practice and not through classroom-based learning,” says Ramkumar, explaining the concept behind ‘skill through drill’.
“There is a perception in some circles that our bank is non-transparent and not a name to be trusted. To change this perception will require a cultural shift,” said a senior executive of the bank.
“Most importantly, we want our staff to provide end-to-end service and keep up promises made to customers,” he added.
The bank has also formed a 30-strong team of branch assessors who will move from branch to branch and help implement the strategy. Part of their job will be to videotape employees in action and help them improve the quality of service.
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The ‘skill through drill’ programme also helps train branch staff for an expanded role.
By the end of the year, the bank plans to have 2,000 branches and trained staff as the new face of the bank, rather than ubiquitous sales agents peddling everything from credit cards to personal loans.
“Earlier, our branches would only service customer requests, but now they will be selling products to customers too. Front-end staff need to be prepared for this,” says Madhivanan B, a senior general manager of the bank.
The bank has launched an effort to train staffers in product skills through an initiative known as “product to customers,” spearheaded by Madhivanan B and two other senior general managers — Vijay Chandok and Maninder Juneja.
“Our strategy has changed from getting market share to market penetration. We want to sell more to our existing liability customers and increase our cross-selling ratio from 1.5 per cent at present to 2-3 per cent over the next couple of years,” says Madhivanan.
The bank has classified its customers into 13 segments based on various parameters such as age, income, location and existing relationships with the bank. Its Business Intelligence Unit has created propensity models to help identify products for selling to customers belonging to a certain category.
So when a customer walks into a branch, the staffer knows what products to offer him.
According to Madhivanan, the bank will not have to make a substantial investment in technology and can manage with its existing infrastructure.