Today, the State Bank of India introduced a unique customer service initiative for its 130 million customers. The Chairman, Shri O.P Bhatt, while launching the scheme across the country from the Bank’s Local Head Office at Bhopal, expressed great happiness over being able to make this offering to the public. The scheme named “SMS Unhappy” has been tested out on a pilot basis at select centres since last October, and having received highly encouraging response, is now being rolled out pan India.
Ordinarily, a consumer who has a complaint, or has encountered a problem, would need to lodge a written complaint with his branch, or send an email to the Bank, giving the details of his account number, and the problem to be resolved. Many customers find it difficult to do this in the midst of their many priorities, and so put off reporting a complaint, even though the issue remains alive.
For the first time, here we have a Bank going out to its customers, inviting them to just send one SMS, “Unhappy”, to the number 8008202020. The rest of the action rests with the Bank. In a perfectly automated fashion, this message reaches the “Happy Room” at the Bank’s Circle Headquarters, from where executives who are passionate about customer delight, call the customer on his mobile phone, understand from him the exact nature of the problem faced by him, assure him of prompt resolution, and escalate this issue to the office which has to take action. What is more, when the required action has been taken, the customer is contacted by his branch and the Happy Room to update him on what has been done. Most of the complaints are closed within 48 hours. Needless to say, this results in absolute delight for the customer. Feedback received from the pilot run, has been very encouraging. Initial customer reactions to this proactive initiative on the part of the nation’s largest Bank, have been very positive. Already complaints have shown a decreasing trend.
What is so special about this initiative is that, having sent one SMS, the customer has absolutely nothing to do; his mind can be at rest, and he is assured of speedy results. Working just on SMS, the facility can be accessed at any time of day or night, from anywhere-- even while waiting for a flight to take off! And what’s more, being paperless, it is a Green Banking initiative.
With the national launch of this initiative, and widening of its reach, consumers of banking services can look forward to a new era of fast, hassle-free complaint resolution, and, better, delightful experiences with their Bank.
