The magic of the word “ASK”
It was gloomy morning during rainy season, but there were 4 appointments in my diary which I could not escape, but I was not having interest to meet those clients in spite of burning targets and deadline, just entered the office in CMH Road, called one by one and asked them is it fine if I come and meet you on Sunday at your home rather than in office
Out of four, three of them said yes but 4th client said no and I rescheduled the appointment in the evening, as usual after hurdle meeting my Boss asked me with a witty smile no appointments today still you are sitting here, I said all of them have rescheduled to next week, then he said I do not know what you will do but I want these numbers to be achieved this month without failure , I just said yes and immediately made up my mind to not to leave a single person who enters my branch and started my treasure hunt.
irrespective of the profile of customer like big business men, or employee or assistant of great business men who have account or not, approached every individual, first I asked them have you come across or face any problem banking with us, just one question made them so furious and next half an hour I was not having any chance to speak out all most all customers expressed their views with the same tune most of them were very basic and common issues like.
1. Lot of time is consumed in attending the customer (in short TAT)
2. People do not smile in the counter
3. You do not call when our check come for clearing
4. We have to wait always to take DD or Pay order
5. In spite of having so much of transaction we are not given special treatment
6. We do not get forex at good rate
7. We will have to wait for Locker operations during Saturday
List went on just like ever increasing problem of traffic jam in old madras road.
By evening I met around 38 people and listed there problems and bought around one weeks time to sort out rather than appreciating my efforts every one took my manager’s contact number and told me that if I fail to address them they will complain against me to my Manager.
Went inside the Manager's cabin told him today I met 38 people he posed a different look towards me and asked me morning you said you do not have any appointments, then I told him yes but I met all of them inside the branch, then he asked me ok tell me the numbers for the day because in Bank it does not matter how much u work or how obedient you are to your boss what matter at the end of the day is just bloody numbers.
I told him I did not discuss about any of the product we offer, manager got angry and in reply asked me then what you were discussing with them, issues in their personal life, I said sir yes I discussed about the issues but not personal but all of them are official related to bank, I requested my manager to revise my target and I will achieve it but you have to promise me that you will solve all problems of our customers which we can solve if we spend half an hour more in branch and organize everything in proper manner, since I told him that we have to spend half an hour more without any second thought manager said yes, because I need not mention that request was not to leave early.
Immediately I gave him customer name and account number asked him to ask that customer to call and tell him that, I have noticed your problems in the branch we too understand your problems bla bla we will take necessary steps please come and meet me tomorrow.
I did nothing just told manager that I have an appointment now and I will have to go, on the way back to my home I met that client and did the same job what I did in branch not by mistake also discussed about products which we offer.
Next day I reached my office and logged in to the system, surprisingly there was a mail from the customer saying thanks for addressing our problem and we appreciate your work. In return I replied as thanks, meet you soon at branch at sharp 11 A.M customer entered in to the office and I joined him like escort and entered manager's cabin, his problem was about rates in foreign exchange, immediately manager assured that he will get the best rate now onwards provided he need to bring all his business to bank and he has to transact with the bank for all his forex needs.
Customer was bit reluctant but looking at our hospitality, he said yes and opened an account, after having opened account we started discussion about other products and asked him to open one more account in the name of his wife, he called his wife and asked her to come immediately we opened her account
After two days we have noticed that good amount of cash deposited in to his savings account, again I went back to manager and told him about this and asked him to call that person and ask him are you satisfied with the service, if you need any other service please come and visit us tomorrow. Customer was happy because bank Manager himself called him, asked about the service. Next day customer visited the branch just to say that your service is good and told my manager that your people are good at providing good service to the customers meanwhile manager called me in the cabin and all of us had tea, in between conversation I sent message to my manager about hefty cash lying in S/B account of his wife and ask him to convert them in to F/D and Insurance.
Immediately Manager without giving any room to other Question he asked customer Mr. Bali I could see huge amount lying in your account and why do not you invest in other avenues like Fixed Deposit ,Insurance & Mutual Fund,
Somehow we managed to get some more investments, I just looked back and told myself what I did by addressing one issue we managed to sell other counter products. I realized that it is not because of me or my manager we convinced our customer, it is all because of word magic "ASK “after having succeeded with this move, decided to run a mission ASK & Smile at branch. I will share some time in future experience which I experienced when I met other 3 customers.
With this I conclude that some time we just fall short to achieve our destiny because we do not know the magic of the word "ASK"
•We never ASK our parents what they want
•Manager never ASK his subordinate what additional facilities required to perform the allocated task
•Subordinate never ASK for Promotion
•We our self never ASK what we are capable of
•We general public never ASK politicians what they are doing for us
•Like this list of Never Ask keep increasing and making us to stay where we are rather then where we should be.
See you next wknd till then good bye write to me if my writings in the blog touched you even 1%
Regards,
Karthik.S.Bapat
karthik.bapat@gmail.com
