Monday, March 16, 2009

I become a bank customer for one day

I went to do certain banking stuff and some of these front counter staff, some call them first-impression officers, really need some hard core training on their manners.
They only know how to greet customers by saying 'Good morning or afternoon' and at the end say 'Thank you'. These are all good, but the in-betweens can be really a sour experience for customers.
An example was this staff who pointed me towards the teller area and said, 'do it over there'. It sounded more like a command. And another staff who answered one of my questions in an irritated manner by saying, 'No, we dont do it here, like I said, we only do it at the back end'.
Would it not have been nicer to say 'Sir, could you please proceed over there to complete your transaction' and for the latter to say, 'Sir, I'm sorry, but like I was saying earlier, we can only do it at the back end and not here, hope you understand'.
Which sounds better?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They need lots of training in customer handling for sure. I had bad experiences too and once had to cancel my a/c with OCBC.The staff was rude and unhelpful.The manager called me to apologise and persuaded me not to cancel but my reply was "I will never have anything to do with your bank again"

The Eagle said...

Yes, that is the main problem. It's hard to find people in their 20s these days who are by nature service oriented, they have been brought up in an environment where everything is being served to them at a young age, so serving others is not in their nature. Besides, they also have other things on their minds, eg quickly finishing their work as there are alot of leisure activities coming up in the night, so OT is out. The work ethic has changed tremendously. To quote an example from a different industry, even the in-flight services aboard Spore Airlines differ alot from the past (1980s and 1990s), where air crew then were more committed to service and have a deep passion to serve customers/passengers. Of course, in this new generation, there are still some who have a real nature and passion to serve but sad to say they are in the minority.