Srinivas Kamat
There was a time when your neighborhood bank was your friend in need. The manager was your consultant and advisor in matters of finance as well as on many other general issues. Slowly things have been changing with the bank becoming a shop for multiple financial instruments with the manager rarely getting the time to even smile at you. He will be in between measuring the weight of gold that some customer has brought for a loan or finalizing a home loan for another buyer.
This transition of reduced customer interaction actually started with the introduction of ATM’s where customers no longer had to enter a bank for drawing money from their accounts which used to be the major activity of ordinary account holders. The person to person interaction reduced with this transition and has been deteriorating since. The only exception in recent memory was that on Nov 10, 2016 every bank in India got the maximum number of customers ever to come into their branches since they had opened shop!
The bank branches over time automated with computers replacing the age old ledgers. The musty environs of most bank branches at least in cities and major towns were revamped to look sleek, modern and were air-conditioned. This became more intimidating to some customers what with frequent transfers of bank staff where they would not see the familiar face at the other side of the counter. Around this time came the focus on costs at the bank. This was more so with the private banks where it started with charges for issuing cheque books which came as a shock to some old customers of the banks.
Then there were more restrictions with minimum account balances being mandated and if you went below the limit charges were levied. The public sector banks followed with these practices though the usury was more moderate. All this led to the feeling among customers that you would be charged for just visiting the bank. More charges for breathing the air inside! And pay through your nose for sneezing in bank premises! When the ATMs came the above trend was fortified by the banks encouraging people to use the ATMs so that you did not have to step into the bank. This went to the extent of banks saying that Fixed Deposits are expensive for the banks and they would prefer to discontinue them. This sent a shock to generations of fixed deposit holders mostly senior citizens.
This initiative was again led by the private banks. Customers started getting calls at lunch times with bank executives eager to inform them of this, that or the other instrument which would transform the customer’s life! This became so irritating after some time that most customers put their bank telephone numbers on the DND list.
As you can see the wheel has turned full circle with customers being brought back so that they can be milked for the multiple financial instruments that the banks handle. This is supplemented by Narendra Modi’s initiative sometimes of demonetising one or the other currency note which will bring in an avalanche of customers to the bank like on Nov 10, 2016!
