Service with a smile? Er, not exactly

Just read this article on Rediff.com which left me with a feeling of deja vu. Now I'm not the one to rant about something that happens in my life on the web. But I could really identify with what the writer of the article said, and so I thought I'd begin my post with an incident that occured last week. I'd been to my bank (one of the leading private sector banks in the country) to get a copy of the monthly account statement signed by the bank and to have the bank seal attested on it. I was required to submit this as proof of holding the account to my stock broker (who incidentally, insists on having the signed statement after being given one cancelled cheque and one cheque -of the same bank account - which the firm duly encashed!). The first thing that the person manning the counter tells me is that NO, that isn't possible. It isn't the policy of the bank to provide a seal and signature on print-outs of account statements! Now this is something that really puts me off. I've seen people at counters and when you approach them, the first thing that they tell you is often how it (your work) cannot be done! They will not tell you about the alternative to go about it. They will just tell you that whatever you want to do cannot be done! And I've had this experience everywhere - in public and private enterprises. I've had this experience at nationalized banks, at private sector banks (like the one I just described), in my previous organization - with the system admin department - which is an MNC. So obviously you cannot just blame the callousness and lethargy attributed to government institutions in India. The problem is more with the mindset. I do not understand why, instead of helping the person out by saying, "Sir/Ma'am, I can definitely help you with this, and this is how you can go about getting your work done", the first thing you are greeted with is a NO-It-can't-be-done smile by the 'executive' - yeah, everyone is an executive now - at the desk. Getting back to the smiling executive who greeted me at the bank, I asked him that the copy that I have is the same statement which the bank e-mails me every month, and why should the bank have a problem with not signing something that is provided by it?! He again went back into denial mode. Finally, when he did help me out, he asked me to fill a form (well, the ubiquitous form-filling) to request for a statement, and he said that the bank would provide me with a statement that is signed by an officer, and... hold your breath, charge me Rs. 112 for the same! This, I should say amounts to extortion at best, and robbery at worst! Hello, why should I cough up a hundred rupees for something that I am clearly entitled to?! But he would have nothing of that.
I have noticed that the problem lies not with the organization - both private and public sector enterprises have this problem - but with the people and their mindset (of course, it's the same people whether it's a public sector bank or a private one, isn't it?). I'm currently reading Gurcharan Das's 'India Unbound', a marvellous look at the economic journey of the Indian State, and he has an interesting look at this issue. When I go to the Saree shop, he says, the shop-owner gladly unrolls a dozen sarees before me, quite willingly, and after I leave does the thankless job of rolling back each one, and neatly stacking them back. Same is the story when I go to the local bania (grocer) - he will willingly take down my order and have it delivered at my home. Ditto with the family jeweller. But the moment I go to the telephone exchange, says Das, the picture is in stark contrast. I have to put up with the most shoddy service and pay for it. Same with the clerk at the railways ticket counter. The customer here, is regarded as a nuisance, and dealt with accordingly. Das analyzes this situation saying that the saree shopkeeper, the grocer gave excellent service because there existence depends on the customer.

If he was courteous and offered quality products at a competitive price, his customer would reward him. If not, his customers deserted him for the shop next door. There was no competition in the railways, telephones, or banks, and their employees could never place the customer in the center.

Well, that was about competition, and before the economic liberalization, that was certainly true. But it is surprising that the situation is somewhat the same today - well, it has definitely improved, yet it leaves a lot to be desired - in this era of globalization, where there is competition everwhere. Is there more to this than just competition? As the writer of the article above says :

While the nationalized banks have learnt to bill virtually for every 'service' provided by these new generation banks... the latter have learnt the art of proividing abysmal service and getting away with it.

I think it has more to do than just competition. And competition certainly matters when an organization is growing - and wants to get as many customers as quickly as possible - but once you are a blue-chip company, I guess complacency sets in. And it no longer matters if a few customers are turned off - and turned away - by the service you offer. There are always hundreds others to be lured by smart advertising. But they are missing the point. They say that in business, the biggest profit you can earn is the goodwill of the customer. The viral advertising by the customer is the greatest - not to say the cheapest, it's virtually free! - advertising that you or your business can have.

Asian Tigers, and the Lumbering Elephant

There are a few things different about this post. First, I'm writing this the good ol'-fashioned way - using pen and paper. The reason behind this - and the second thing that's different about this post - is that I'm writing it not at my desk at home or office, but sitting on the Upper Berth of a Sleeper Class Compartment in the Udyan Express. I'm traveling to Bombay (this name oddly strikes me as more 'romantic' than Mumbai), and the train is running a couple of hours late. It's twilight and the train is meandering its way through the Western Ghats. We've just crossed Khandala, and gazing out of the window, I could see the vast valley and the little sleepy hamlets spread out below. The sky above was turning from crimson red to a dark orange and finally Night spread it's Cape over the villages and towns below (and us!). I could see the lights beginnning to twinkle in the houses of the village-folk. It was a really beautiful feeling - beauty is often found in simple things, and when you least expect it.
The journey has not been tiring - all I've done is eat, rest and read a bit and sleep a lot. But I'm beginning to feel the monotony of travel - the gentle swaying motion of the train, the sights and sounds of the countless hawkers plying their trade, and my co-passengers. Somehow, I couldn't strike up a conversation with any of them (well, try I did). My stop is still a couple of hours away (we should've been there by now!), and so I pulled out the little pocket notebook (the paper variety!) and my pen (not a stylus ;) ) and started scribbling to while away the time.
The rest of this post is about part of a book that I've been reading during the journey. I borrowed the book from a friend at work, and started reading it even as I was waiting for the train to arrive at the Bangalore City Junction. The book is India Unbound (Penguin Books, 2000) by Gurcharan Das. My friend had advised me "to carry something lighter for the journey" as well, saying that the book makes for some rather serious reading. Now serious it is, dealing with the Economic policies of Independent India, charting our course through the years of the "License Raj" (the term was coined by C. Rajagopalachari, I came to know) to the Liberalization of 1991, and India's almost meteoric rise in the Knowledge Economy of the present decade. A book on such a topic definitely makes for some serious reading. But I found the book (the part that I've read so far) very absorbing both in content and in the style of narration adopted by Das. The first part of the book (which I finished reading an hour back) looks at the period from 1942-65. The first chapter is interestingly (but very aptly) titled 'Ranting in English, Chanting in Sanskrit', and together with the second chapter looks at pre-Independence India, and how the English language and Western Education opened up the doors for Indians to the global world. It is often (incorrectly) said, that the Western Education only created clerks for the British bureaucracy in India. Well, that may be true to an extent, but it also created Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors and other professionals, and it brought the history of other cultures and Revolutions within the ambit of our thinkers and intellectuals. The first part of the book also examines a traditional Indian prejudice against businessmen and entrepreneurs. And this is most certainly true. Somehow creating wealth is deemed secondary - Das cites some philosophers' theory that the Vaishyas were the third in the caste heirarchy, after the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas. He also looks at the reasons why an Indutrial Revolution has always eluded India. Inspite of having a great Rail network. After all, in other countries, most notably America, the Railroad ushered in an era of prosperity, trade and commerce.
The way Das poses issues and examines various viewpoints and facets of the issue makes for very interesting reading. One thing was particularly interesting - the author delving into the traditional Indian psyche to explain one of the reasons why India did not witness a technological revolution. On why it did not, could not, innovate - and this is true for the last couple of centuries, and not just the past six-odd decades. He says that Indians, unlike Americans, are not "tinkerers". Manual labour is held in somewhat of a contempt, and tradition shows a bias toward the pure sciences rather than applied sciences or technology. I think that Das has hit the nail on its head. We Indians are generally not the "Just Do It" variety - we prefer to mull over theoretical problems rather than experiment and get our hands dirty - both literally and figuratively speaking.
Das also examines various economic policies expounded by various thinkers and economists during this period (1942-65). He describes his time at Harvard as one of "encounters with ideas rather than persons". He describes his own economic and social views at the time (liberal and socialist) and describes how he moved from being an uncritical exponent of Marx to a capitalist viewpoint. He also looks at the policies of the Indian Government at the time and how they nipped in the bud any trace of entrepreneurial spirit. He describes very nicely the travails of homegrown entrepreneurs like Kasturbhai Lalbhai and how the State instead of encouraging them, did the exact opposite - put in place excessive controls that made private enterprise virtually non-existent!
I'm continuing this part of the post on the 'morning after' (my train journey, obviously!) as the swaying of the train as it picked up speed on the plains made legible writing impossible. Getting back to the book, Das looks at how the flawed policies of the Government and the Bureaucracy instilled a culture of complacency at best, and inefficiency, low productivity, lobbyism, and corruption at worst in state enterprises. And how, surprisingly, Nehru defended the low productivity in Parliament! His reasoning - these enterprises were not 'set up to generate profit, but to meet social objectives'. The book looks at how ministers and bureaucrats, who had no experience whatsoever in running a business, presided in a shockingly ad hoc manner on business decisions. To sum it up, we got the 'worst of both worlds' by pursuing Nehru's brand of Socialism - the controls of socialism and the monopoly of capitalism'.
Reading the book really makes you think about a line Das uses a couple of times - "When individuals fail, it's a blunder; but when leaders fail, it's a catastrophe'. I've always wondered how the other Asian Economies who more or less started out at the same time as India did, have today become tigers, while India is still light years behind them! Of how, countries like Malaysia, or city-states like Singapore or Hong Kong have achieved so much with a fraction of the human and natural resources of India. Reading the book gives you some idea of the reasons behind this. Anyways, this post has already become long enough (and I'm really, really hungry!). So I'll sign off for now. But I'm sure that reading the remainder of the book will spur another post. Till then, ciao!!