Parvez Jamil

Amid much being pondered from customer care to customer nightmare in our banking sector, a ray of hope envisions and emanates towards customer-friendly and mutually rewarding bank reforms for a change.

It is basically a question of slow and gradual transformation from deep-rooted and die-hard immobilization and procrastination to a customer-friendly mindset. Easy said than done!

If sun were to shine over our banking horizon, it will only be with seriousness of purpose and penetrative thinking to allocate and economize time and resources on customer-friendly and value-adding bank reforms.

Let it be a gradual once in a quarter process of a customer-friendly week. It is a matter of getting gradually accustomed to and acclimatized with understanding customer psychology and expectations...Gradual yet effective in view of deep-rooted practices.

Indeed are capable our illustrious and innovative bankers and cherished gurus of our banking sector to help devise and implement effective and enthralling counseling and training sessions in customer-care for all staff down the management line! Basically top management has to lead from the front to be trend-setters in this connection please.

It has to be borne in mind that all management and all staff are humans who themselves need motivation despite all loyalties, commitment and altruism. It is particularly a question of rewarding bank staff and workers with incentives or bonuses for customer-friendly performances.

Anticipated to pay rich dividends is once a quarter, four times a year customer-friendly week with incentives and bonuses for staff on result-oriented performance on customer confidence, satisfaction and motivation in all banking operations like Information, account opening, check book chores, account activation, atm service, bank drafts, pay orders, bank statements and resource mobilization as crux of the matter.

Let quarterly customer-friendly week be feasibly characterized by warm-hearted smiles and cheers, entertaining short videos and documentaries, hospitable hi tea parties, refreshing and rejuvenating celebrity sessions, captivating gifts and give-away. It has to be inventively ensured that normal and routine banking continues unabated during the proposed customer-friendly week.

Looking for a change for the better in national savings and resource mobilization is a challenge indeed! It is a tough ask deviating from the straight and narrow practices of honestly and logically purposeless and meaningless banking when the majority of promising but ignorant national population encounter lack of information, red-tape, tough and tedious procedures even in opening a bank account what to talk of its follow-up.

Sun will shine over our banking horizon only amid mutual rewards with facilitation to our senior citizens, widows, sick and handicapped from principle to practice, taking on board beyond upper strata our masses, the overwhelming majority of our illiterate population and to revive in letter and spirit children’s banking for economizing and resource mobilization mindsets towards a better and brighter Pakistan.

(The writer has wide and varied experience in educational and media management)