I remember when I was a kid there used to be a series on our PTV or something called Guest House or something… It was the same show which introduced the famous “Jaan Rambo”
Once they had this episode in which a Pakistani living abroad comes back to his homeland and his first stop was the guest house as apparently he had no relatives or anything. At the time of board in the management of Guest house ask for some financial security as how he is going to clear his bill, he shows a Bank Draft saying that this is his life time saving which he’ll be able to use once he gets a bank account. In the entire show they didn’t disclose the amount of that draft but they gave an impression as if that was some outrageously huge amount…
Anyways, the entire episode was on how difficult it was for that guy to get an account in Pakistan because he knew nobody and no bank was willing to give him an account without any reference despite the fact that he was going to deposit a huge amount and in the end “Jaan Rambo” helps him as he’s holding an account for his savings.
Anyways… That was then, now I was probably only dealing with my piggy bank back in the day so I had no clue how difficult it was to deal with real banking. When I started dealing with banks on my own was about 10yr back and there were some references issues then minimum balance requirements but nothing alien at all. Here’s something interesting that happened to me today & I’d like to share with all…
Today I walked into a branch of one of our local banks. My main intention was to get some inquiry about their services as I’ll need another account in next few days… As soon as I stepped into the office, here’s what happened:-
When I was not even a foot away from the door I was greeted by one of their sales executives, He introduced himself to me and asked me to have a seat, we started off with a casual conversation, he kept offering me for tea or coffee but as I kept refusing every time because, a) I’m not on heavy caffeine intake, b) I was on my way for a lunch meeting and c) I had a colleague sitting in car as I had told him to wait till I quickly come back after picking up their brochures.
To sum the long story short… The branch consisted of 3 men & 1 woman (including their branch manager), all 4 of them pitched me their different products, desperation was clearly visible from their attitude, took my phone number for follow up and offered me a cup of coffee (more than once). When I informed them I was in hurry since I had someone waiting in car, the sales guy got off his seat so he can go out and invite my colleague. I didn’t give the details of car otherwise he was all up for inviting him…
When I took all my required info, he offered me coffee one more time saying, “We have the BEST coffee in this area.”
I left the place leaving all 4 of them speechless when I replied “If you serve the best coffee in the area then perhaps you should consider opening a coffee shop and close the bank” (-:
So the question is, is this all due to financial recession or are we really customer friendly now?
Puri Sahib... Continues to Be
2 comments:
Rambo Ramo Jaan Rambo, The cackroach killer :)
Humaira that was supposed to be my line :(
And how mean Omer,and too would be something i would say :D
I think its a bit of both? its the times and that we have become customer friendly (not including my customers or myself)
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