Banking service…
My wife unfortunately leaves a lot of money in her savings bank account…so she gets her RM calling her with the usual…’can I do something …’ type of calls. She has been irritated, bored, (scared too) to talk to her RM. So she did a smart thing – she went online and changed her telephone number – all the calls now come to me :-(.
We actually need the RM to activate her broking account – it is easier than transacting on the phone – and give delivery by physically going to the bank.
So when the bank RM called me I said ‘Thanks, can you please re-activate my BROKING account’. He clarified saying “Sir I am from the bank’ – to me it sounded like ‘Jerk do you not know the difference between a bank and a broking company?’. I said, I know, but can you send somebody from….the brokerage arm’. He reluctantly said yes.
However, I realised from his tone that nothing will happen. Well nothing happened.
He called again. Same story repeated. No action again.
One day I was talking to the HR of the same bank. I asked the HR person about the Targets and Incentive structure for the RMs. They have targets of revenue for the BANK. They had targets for BROKERAGE ACCOUNTS OPENED…but, alas, no incentive for activating or re-activating brokerage accounts. They have no revenue targets from the brokerage accounts too – so if my wife gave the broking arm say revenues of Rs. 50k a year, it did not matter to the RM – he got nothing from that you see.
The best part of the story is I told this to 3 bankers – all of them asked me ‘Is it our bank’. It was one of them, but I did not tell them which bank.
Then one BROKERAGE firm called me for training – SALES TRAINING – and I did sales training for their SENIOR MARKETING AND SALES people. About 30 of them attended a 2 day training. I told them I had an inactive account. The zonal head, regional head and the local head ALL promised to ‘re-activate’ MY ACCOUNT (I and my wife have broking accounts with different bank brokers). Training over, no response.
Thank God I do not do trainings promising the client ‘If I do training, your sales will go up’. Sorry it will not.
The sales guys have to go out and actually WORK. Training is useful only if they go out and DO.
No I am not naming the banks – A, B, C or H, I, J, K – does it really matter? LOL….
sujatha
Great decision by your wife sir:).
Abhishek
Sir,
I guess the bankers have decided not to respond to your inactive broking account query time and again. LOL..
Great Post.. If you can share the brokerage company name, It will definitely help blog readers.. If I take a guess, it should be KOTAK ;-))
Take Care..
Abhishek
bumb ka gola
Subra,
It is not just the targets and lack of desire that RMs are not helping you.
It is more to do with the power and authority vested in an RM. RMs are typically bottom of the rung – cannon fodder type employees.
[Disclaimer: Many years ago I was one in a, b, c, … h, I, j… Bank]
In our set up in those days the separation of operations and sales was so acute that even the branch staff would not listen to RMs forget about other group companies. The transactions of Private Banking clients were routinely botched up.
Influential customers in the banking system were able to get better concessions themselves than what I could ever get for them. Group companies like insurance and securities were beyond our reach most of the time. Any work in group companies or other bank departments was done more by personal networking in those places than as a part of process.
From your case it seems as if nothing much has changed in all these years.
Srinivasan M
Subra Sir,
Such a big shot like you, why crib on small issues. The world is big and opportunities are more these days. Just close the SB a/c, give feedback if needed while closing, open broking a/c with any of the willing specialized broking firms. People will be queuing to open an account for you. I feel specialized brokerage firms are not bad at all, in fact better in service(much better online trading services & very less down time) and cost efficient too(lower brokerage rates) when compared to banks which offer 3 in 1 or 4 in 1 or all in 1 kind of accounts. In fact I trade with one such brokerage only. Best Wishes 🙂
Suresh
I always offer to gift “retire rich…” to any new RM. If they still call I say I believe in what the author says, and if the RM wishes to contradict can he please justify? Never had to take calls from the RM after that. Mails some times yes, but calls…
SAM
Subra,
Each man for himself! I have learned that you have to look out for yourself – no one does it for you – coz they have interest only in their salaries/comissions. Which is perfectly fine by me!
subra
Srinivasan M – I am not cribbing at all, just stating the facts. You think it is easy to shift all mandates (coming in and going out) by opening a new account, well I do think it is too painful. Remember I do not work with an army of staff to do all such work. I am clearly on zero clerical effort basis. I know many brokers -but believe me what I hear from the owners, managers, and the lowest end salesman are 3 different stories.
SAM: agree, never sought protection. Clearly Ayn Rand at play.
Karthik
Subra Sir,
Iam a sales guy (well Presales actually), so I emphathaise with the RM. Why do omething if it is not going to help him with his target. The only reason he would do it is if he decides that “doing this favour” would put him in your good books and you would give him some business in future..LOL..You train sales.. so u understand how we think and what motivates us.. Incentives and targets are the mantra.. Customer realtion is the path to reach these goals thats all 🙂