Is Customer Service important?

Is Customer Service important?

A good friend of mine once stopped at an ATM on his way home from work. He was withdrawing a few thousand rupees. To his dismay, one of the 500 rupee notes was torn, and he received only half of it. As it was after 6pm, and the bank was closed, he could do nothing about it immediately. He decided to contact the bank the next day day as delaying it further would make resolution of the issue difficult. The next day, he stopped by the bank on his way to work and messaged his manager that he would be a few minutes late.

As my friend walked into the bank with the torn 500 rupee note in hand, the bank tellers and even other employees started laughing. My friend was quite surprised and he looked around. Since he was the only customer at that time, it was quite clear that everyone was laughing at him. As the laughter continued, my friend’s surprise turned to embarrassment, and then to anger. He stood in the middle of room, red faced.

Finally one of the bank officers came up to him and asked him if he had received the torn note from the ATM. My friend replied, “Yes, but why are you all laughing?” The bank officer explained that they had found the other half of the note in the ATM machine this morning and everyone was waiting for the customer to show up with the other half. Apparently nearly all the bank staff knew about it and, much to my friend’s chagrin, several people started laughing again.

My friend finally asked if he could have a complete note in exchange for the torn one. He was sent to a teller window where he exchanged the torn note for a complete one. Having had enough of the joke at his expense, my friend then stomped out of the bank.

Later, as my friend shared this incident with me, I realized that due to it, the bank had lost a potential customer and well wisher. In fact, I later came to know that my friend had shared the story far and wide, tarnishing the bank’s image in the process. Needless to say, this whole badmouthing aftermath could have been avoided if the bank’s employees had acted in a professional and caring manner. Due to poor customer service, a lifelong critic of the bank had been created.