Customer service: 5 stars
Five scintillating stars for their efficient, prompt and courteous customer service. Their executives are helpful without being intrusive or over bearing. Very rarely have I had any problems -- twice in almost 10 years -- and even when I did, they went out of the way to resolve the issues to my satisfaction.
Once a high value cheque was credited and swept into my quantum optima account (a flexible deposit product) after almost a fortnight of delay. I had shot off a longish, angry email full of business lessons to their private banking head and realized that may have been unnecessary! Yes, I can be a pig-headed kid sometimes, no offence to pigs. Anyway, I received a warm reply and was given interest for the time period the cheque was lying on someone’s table.This sincerity is what kept me with ICICI by choice when in 2008 many but not most of its customers had been scared by rumors into almost deserting the bank.
Products, pricing, systems & processes: 4 stars.
Services included in their online and phone banking systems bring almost all my interaction with the bank to wherever, whenever I am. I have booked FDs, requested demand drafts, paid rent and such, transferred funds and recharged mobile at odd hours of the night. The last time I went to ‘my branch’ is when I opened the primary account almost a decade back.
I’m no authority on data systems or security but my experience as an end user has been good so far. Enquiries and service requests get processed promptly with just a call or login and if physical home delivery -- as in cash, demand drafts, cheque books etc -- is requested, these are done discreetly and speedily at no extra cost. Note: many services are free of cost for wealth management customers. For other customers, charges for some services are higher than those in PSU banks the last time I checked.
Integrating different products to create a seamless experience has worked well for me. Single point contact, all-under-one-roof banking and financial solutions are nice to have. Gracefully, they never tried to sell any ‘especially for women’ pink colored account or card to me.
But half a star gets gobbled by penalty policy regarding premature deposit withdrawal or loan payment. The other half I’d take away for imintpoints. All their products and services were pretty smooth till this affiliate came into the picture. It swamps my email with offers but try emailing them for something as innocuous as an inquiry. All I always get is the acknowledgement email. imint may just as well be an unmanned flight on autopilot.
Convenience: Another 5 stars.
From extended branch timings to their strategically located ATMs and branches, they were the first to take the uff! out of banking.8 am to 8 pm branch timings have now been changed to 9 am to 5 pm, which is not as convenient as earlier but temporarily acceptable as a cost cutting measure in the present economic slow-down.
Contrast:
The convenience of their online banking and any-branch banking really hits home every time I need anything done at nationalized banks, which have not yet overcome their need to have a customer revolve around the bank like a personalized moon. Customer service is what is personalized, not the customer. When will they ever learn and earn their bournville?
PSU banks too have online banking, but let’s take SBI’s online banking for instance: My account became dormant despite online transactions. I’m required to physically carry out transactions at a branch or atm every six months to keep the account active so I can continue transacting online. Mercifully cash withdrawal can be done at any core banking branch. So, I have keyed in a mobile-memo for six-months later. I’m ever grateful to SBI and other PSU banks for making my smart phone more useful and worth its price!
Anyhow, for most other unavoidable things, I’m required to go to not just any branch but to the branch in which my account is held. It’s been a year since I started a multi-product relationship with SBI and I have been to ‘my branch’, which happens to be an hour away from my new residence, at least 11 times, waiting there for almost half a day each on three occasions. If there are problems, the online customer service tells me to contact the branch! Plus, twice they kept high value cheques lying around for days and did nothing about it. One month into the ‘relationship’ and I was very resolute on divorce. I have already pared down most of the products I began with them, keeping now only the fixed deposits purely because breaking those FDs would not have made financial sense.
My dealings with some other banks were equally cumbersome because most had only recently started products that ICICI has had for over a decade. So, they’re still just about wetting their toes and making mistakes learning how to process these new products. Four rounds to ‘my branch’ to help them learn and correct! I think by the time it’ll make prudent financial sense to cut loose i.e. close my relationship with these banks, they would have pulled up their shiny new socks and a divorce won’t be needed. Or maybe I’m over-estimating these banks.
In toto: 4 1/2 stars
All told, any customer facing organization is only as good as its people, the efficiency of its systems and processes and the desirability of its products and their price. While I have deducted a star for pricing and a rare loose end, ICICI Bank seems to be doing all the right things. But, of course, that just raises the bar and as a customer I expect even better, at par with the very best in the world.
All shining stars I give here are qualified by only one fact -- I have never taken a loan, which would ideally be the most sensitive barometer for customer service, product, pricing and processes.