Communication for Customer Service and Satisfaction

Question: Discuss about theCommunication for Customer Service and Satisfaction. Answer: As a new branch manager at an HSBC branch, I experienced an incident which I feel I could have handled more effectively. The lack of communication among my branch employees resulted in lack of customer service and business loss (Bharadwaj et al. 2013). However, I have applied measures to deal with the situation and the environment in the bank has improved considerably. I am working as the new branch manager at an HSBC Bank branch and lead a team of employees. It was the day when an elderly customer walked in and wanted to meet the assistant branch manager since he knew him. The assistant branch manager was out on a call and the other staffs were busy with their own customers. The man waited for an hour and left unattended when the ABM did not return. The ABM learnt about the matter after returning and walked into my room. He informed me that the customer had five years long relation with our bank and came in to open a new premium current account for his new business. I analyzed the fact and realized that problem lied in communication among the staffs which leads to lack of customer service and tantamount to business losses. Communication among the employees in an organization is the key to its successful customer service and customer satisfaction. It also leads to expansion of customer base, more business and revenue generation. The incident showed lack of communication among the bank employees and lack of customer services (Soteriou and Stavrinides 2013). I feel that I as the branch manager was not able to deal with the matter effectively primarily due to two reasons. I was just a week old at the branch at that time and was not very well acquainted with the customers and the working environment at the branch. I analysed that there was an acute lack of communication between the employees at the branch due to intense pressure to perform at individual levels. There was a conflict among them regarding providing services to customers which led to business losses at that time (Wang, Cooke and Huang 2014). I also analysed that there were many tough competitors around like Citi Bank to whom we would lose custo mers due to lack of services on our part. I have handled the matter by holding several meetings with the staffs and speaking to them about the lack of communications and its consequences. The meetings have brought in positive results and the staffs are showing marked increase in communication and overall business environment at the branch is more professional and customer friendly. There have been increases in the numbers of customers who have preferred to bank with HSBC bank due to our improved customer services and offer of appropriate products. Our branch has won the award of best performing branch quarter in the cluster which proves my capability of improving the efficiency of the branch. I, as alternative improvement actions often send out two staffs together on client meetings so that both can know the requirements of the client and can provide him with appropriate solutions, avoid similar business losses in future (Swaminathan et al. 2014). I will evaluate my performance as a branch manager on the basis of increase in branch business and acquisition of new customers. I have to agree that there obstacles to retail banking like changing needs and emotion of customers, lack of human resources, time constraint and lack of supportive colleagues. However, increase in communication and collaboration can help in reducing these obstacles and increase in business. Today the communications among my employees and customer service standard have improved a lot. As a branch manager I keep on evaluating the performance of the branch and applying new methods to better it. References: Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O.A., Pavlou, P.A. and Venkatraman, N.V., 2013. Digital business strategy: toward a next generation of insights. Soteriou, A.C. and Stavrinides, Y., 2013. An internal customer service quality data envelopment analysis model for bank branches. International Journal of Bank Marketing. Swaminathan, V., Groening, C., Mittal, V. and Thomaz, F., 2014. How achieving the dual goal of customer satisfaction and efficiency in mergers affects a firms long-term financial performance.Journal of Service Research,17(2), pp.182-194. Wang, J., Cooke, F.L. and Huang, W., 2014. How resilient is the (future) workforce in China? A study of the banking sector and implications for human resource development.Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources,52(2), pp.132-154.