One of my ambitions was to handle a bank branch so effectively that I could achieve maximum customer satisfaction and exponential growth with zero credit risk. I got an opportunity to work as a Branch Manager for Canara Bank in 2017. My branch was a purely new one, since it was set up in a new area of Jamnagar city. Another challenge that I faced was to market the brand of my bank in this place which was already dominated by large peer banks such as ICICI Bank, SBI and Bank Of Baroda. I knew what I had to do and I also knew that the idea was not easy to execute, given the uncertainty of the market conditions and the existing competition.
I decided a basic strategy for myself and discussed the same with my peers and seniors. I stepped on the field quite frequently and made sure that not a single person was left unmet in my area. I also made sure that all the financial products of the bank were shared with the customers and timely displayed in my branch. I interacted with as many people as I could; right from an 8-year old to an 80-year old. I visited people around me at all possible timings during the day and spoke to them.
During this process, one of the most important things which I learnt was that every customer wants to be known and respected. More so, people need someone with whom they can share their personal grief about monetary issues. I couldn’t ask much about people’s personal life, since my work demanded me to be professional, but I would silently search for answers from within and try to see every possible manner in which I could be of some use to mitigate their personal problems. Turns out that I was able to help people in rare cases, but this rarity made a big difference to my personal life as well as the brand of my bank.
Credit and financing, which forms the income part of the bank, was an area of major concern. Still, I took cautious decisions and sanctioned a decent number of loans ranging from Rs. 50000 to Rs. 10 lakhs. I was very particular in credit decisions and that made an impact of the overall growth of the bank’s business in my region. I would check twice for the credit worthiness of the applicant and confirm beforehand that the money was being put in the right hands. The best answers about the sanctioning came from the customers around me, who would tell me the true story about the applicant. That would also form the basis of my decision since I had this deep desire of keeping my branch NPA-free.
There was another area where I found customer dissatisfaction. It consisted of bancassurance, mutual funds, NFOs, sovereign gold bonds released by the RBI and other miscellaneous financial products. Since I knew about the reality of the market, I would pitch these products only to classified customers. I would never trouble a middle-class person to put his/her money in these products just for the sake of increasing my branch’s revenue. Eventually, people began investing in these products too, given the credibility of the bank and its service which I had initially promoted.
My ambition was to make my branch big, not just in size or value but also in stature. I wanted my branch to be exemplified in my area. And despite so many challenges coming my way, I adopted scientific approaches within ethical limits and found my branch flourishing the way I wanted it to. Because I knew that making it big was certainly difficult, but I also knew it was possible. Exactly as Aditya Birla does it and makes it ‘Big In Your Life’.
Harmeet Singh,
MBA (Core) 2019-21 batch, Year 1,
Specialization preference - HR