Monday 16 January 2012

My Bank Islam

3 cases:

Case1. Lady A is a  retailer in a hypermarket. She has been in business for almost 6 years here. Business hours: 9.30am - 10.00pm daily. Shop is allowed to close for public holidays only 2 days in a year. Daily receipts must be banked in daily after closing. The main reason is the need to cover various cheques issued to suppliers. She has accounts with BANK ISLAM, since ... ever. Now, several bank-in facilities (Cash Deposit Machines) are available in the vicinity but not of BANK ISLAM. Staff must bank-in daily. For a couple years numerous suggestions and feedback were forwarded through various means (feedback forms addressed direct to the CEO, direct feedback to the managers, the bank's facebook) to BANK ISLAM. But to no avail. Despite this, Lady A said to herself - sabar, sabar. Nak buat yang elok memang susah. Banyak dugaan. Kalau kita tak support BANK ISLAM, siapa lagi - maka sabarlah tahun demi tahun. Manager bank pun berkata yang cawangan akan di wujudkan soon, tahun depan, pertengahan tahun, awal tahun, tahun demi tahun. Lady said, the micro and small businesses just need a cash deposit machine (CDM) for banking in, that's all. Finally, the Lady gave up and start looking for an introducer to open another account with a bank close by. MAYBANK to be specific. And that led to Gentleman B.

Case 2. Gentleman B is also a retailer in the same hypermarket. He is a successful Franchisee to a leading Franchisor. And has been in the market for more than 10 years. When Lady A requested him for an introduction to the bank, he expressed his shock - you are still with BANK ISLAM? Saya dah lama give up...I've account with both RHB and MAYBANK.

Case 3: Gentleman C is a retailer/wholesaler in the same locality. Also supports BANK ISLAM. Now, he is also finding it necessary to open a current account with MAYBANK. He requested Lady A for an introduction ...to MAYBANK.

Lessons Learned:

1. The requirements of Micro and Small Businesses are important considerations that BANK ISLAM should not overlook. They are an important part of BANK ISLAM's community to support the move towards a more independent ummah.

2. Bank managers stated that their hands are tied. Their views are not strongly considered, so it is best that customers write in themselves to be considered. However based upon the above, it can be concluded that even the customers' voices are not going through. Now, what does customer-centric and customer-centred approach means.

3. Excluding the feedback and sabar grace period, the above incidents occurred within these past 3 months. And it is not even a formal research!...

4. Finally, I just wish for Tan Sri Ismail Adam (BANK ISLAM's Board Member) to read this. Why Tan Sri? Because he was previously of  National Productivity Centre and hopefully would understand customer need better.  Let's see. Terima Kasih to the reader who leads this to him.

May BANK ISLAM learns the art of listening and responding.

Terima Kasih.

2 comments:

  1. I could be wrong but I suppose gentleman c is u.

    Ada study tentang kepuasan pelanggan Bank Islam yg resultnya untuk kesetiaan secara umum tunjuk non-muslim kerana secured & yg muslim sama sebabnya dgn lady A

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  2. Toolbox,

    ho ho, thank you... finally someone paid attention to this. i don't know if it makes any difference to Bank Islam.

    but the study you mentioned is an eye opener. i wonder, can we ever be competitive in every aspect, in particular with respect to customer-centric perspective, to help our people move forward.

    malays and muslims are very forgiving. we forgive serba serbi kekurangan yang kita terima, firstly, because we are at the needing ends and secondly memang genetic make up kita agaknya... but basically due to our decency, kita tak hendak banyak cakap ...

    this state of affairs is so pitiful, ditelan pahit, dibuang kesian...

    terima kasih.

    p/s saya bukan gentleman C... and it doesn't matter

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