Rights to bank clerk in case of misbehave by customers
Shaina Bajaj
(Querist) 13 September 2014
This query is : Resolved
Sir I am working as a clerk in a public sector bank. Sometimes, Customers misbehave for no reason or falsely accuse for misbehavior and shout in hall without caring for dignity of the concerned staff. As customers are having a proper procedure to complain against bank staff, some of them use this pipeline for satisfying their ego. I want to ask what rights do bank staff have against these types of customer complaints. Do they have any such kind of right or do they have to just follow nowdays bank policy of Customer is always right and have to work at the stake of losing dignity and respect?
Devajyoti Barman
(Expert) 13 September 2014
The Bank staff has no separate right apart from lodging complaint with Police against any criminal offence like a ordinary citizen.
This is called job hazards which member of every profession.trae face with varying degree of intensity.
Shaina Bajaj
(Querist) 13 September 2014
Thanks for the reply sir. But i am very disappointed as now i have to work with a fear of loosing my dignity every second by any customer.
Advocate. Arunagiri
(Expert) 13 September 2014
Customer is the King in your business.
My suggestion is instead of seeing the anger of the customer, try to see the real problem which had triggered his anger. Try to resolve it. That customer will give you good remarks on you.
Kumar Doab
(Expert) 14 September 2014
Many of the customers are old/existing customers from the areas in the proximity of the bank.
Take initiative to resolve their issues. Develop rapport. It shall fetch you new business. It shall please your boss too.
Many times the anguish of the customer is genuine e.g. activation of some service without permission of the customer like SMS alerts (that almost all banks have done and recalcitrant bankers believe that if a customer shouts reverse and let others bear)…………………………
Then there are some exceptional cases.
We recently discovered that in case of deceased depositor claim bank levied charges for issuing Banker’s Cheque (while such cheque is banked only once in a week implying payment shall be credited in 10 days time) then BM had to replace it with CTS-2010 compliant DD and again bank levied charges on it , again the customer had to agitate and finally BM relented and announced that even he shall have to raise a ticket and then he applied and obtained reversal.
Such charges are not applicable in deceased depositor a/c but banks are known on playing for their gains on the lack of knowledge of the customers.
The BM did not conduct himself properly was likely to get severe reprimand and loss of business from this united community of customers.
The BM then made a request to not to leak/escalate to his superiors, media, police, lawyer, court, etc…………….
The female officer was under instructions to debit the cheque/DD charges and had no option.
The female officer was however all along amiable, gentle, pleasant…………………..and she watched her interest………………………and handled the matter with courtesy and smile and later even if customer wanted to make the BM pay for his conduct this officer pacified the customer and got not only in the good books of the BM but also developed rapport with customer. The customer took a locker from the officer and even wrote a good note for her.
By remaining amiable and gentle you can win over majority of the customers.
Those that are rowdy, wrong, uncivilized, abusive can be handed over to police………………………….. here again let BM/Dy. Take over.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 20 September 2014
I think expert Mr. Kumar Doab has explained the circumstances that why the customers agitate and frown upon the clerks/officials, the varying reasons are responsible for such outcomes. However, the rowdy element customers can be dealt with separately by lodging proper complaint with concerned police.
