I think most if us have a difficulty in appreciating, both negative as well as positive sides of a given situation, if we are positive then it will be all positive and the same other way...I realised this yesterday when I was talking to group of senior Bank officials of a reputed bank. They were lamenting the fact that though there are many benefits from technology like core-banking and computerisation and the customer has gained enormous amount of convenience because of the advent of ATMs and net banking , this according to them is happening at a cost. The cost is the loss of one-to-one interaction with the customer. To quote what one of the senior managers said "Today a customer can close an account at the click of a button and I might come to know about it much later". In the earlier days, if the customer wanted to close the account he would have come to the branch and spend time , and thus providing a opportunity for the banker to retain the customer. And maybe in a situation of close personal interaction chances of one identifying and solving a problem at much ealier stage is much easier.
This is not the first time that I hearing such a fear being expressed, this was also said by senior railway officials about the increasing acceptance of Internet based ticketing.
This concern is mainly from the organization's end , which fears that technology might over a period of time convert their customers into mere numbers, but on the other end many customers are becoming uneasy with this lack of human interaction. Maybe this is one the reasons why many erstwhile pure-play companies like makemytrip.com and shaadi.com are coming up with physical offices and interaction point where one can go a actually talk to a person....
Agreed on the negatives. Just highlighting a few more advantages of this.. You can get more feedback and have it in organised format.. feedback forms on makemytrip.. for eg. This inturn enables better interaction.
ReplyDeleteIncrease in the number of customers.. considering you have upgraded.. you don't keep the customer waiting.I personally feel online railway ticketing is one of the best tech upgradations.
As far as banking is concerned.. online banking is an extened facility. You always have branches where people in need of personal interaction can meet up and communicate their issues. While you have a customers closing an account with a click.. you also have many opening accounts with a click. The techology gives you tremendous amount of data related to the customer which is an unbeatable advantage!
Sir
ReplyDeleteI really don't know why the railways feel that technology has harmed them, and same is the case with banks.
There is a age old saying that bad news travels faster than lightning. Today, I am booking more Railway tickets because of the speed and comfort of online booking - the hassles of standing in queues and booking was unbearable. I was peeved and preferred Flights only because of the comfort levels.
Same is the case with banks - I used to walk for more than 2 km to get to the ATM instead of standing in line because of the complications involved in it - and the bank staff were never always that accommodating because of their own personal reasons. ATM and online banking has given me more choices. In case I have a problem, Customer Care is also just a click away!
So it's better that the managers start to do something to make sure that they adjust to this new technology instead of worrying about its consequences because it is here to stay.
@Sameera and Varun, my idea of sharing the negatives of technology adoption is only to highlight those aspects which are not good, obviously this does not mean that there are no positives. Infact as I started with it, we tend to focus only on one aspect of technology that is positive, convenience, large amount of data, comfort, which both of you have pointed out, but there is another side of the story too. And maybe one might say the positives out weigh the negatives, but still there are some negatives..
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if you people would agree..
Sir,
ReplyDeleteMaybe we need more exposure to understand the other side of the story!
From customers point of view.. positives weigh heavier!