SBI scouting for elderly

The bank’s Chandigarh Circle plans to tap senior citizens and pensioners of Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, HP and J&K

CHART

SBI branches in region

Haryana (excluding 5 NCR districts): - 434

Chandigarh and Punjab: 1,025

Himachal Pradesh: 329

Jammu & Kashmir: 188

Total: 1,976

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 1

State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank of the country, plans to woo senior citizens, particularly the pensioners by offering them exclusive services and shed its typically bureaucratic image by becoming extra conscious about the consumer satisfaction.

A start in this direction has been made by launching first senior citizen facilitation centre in the capital of Punjab and Haryana, a senior executive of the bank told The Tribune. A model branch has been set up in Chandigarh to gaze the response of people in this region. Depending upon the response, such branches could be opened in select cities of this region, the executive said.

“There are sizable number of senior citizens and pensioners in the Chandigarh Circle that comprises Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and J&K. They are our valued clients. In order to facilitate them, we have operationalised a senior citizen-friendly centre,” SBI Deputy Managing Director Anil Kishora said.

Kishora said this could be the first-of-its-kind branch where the ambience and layout is customised to the requirements of the senior citizens. It has low height counters, chairs are placed in a configuration-friendly manner; easy access of wheelchairs has been made to the lobby and the sitting lounge. Besides normal banking services, the branch will conduct awareness drives every month to make senior citizens aware of cyber security requirements and will share security tips to keep their money safe.

According to Kishora, this centre may act as a role model for other banks and they may also replicate it. SBI’s branch is modelled after the Reserve Bank of India’s suggestion to banks to offer facilities to differently-abled persons and senior citizens. In line with the RBI’s guideline, the SBI will also provide doorstep banking to these customers. The RBI guideline to banks also includes services such as pick up of cash against receipt, delivery of cash against withdrawal from account, delivery of demand drafts, submission of know your customer (KYC) documents and Life Certificate at the residences of such customers. Kishora said the branch will provide all these services to the senior citizens.

Apart from the senior citizens, Kishora is focusing on prioritising general customer satisfaction and taking it to the next level. The bank is aggressively pushing its SMS service, where a customer who is not satisfied with the services of the bank has to just type a single word "Unhappy" and send the SMS to a given number. His problem will be addressed in 48 hours. On an average, the bank receives about 82-100 SMSes per day from the customers in the Northern region, the SBI executive said.