Merger means higher customer satisfaction: SBI

Vijay C Roy in Chandigarh

The merger will make SBI’s Chandigarh Circle as the biggest one in terms of concentration of bank branches. Post-merger the bank will have 2,165 branches and over 4,500 ATMs in the circle, comprising Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and J&K. The SBI has 14 circles across the country. 

The SBI says the bank is planning to extend Customer Experience Excellence Programme (CEEP) to SBP branches as well. “Many SBI branches are currently running a programme ‘Customer Experience Excellence Programme (CEEP)’ where we track the average wait and processing time. We also seek feedback from customers on the services rendered at the CEEP-enabled branches. This programme will get extended to SBP branches as well,” says Anil Kishora, chief general manager, State Bank of India, Local Head Office, Chandigarh. 

“A number of centres will witness an increase in branch density. The journey from home to a bank in many cases will get much shorter. In some of the districts of Punjab, the bank will truly emerge as a neighbourhood bank, because we are going to have a very high branch density from April,” said Kishora.

Also, the bank is planning to extend “”Green Banking “where customers get to transact at these counters without any need for filling in vouchers etc. Post merger this facility will get strengthened as a result of increased network of GCC enabled branches.

SBP customers would also have much better access to Forex and international banking-related services. The bank says extensive and intensive preparatory work has been carried out to anticipate potential issues and build fixes for them. In many cases, the Branch Heads and the Regional Managers are going to be the same.

He says a larger SBI will compete with other banks. “Private banks are basically seen to be dealing with relatively higher net-worth customers. I am told service charges and penalties (e.g. minimum balance in A/cs etc) in private banks are quite stiff. On the contrary, SBI serves from the bottom of the pyramid to the most sophisticated of the customers. The SBI has launched a new platform called SBI Exclusif. This is likely to be rolled out in our area within this financial year”. Customers on the Exclusif platform can expect the best in-class services and possibly better than what private banks offer, he said.

A much bigger SBI, he says, would be in a better position to help farmers and students. “We are already running ‘one-time settlement schemes to settle dues at very liberal terms. We have also been holding Bank Adalats almost every week.”

Kishora sats the SBI has excellent relations with SBP employees at all levels. “Our chairman (Arundhati Bhattacharya) has written to all SBI employees reiterating the need for welcoming SBP staff with open arms. As the head of the family locally, I would ensure that the same standards of fairness and transparency that are available to SBI employees are extended to our new colleagues.”

He also said that there is no formal plan in place for closing branches. “I do not think we will. As a vibrant bank we keep opening new branches every year. As a part of network optimization, we at times merge branches. So, this optimization is a routine process.”