Internal Machinery to handle Customer complaints/ grievances in Banks

Customer complaints or any expression of dissatisfaction about a product or service or non-compliance to the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers will be dealt with courteously and within a defined time frame.

The very foundation of an internal dispute resolution system relies on its capacity to provide fair, impartial, and judicious adjudication’

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has several mechanisms to handle customer complaints and grievances, including the Internal Ombudsman (IO) and the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, besides Internal Machinery to handle Customer complaints/ grievances.

Channels of complaints:

Customers can give their complaints in writing, orally, or over the telephone.

Complaint Book / Register:

Complaint books usually with perforated copies in each set shall be available in every Branch to instantly provide an acknowledgment to the customers submitting the paper complaints or emails and intimation to be given to the controlling office.

The bank shall use a complaint book with a uniform format, which shall have an adequate number of perforated copies, which are so designated that the complainant could be given an acknowledged copy instantly while receiving the paper complaints manually. A copy of the complaint shall be forwarded to the concerned controlling offices of the bank along with the remark of the Branch Manager within a time frame.

 Branches shall maintain a separate complaint register in the prescribed format given for entering all the complaints /grievances received by them directly or through their Central Office /Government/ RBI/ BCSBI etc. These registers shall be maintained irrespective of the fact whether a complaint was received or not in the past. The complaints register maintained by branches shall be scrutinized by the concerned Regional Manager during his periodical visit to the branches and his observations/ comments recorded in the relative visit reports. For convenience, our bank shall adopt the aforesaid format and generate copies electronically.

Many Banks also have online registration of grievances. The online grievance system provides a Unique Identification Number to the complainant to track the complaint status and respond to his/her complaint.

Display Requirements:

The bank shall display customer service-related information for making complaints, as under,

• Bank shall display prominently at its branches, the names of the officials who can be contacted for redressal of complaints together with their direct telephone number, complete address (not Post Box No.) and e-mail address, etc., for proper and timely contact by the Customers for enhancing the effectiveness of the redressal machinery.
• Bank shall display at its branches, the names of the officials who can be contacted for redressal of complaints. The same shall also include the name and other details of the concerned Nodal Officer appointed under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006.
•  The bank shall display on its website, the names and other details of the officials at its Central Office/Zonal Offices/ Regional Offices, who can be contacted for redressal of complaints including the names of the Nodal Officers /Principal Nodal Officers.

Customer Service Committee:

Every branch of the bank will establish branch branch-level Customer Committee with greater involvement of customers. The committee will be headed by the Branch Manager and there are 6-7 members including Branch Manager as Chairman of the Committee. Other than the Branch Manager, there will be one officer and one clerk. One sub-staff depending upon the staff strength of the branch and 3/4 non-official members preferably the customers of the branch out of which at least one should be a Senior Citizen. The tenure of the committee will be one year. It will be reconstituted every year

•  The Branch Level Customer Committee shall meet on the 15th of every month and in case the 15th  is a holiday then the meeting will be held on the previous day i.e 14th of the month, to study complaints/ suggestions, cases of delay, difficulties faced/ reported by customers/ members of the committee and it shall evolve ways and means of improving customer service.
• The Branch Level Customer Committee shall also submit monthly reports giving inputs/suggestions to the Regional Office which will submit a consolidated report to the Zonal Office and the Zonal Office, in turn, submit the consolidated report along with its comments to the Operations Department, Central Office to enable them to put before the Standing Committee to examine the reports and provide relevant feedback to the Customer Service Committee of the Board for necessary policy/ procedural action.

Every Bank must constitute a Customer Service Committee at the Apex level, to address issues like the implementation of commitments in the Code of Bank’s Commitments to Customers

 Customer Service Committee of the Board:

The sub-committee of the Board would formulate various deposit & loan policies such as the treatment of the death of a depositor for operations of his account, the product approval process, and the annual survey of customer satisfaction and triennial audit of such services. The Committee would also examine any other issues having a bearing on the quality of customer service rendered d and service issues for the individuals as a borrower as well. The committee would also review the functioning of the standing committee on customer service.

Standing Committee on Customer Service:

The Standing Committee on Customer Service will be chaired by the Managing Director & CEO/ Executive Directors of the bank. Besides two to three Senior Executives of the Bank, the Committee would also have a few non-executives drawn from the public as members. The committee would have the following functions.

• Evaluate feedback on the quality of customer service received from various quarters.

• The committee would also review comments/feedback on customer service and implementation of commitments in the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers received from BCSBI.

• It would also review the feedback report on complaints related to non-compliance with the Code and its redressal.

Nodal Officer and other designated officials to handle complaints and grievances; The Bank has to designate a GM (Operations) posted at its Central Office as Nodal Officer who is responsible for the implementation of customer service and complaints handling for the entire bank. The Bank has also appointed Asst. Regional Managers/ Chief Managers at its Regional Offices as Customer Relation Officers to handle complaints and grievances in respect of branches falling under their control.

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