BSNL/ICICI - Addendum to the Previous Blog

In India, ICICI enjoys almost a monopoly. For instance, in my hometown - Nellore, there are five ICICI ATMs and not a single CITIBANK ATM... forget about HSBC and ABN AMRO.

Also, I am tied to ICICI because of a corporate agreement my company has with this bank. (They bought our software!)

And about BSNL, I know it is a government monster. However it still is the cheapest and is the de facto standard for Address Proofs etc. If you quote your BSNL phone number, a number of approvals come automatically. I cannot take an Airtel landline bill to the Gas Agency for instance as an address proof.

Also, BSNL Post Paid is the best cellular service in the country especially if you roam a lot. They have Penuballi - a small village which does not have a bus stop and which is amidst a jungle near Nellore - covered by BSNL Mobile. :)

I am not blaming those organizations. For all it takes, they are good options to consider. It is the red tape I am complaining about.

For instance, if they can automate their workflow process and provide a single window counter for everything so that I could just take everything to the counter and get things done in about an hour. That is called customer focus. These organizations have the goods and are able to deliver but are reluctant to change. However the situation is much better now than it was five years ago. (I had to wait only for about a week to get a new landline connection from BSNL in Bangalore. - Read about it in my next blog. Of course it also has an interesting plot.)

The ICICI incident perhaps is one-off. I've never had any bad experience with them except once before when they took nearly three years and thirty six reminders to send me my debit card.

However what I don't like about ICICI is the lack of ownership... lack of that One-Organization feeling among its employees. "That's Infinity's problem sir. We don't know anything about it. You have to get it clarified from your Accounts Manager." This really gets on to my nerves. As a customer, to me - they are all part of that huge ICICI umbrella.

For instance, in the US, I can just call up Wells Fargo and the first CSI I talk to - will solve my problem whatever it is... Be it a credit card issue or an overdraft question or MS Money setup.

The irony is that these private sector companies in India assume that they are much better than the public sector ones and so they don't have to delight their customers. Last week I bought a wireless internet browsing starter pack from SIFY and when the username and password did NOT arrive by email as stated, I called up the customer support person. His response had me in splits.

What Wireless? Which wireless? Sriram, Wireless elli ide?

And this is after I got redirected by 13 customer service representatives.

Indians have a long way to go before they can talk about leading India into the league of developed nations.

I haven't yet experienced BSNL Broadband. I could not. Will discuss it in detail in the next blog.