Grievance Redressal Policy
By
Head Office, Baroda
Customer Service Department
Head Office,
Baroda
Date: 06-11-2015
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GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL POLICY
1.
Introduction
In the present scenario of competitive banking, excellence in customer service
is the most important tool for sustained business growth.
Customer
complaints are part of the business life of any corporate entity. This is more so
for banks because banks are service organizations. As a service organization,
customer service and customer satisfaction is the prime concern of the bank.
The bank believes that providing prompt and efficient service is essential not
only to attract new customers, but also to retain existing ones.
2.
Aim / Objective
This policy document aims at minimizing instances of customer complaints
and grievances through proper service delivery and review mechanism and to
ensure prompt redressal of customer complaints and grievances. The review
mechanism helps in identifying shortcomings in product features and service
delivery. The bank’s policy on grievance redressal follows the under noted
principles.
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Customers be treated fairly at all times
Complaints raised by customers are dealt with courtesy and on time
Customers are fully informed of avenues to escalate their
complaints/grievances within the organization and their rights to alternative
remedy, if they are not fully satisfied with the response of the bank to their
complaints.
Bank will treat all complaints efficiently and fairly as they can damage the
bank’s reputation and business if handled otherwise.
The bank employees must work in good faith and without prejudice to the
interests of the customer.
In order to make bank’s redressal mechanism more meaningful and
effective, a structured system has been built up towards such end. This
system ensures that the redressal sought is just and fair within the
given frame-work of rules and regulation. The policy document would be
made available at all branches. All the employees of the Bank will be
made aware about the Complaint handling process.
3.
Framework
The customer complaint arises due to:
A.
B.
The attitudinal aspects in dealing with customers
Inadequacy of the functions/arrangements made available to the
customers or gaps in standards of services expected and actual
services rendered.
The customer is having full right to register his complaint if he is not satisfied
with the services provided by the bank. He can give his complaint orally/over
telephone, in writing/e-mail and also by way of on-line through our bank’s
web-site. Our bank has also provided Complaint Box, Complaint Register
etc. at all our branches to facilitate the customer to lodge their complaint. In
addition to this, KIOSK, has been provided at all our Zonal Offices/HO.
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If customer’s complaint is not resolved within given time or if he is not satisfied
with the solution provided by the bank, he can approach Banking
Ombudsman with his complaint or other legal avenues available for grievance
redressal.
4.
Internal Machinery to handle Customer complaints/ grievances
4.1
Customer Service Committee of the Board
This sub-committee of the Board would be responsible for formulation of a
Comprehensive Deposit Policy incorporating the issues such as the treatment
of death of a depositor for operations of his account, the product approval
process and the annual survey of depositor satisfaction and the triennial audit
of such services. The Committee would also examine any other issues having
a bearing on the quality of customer service rendered. This Committee would
also review the functioning of Standing Committee on Customer Service.
4.2
Standing Committee on Customer Service
The Standing Committee on Customer Service will be chaired by the
Managing Director/ Executive Director of the bank. Besides two to three
senior executives of the bank, the committee would also have two to three
eminent non-executives drawn from the public as members. The committee
would have the following functions.
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4.3
Evaluate feed-back on quality of customer service received from various
quarters. The committee would also review comments/feed-back on
customer service and implementation of commitments in the Code of
Bank’s Commitments to Customers received from BCSBI.
The Committee would be responsible to ensure that all regulatory
instructions regarding customer service are followed by the bank. Towards
this, the committee would obtain necessary feed-back from Zonal/Regional
Managers/ functional heads.
The committee also would consider unresolved complaints/grievances
referred to it by functional heads responsible for redressal and offer their
advice.
The complaints related to non compliance of the Codes of the Banking
Codes and Standards Board of India and remedial action taken by the
Bank will be put up to the Standing Committee on Customer Services in
their periodical meetings.
The committee would submit report on its performance to the Customer
Service Committee of the Board at quarterly intervals.
Redressal of complaints: Nodal Officer and other designated officials to
handle complaints and grievances.
To enable the customers to voice their grievances or offer suggestions for
improvement in customer service, “Customer Day” is observed at all the
offices of the Bank across the organization covering branches, Regional /
Zonal Offices and Head Office, on 15th of every month ( next day, if 15 th is a
holiday).
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In case of any complaint, the matter may be first brought to the notice of
concerned Branch Manager for immediate redressal. If the complaint is not
redressed to the satisfaction of the customer, the matter may be taken up with
the Regional Manager / Zonal Manager concerned. The Bank has also
nominated concerned Regional Manager as Nodal Officer for handling the
complaint / grievances in respect of the branches under their jurisdiction.
Names and other details of officials at Regional / Zonal office who can be
contacted for redressal of complaints will be displayed on Bank’s website /
branch premises.
Further, a dedicated new vertical viz. Customer Services has been set up at
Head Office, Baroda, under the leadership of Deputy General Manager (Head
– Customer Services) to proactively anticipate the needs/expectations and
also to devise suitable products/services to match them. Moreover, it will help
to handle the complaints more effectively and to reduce the Turn Around Time
(TAT). The name and contact details of Head – Customer Services are given
below:
Shri R K Goyal
Deputy General Manager
(Head – Customer Services)
Bank of Baroda
1st Floor, Suraj Plaza – I
Head Office,
Sayajigunj, Baroda – 390 005
Gujarat – India
Tel: 0265-2307879/2362914
If the complainant still feels unsatisfied with the responses received, he/she
can address the complaint to the bank’s Nodal Officer at Head Office
designated to deal with customers’ complaints / grievance giving full details of
the case on the below mentioned address :
Shri Suhas Paranjape
(General Manager, Operations & Services),
Bank of Baroda,
Head Office, Suraj Plaza-I, 8th floor
Sayajigunj, Baroda – 390 005
Gujarat - India.
Tel. : (0265) 2363001, 2307802
Fax : (0265) 2362914
After exhausting all the above machinery / channels, if the customer is not
satisfied, he/she may write to Managing Director & CEO of the Bank. The
established escalation levels are given below. This escalation system is also
published on our bank’s website.
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Lodging of complaints & Process of Redressal of Complaints:
Levels
Escalation
Branch Level
Particulars
In case of any complaint, the matter may be first brought
to the notice of concerned Branch Manager for
immediate Redressal.
Click here for details of Branch
Level – 1
Online
Complaint
(SPGRS)
Level – 2
Regional
Level
Level – 3
Zonal Level
Alternatively, customer may register complaint online,
for which an icon “Online Complaint (SPGRS)” has been
provided at home page of our bank’s website. Upon
lodging the complaint in SPGRS, the system provides a
“Tracker Id” as an acknowledgement and also to track
the progress of the complaint. Complainant has to
preserve the “Tracker Id” for future reference.
Click here to fill Online Complaint Form
If the complaint is not redressed to the satisfaction of the
customer, the matter may be taken up with the Regional
Manager concerned whose name, address and other
details may be obtained by clicking the link below:
Click here for details of Regional Managers
If still any complaint is not redressed, the matter may be
taken up with the next level i.e Zonal Manager
concerned whose name, address and other details may
be obtained by clicking the link below:
Click here for details of Zonal Managers
Details of Functional Heads of Corporate Centre, for
customer's complaints
Head –
Customer
Services
Level - 4
A dedicated new vertical viz. Customer Services has
been set up at Head Office, Baroda, under the
leadership of Deputy General Manager (Head –
Customer Services) to proactively anticipate the
needs/expectations and also to devise suitable
products/services to match them. Moreover, it will help
to handle the complaints more effectively and to reduce
the Turn Around Time (TAT). The name and contact
details of Head – Customer Services are given below:
Shri R K Goyal
Deputy General Manager
(Head – Customer Services)
Bank of Baroda
1st Floor, Suraj Plaza – I
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Head Office,
Sayajigunj, Baroda – 390 005
Gujarat – India
Tel: 0265-2307879/2362914
e-mail : dgm.cs@bankofbaroda.com
Nodal Office
Level
External Agencies
If the complainant still feels unsatisfied with the
responses received, she/he can address the complaint
to the Bank’s Nodal Officer at Head Office designated to
deal with customers’ complaints / grievance giving full
details of the case on the below mentioned address:
Shri Suhas Paranjape
(General Manager, Operations & Services)
Bank of Baroda,
Head Office,
Suraj Plaza-I, 8th Floor,
Sayajigunj, Baroda - 390 005,
Gujarat - India.
Tel. : (0265) 2363001 – 2307802
Fax : (0265) 2362914
e-mail : gm.ops.ho@bankofbaroda.com
Even after this, if she/he is not satisfied, She/he is free
to take recourse with the Banking Ombudsman located
in State Capitals under RBI Ombudsman Scheme 2006
Click here for details of Nodal Officers of our Bank
for Banking Ombudsman Scheme.
SPGRS :
Our bank is also having an online complaint registration module viz. SPGRS
(Standardized Public Grievance Redress System, which is a centralized web
based grievance redress solution, to enable the complainants to lodge their
grievances in a simple and easy manner through multiple channels. A link has
been provided for Online Complaints/Feedback/ SPGRS in Customer Care
section of our bank’s website.
In the module, upon registering the grievances/complaints, an automatic tracker
id is generated and the same is transmitted to the complainant’s e-mail id. On
the basis of tracker-id, customer is able to know the status of his
complaint/grievance i.e. pending, closed etc. Simultaneously, an alert message
is also sent to the concerned Branch/Office for advance information and
speedy disposal of the grievances, which helps to reduce the Turn Around Time
of the redressal of grievances/ complaints lodged within the time limit stipulated
by RBI. Further, intimation is sent to the complainant on redressal and closure
of his grievance.
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Customers/Non-customers can also lodge their complaints/grievances through
Toll Free telephone numbers at our Contact Centers on the following dedicated
toll free numbers:
18 00 22 33 44 / 18 00 102 44 55
Moreover, an option for “Re-open” the same complaint is also provided within 15
days in the System, if the complainant is not satisfied with the redressal of the
complaint.
5.
5.1
Other Issues
Mandatory display requirements
It is mandatory for the bank to provide:
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5.2
Appropriate arrangement for receiving complaints and suggestions.
The name, address and contact number of Nodal Officer(s) including
Nodal Officers appointed under Banking Ombudsman scheme.
Contact details of Banking Ombudsman of the area.
Code of bank’s commitments to customers.
Names and other details of Managing Director & CEO / Executive
Directors / line of functionaries for various operations.
Resolution of Grievances
The Branch Manager will be responsible for the resolution of complaints/
grievances in respect of customer’s service by the branch. He would be
responsible for ensuring closure of all complaints received at the branches. It
will be his foremost duty to see that the complaint should be resolved
completely to the customer’s satisfaction and if the customer is not satisfied,
then the customer should be provided with alternate avenues to escalate the
issue.
If the Branch Manager feels that it is not possible at his level to solve the
problem, he can refer the case to Regional or Zonal Office for guidance.
Similarly, if Regional or Zonal office finds that they are not able to solve the
problem, such cases may be referred to the Nodal Officer.
The Branch/Regional Office will forward a copy of the complaint, not
redressed within one month to the concerned Nodal Officer under the Banking
Ombudsman Scheme and keep him updated of the status of complaint to
enable the Nodal Officer to provide all information as and when called by the
Banking Ombudsman for speedy disposal of the same.
In case the Bank has rejected the complaint or the complainant had not
received any reply within a period of one month after the bank received his
representation or complainant is not satisfied with the reply given to him,
he/she may lodge complaint with the Banking Ombudsman, whose name &
address is displayed in branches. The Banking Ombudsman scheme is
displayed on our website also.
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5.3
Grievances lodged through the PG Portal
The Govt. of India, Department of Administrative Reforms & Public
Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance & Pension has
introduced a web based mechanism for lodgment of Complaints / Grievances
by Citizens of India which includes Bank customers as well. This is known as
PUBLIC GRIEVANCE PORTAL (www.pgportal.gov.in).
Customers / Public may make use of the said Portal to communicate their
Grievances. Necessary monitoring / redressal mechanisms have been put in
place at Head Office and Regional Office level of the Bank.
5.4
Time frame
The Complaints are seen in the right perspective because they indirectly
reveal a weak spot in the working of the bank. The Complaints received are
analyzed from all possible angles. We shall endeavor to redress the complaint
within 21 days from the date of receipt of the complaint. In case, we require
more time to redress the complaint in respect of exceptional cases, we inform
the same to the customer and an interim reply will be sent. Branch manager
should try to resolve the complaint within specified time frames, decided by
the bank. All complaints will be acknowledged immediately on receipt.
The Branch and Zonal Office will send action taken report on complaints
received to the Head Office at the end of every month.
5.5
Interaction with customers
The bank recognizes that customer’s expectation /requirement /grievances
can be better appreciated through personal interaction with customers by
bank’s staff. Structured customer meets, say once in a month will be
organized to give a message to the customers that the bank cares for them
and values their feed-back / suggestions for improvement in customer service.
Many of the complaints arise on account of lack of awareness among
customers about the bank services and such interactions will help the
customers to appreciate banking services better. Feedback from customers
would be valuable input for revising its product and services to meet customer
requirements of a bank.
5.6
Sensitizing operating staff on handling complaints
The Staff will be properly trained for handling complaints. With an open mind
and a smile on the face of the staff, services will be provided. It would be the
responsibility of the Nodal Officer to ensure that internal machinery for
handling complaints / grievances operates smoothly and efficiently at all
levels. He will be giving feedback on training needs of staff at various levels to
the HR Dept.
6.
Periodicity of Review of the Policy
The Policy will be effective for one year from the date of approval and it will
continue to be in force till the reviewed policy comes into place.
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