Videos about understaffing at most of the branches of Jammu & Kashmir Bank have gone viral on social media sites and as such public perceptions about the working of the bank are changing fast across Jammu & Kashmir. Interestingly retirement of about 500 staffers from the bank amid no fresh recruitment initiative for filling the vacant positions created by retirements and the launch of new bank branches within and outside Jammu & Kashmir during last one year is a pointer to the fact that manpower requirements are unprecedentedly rising year after year in the Jammu & Kashmir Bank. Though profitability proves detrimental for the growth of any bank and same holds good for the Jammu & Kashmir Bank but it is also a fact that customer satisfaction obviously coming under stress due to delays in fresh recruitments for filling the vacant positions created by retirements has a huge bearing on profitability of the bank as well. While delays in recruitments consequently brings the bank under the stress of understaffing, the understaffing in itself brings under tremendous stress the customer services in any bank and same holds good for Jammu & Kashmir Bank. So by all standards of understandabilities compromising recruitments is tantamount to compromising customer services and more so when it comes to recruitments for filling the vacant positions created by retirements during last one year. Unfortunately customer services have come under such a tremendous stress in J&K Bank that ATM guards are asked to do the jobs of clerks and cashiers at most of the bank branches in both Kashmir Valley and as well as Jammu division. While the facility of two guards has been reduced to just one at most of the ATMs across Jammu & Kashmir, many ATMs haven’t the facility of even a single guard in both Kashmir Valley and Jammu division and this is obviously the cause for increasing vulnerability of J&K Bank ATMs to attempts of robberies more in rural areas of Jammu & Kashmir than cities and towns .
“While disruptions in the digital banking payment system is a huge inconvenience to customers of J&K Bank which fast reduces the levels of customer satisfaction, the understaffing at the bank branches resulting in unprecedented delays in cash transactions at the counters doubles the intensity of customer inconveniences. For a bank, reducing the customer satisfaction is tantamount to reducing the business which if not contained and controlled well in time would cosequently spoil the banking at the Jammu & Kashmir Bank”.
Though like all other Public Sector Banks the Jammu & Kashmir Bank too has shifted to digitised customer services with the adoption of digital banking tools but the online transactions systems often develop technical snags and go on suspension modes not for hours but for days together and one such glaring example is the frequent crashing of mpay app month after months and week after week. While the digital banking payment systems of J&K Bank have become unpredictable because of their frequent shut downs, the customers are forced to report at the bank branches for availing the facilities of conventional payment systems but here shortage of staff not only brings under stress the usual banking payment practices but also causes inconvenience to the visitors forced to line up in long queues to wait for hours together. Grievances are galore the people reporting for banking business at most of J&K Bank Branches around 10:00 A.M don’t think about leaving the last bank encounter before 1.00 P.M in the afternoon as they even don’t find any space to stand in front of different counters of the bank. Be it the counter for withdrawal or for cash deposit due to staff crunch a single customer has to wait at least for three hours and the queue becomes serpentine making others to wait for hours together. Huge rush of visitors makes the task of the employees of the bank tougher at the branches which cater to the banking needs of dozens of villages. Though convenience of customers lies in their choice for digital payment solutions but what matters the most for the customers is easy access to accounts and more secure banking via digital platforms. While disruptions in the digital banking payment system is a huge inconvenience to customers of J&K Bank which fast reduces the levels of customer satisfaction, the understaffing at the bank branches resulting in unprecedented delays in cash transactions at the counters doubles the intensity of customer inconveniences. For a bank, reducing the customer satisfaction is tantamount to reducing the business which if not contained and controlled well in time would cosequently spoil the banking at the Jammu & Kashmir Bank.
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