February 5: The Bank of Bhutan (BOB) observed its first customer service day. Bank Officials say improving customer relations is the top priority in 2008.

The BOB has designated every first and last Monday of the month as Customer service day. Clients of the BOB in Thimphu saw a difference in the service yesterday.

The service was not only faster but there were enough reasons for the customers to believe in the bank’s slogan at BOB we really CARE. Bank Employees behind the counters also received a helping hand from the Management.

BOB says with the advent of a more liberal government policy where even international banks might come into Bhutan, its chance of survival in the market depends on the company carving out a strategy that will position itself once again as the leading financial institution in the country.

BOB says most urgent is the need for immediate improvement in the customer services where the public’s confidence in the bank has fallen to an all time low.

The BOB’s Managing Director, Kinga Tshering said "the entire change is in term of the attitude of everybody of us who are working here in the bank. Now we feel that we have to reach out to our customers, we have to make sure that they are satisfied in whatever services they require.

Apart from some of the minor changes in the lay out, the main change we see here is in how to internalize the basic customer services and as you can see actually on the board, customer service is something we want to make very concrete, that’s why we have CARE, C for customer, A for acquisition that is to get new customer come and bank with us, R for retention , so those customers who are already with us we want to keep them with us and provide them services and then E stands for enhancement of services which means in addition to all the services that they are getting just now we also want provide them with extra services in terms for whether it be loan, financial transaction and whatever services they require we want to keep on adding on that , so they will be happy and we will be keeping our customer satisfied."

The company’s secretary, Bimla Gurung who has been working with bank for last 26 years says the bank has been losing its clients and market shares for the last few years.

"Now under the new management, under the new board we are making every effort to improve our service delivery system, initially we will be looking into customer care and then we will move into products and services," she said.

As Bank Officials distributed survey forms and applications ATM cards, Bank Customers spoke to BBS. Most said they welcomed the change of attitude that took over the staffs in the teller

BOB started with 20 account holders when it was established in 1968. Today, it has 150,000 account holders.