Improvement in service

I wrote to my bank to suggest that they should allow the customer to enter a reference number for an ATM funds transfer. This will allow the recipient of the funds to know the party who has made the transfer.

The bank acknowledged my suggestion but did not give me any reply for several weeks. This type of poor communication is quite common in Singapore.

I sent a reminder to the service quality manager. She replied that the bank is now studying the technical feasibility of providing a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen of the ATM.

I suggested that they should just implement the numeric input, which just involves a simple change to the software and is quite easy and inexpensive to implement. There is no need to make any hardware modification to the ATM machine and can be done with ATM machines that do not have a touch screen. It will probably meet the needs of most people involved in the funds transfer.

It is better to look for simple and inexpensive ways to implement improvements. There is no need to spend a lot of money or time to make comprehensive and complex changes. They should also learn to call and talk to the customer, rather than work independently to find their own solutions.

Tan Kin Lian