Snobbish bloggers and customer relations

I did not have much to write today but got into writing because of a peculiar incident that happened right now. I had been going through some random blogs during my free time for the last few days and came across some really interesting ones in the process. I kept myself to reading the blog posts and not commenting anything on any post probably because these people were so very unknown to me. Yesterday however, I broke my rule and actually went ahead and commented on one of the blogs. I really liked the way the author used an in-your-face (or no-nonsense, as that author says) style in the blog posts and commented about the feasibility of using the same in real life.

All is well till this part but things came to a head this morning when I came to office and just checked the blog to see if there was any answer to my comment. Lo and behold! I find that my comment has been removed and in addition to the answer to my comment, there is another comment by the author which mentions how the author does not like the blog to be used as a publicity vehicle and if I want, I can re-post my comment without the unnecessary links. For a moment, I failed to understand what link was the author talking about and then it came to me that it was my blog link that I had left on the comment to let the author know who I am and where I am from. For God's sake, publicity for my blog is the last thing that I would want, especially after the problems that I have faced because of this so-called publicity.

Of all the snobbish and self-obsessed acts, this one takes the cake. I was so pissed off that I immediately fired a rather mild but yet inconsistent-with-my-ways comment on the blog. Though I did follow it up with a peace message as soon as I cooled off a little, but I must say that this episode has taught me some things. First of all, that you should not meddle into affairs that you know nothing of...next, that you can be misunderstood on the slightest of pretexts...more over, that there are people who have a way of thinking that is so different from your own and between such people and you, there just can not be any semblance of reason...and finally, that it does not matter a damn, each one to his/her own.

I went to the ICICI Bank yesterday and got my internet banking user-id from them. They do have a better system now and when my call got transferred to the specialized officer, the good part was that the specialized officer already knew about my problem and I did not have to go over it yet again. However, the bank staff remain as apathetic to the concept of customer service and relations as they used to be. Just because the bank has been more successful than the others because of being the first mover, they should not be complacent and let the Citis and the HSBCs get away with the booty through some good customer relation skills.

There were quite a few steps taken to improve the customer service in the past at ICICI Bank, with feedback forms asking for the way the customer was greeted and so on. I just hope that the spirit continues to exist and the letter is carried out in action. I know that I am sounding as if I am being grand-motherly towards the ICICI Bank but being their customer for the last three years, I have seen so many changes and I wish the bank well.

I had some meetings yesterday and today at work promises to be some more of those and a bit on the presentation side, too. I think that I will be too busy to read any more blogs today and that should be good for me.