Customer Service for Mutual Fund
The marketing of service is significantly influenced by the quality of service and the interpersonal relationship between customers and the service organization. Servicing has great significance in mutual funds, as in any other financial service industry. Prompt and timely service as in issuing certificates/cheques and in attending to any customer problem would make a distinct difference. Expected rates of return being more or less same for all schemes, it is the quality of service that becomes the deciding factor. Services can be provided through external agencies, or internally through the service department. In India most mutual funds provide after-sales service through both external agencies and internal service department, although they largely rely on external agencies like registrars and transfer agents who are specialized in the job. Sometimes there are complaints that after-sales servicing are not up to the expectation level. This is probably due to absence of sufficient staff. However, mutual funds do need to develop in-house expertise to render after-sales services more promptly and cost effectively.
In order to ensure quality service to customers, service audit would be great help to monitor the range of services usually rendered by mutual funds. These are sales-related, complaint-related and suggestions-related services. Service standards can be fixed on the basis of expectations levels of customers, which can be found through market surveys.
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