Avanti's (my daughter - age 5 years) passport was up for renewal. So, i filled up the application form online, paid online, selected a seva kendra online, and was allotted an appointment online. Very impressive.
Time allotted was bang during her school hours, hence i attempted to change the timing, you are allowed two attempts. The system allotted the same time in both the attempts. So we were back to square one, she had to miss a day at school.
The appointment printout had a few dos and donts which i followed religiously. I also saw a link "documents to be carried" - filled in the required forms, took a printout and felt quite happy that our country has really progressed.
So d-day arrives, Avanti and I reach the passport seva kendra. Since my driving license had my old address i happened to carry my passport; this had the current address. Please note, this was not mentioned in the list of documents or in the appointment printout.
At the appointed hour, we were let into the kendra. All happiness dissolved at this point. There were six counters for scrutinising documents, people would be told "arre yeh document nahi hai, iska photocopy lagao", they would rush to the photocopying counter and then comeback.The usual Indian scene of people jumping all over others to get ahead, three people of a family standing in different queues and then converging into one. So we waited patiently, got to the head of the line, scrutiny done, they asked for my passport, i mentioned it was never asked for, anyway since i had the passport, i gave it to the officer. He asks for a photocopy, then mentions that "wife ka bhi passport lagega, but you can try anyway". Photocopy done, we went back to the top of the line and got the token. This had taken about thirty minutes.
Entered another section to find a nice sitting area with screens displaying counter numbers with token numbers. This was Section A. Avanti was photograhed, finger printed, all documents were scanned, once again i was asked for "wife ka passport". This process took about ten minutes overall. Happiness returned. We were told to go to "B" section.
Happiness evaporated once again, never to return in the next three hours that we spent in Section B. All we did was wait. And wait. And wait. Token numbers were coming up on screens, peoples names were being shouted out, the loudest din was of peoples patience slowly but surely wearing out. B section is the scrutiny section, why one more scrutiny you ask.. ah.. you see the first one was done by TCS staffers, their reign ends at Section A. The scrutiny at Section B is done by sarkaari officials.
Section A has 35 counters, section B has 9. Roadblocks in the process are guaranteed by design. We had to wait for about thirty minutes additional because of lunch time.Here again, all officials left at more or less the same time, no concept of staggered lunch timings. But i must state that they came back in thirty minutes flat.
After about a three hour wait, our token flashed. Documents were scrutinised, and the "wife ka passport" bogey came up again. I said "this is the printout of documents required from your website, it has no mention of any passport of parents, you have asked for form h, which has been submitted". So the lady went it to a huddle with other colleagues, put the blame on TCS for not displaying the requirements on the website and asked me to come back again with the documents. I mentioned my wife's name on my passport, and that the same name was listed under Avanti's passport under mothers name. While the official accepted the logic, the larger committee seemed to have rejected the idea.
Aur ek trip lagega, for no fault of mine, a sarkaari reward for following the process. I am already shuddering at the thought of the hour long drive, the potholes which have to be endured, again for no fault of mine.
Simple things could have avoided this heartburn:
1. they had two opportunities - one on the appointment letter and the other in the documents required section. Original passports of both parents seemed to be a mandatory requirement (only the guard at the gate did not ask for it, everyone else did); it should have been mentioned in the two places.
2. the application scrutiny could have been done by the sarkaari officials or i should have been asked to get the "mandatory" documents. I would have saved three hours of our lives.
3. More counters, it does not take any level of genius to figure out what will happen if 35 counters reduce to 9 at the next level.
4. recovery mechanism - my wife's passport number was mentioned on the app form, all they had to do was look into their dbase and take a printout. They could have asked for her pancard number / aadhar number; these could be verified by database searches.. all these are sarkaari anyway.
5. Minors and senior citizens should be treated differently, they should not be subjected to 3 hour waits. In most cases, these are accompanies by at least one person, thereby adding to the crowds. Separate counters at B and C stage for minors and senior citizens will help ease the stress caused by a large crowd in a packed room.
6. I noticed many "family cases". Again a separate counter for these cases will help in reducing the confusion caused by people standing in different lines.
I heard someone say "pehle accha tha, agent ko diya to kaam khatam". What is the point of online proceses if at the end we have to wade through the same sea of apathy. By and large people don't want to break the rules, they do so when they are faced with a process designed to frustrate them.
Transparency about documents required, queue management, an overall approach to simplify and an innovative mindset to look for alternative solutions are the simple things which can be practiced by any organisation to help in the cause of customer service.
Enough of this gyaan, now to prepare for the next visit...
Time allotted was bang during her school hours, hence i attempted to change the timing, you are allowed two attempts. The system allotted the same time in both the attempts. So we were back to square one, she had to miss a day at school.
The appointment printout had a few dos and donts which i followed religiously. I also saw a link "documents to be carried" - filled in the required forms, took a printout and felt quite happy that our country has really progressed.
So d-day arrives, Avanti and I reach the passport seva kendra. Since my driving license had my old address i happened to carry my passport; this had the current address. Please note, this was not mentioned in the list of documents or in the appointment printout.
At the appointed hour, we were let into the kendra. All happiness dissolved at this point. There were six counters for scrutinising documents, people would be told "arre yeh document nahi hai, iska photocopy lagao", they would rush to the photocopying counter and then comeback.The usual Indian scene of people jumping all over others to get ahead, three people of a family standing in different queues and then converging into one. So we waited patiently, got to the head of the line, scrutiny done, they asked for my passport, i mentioned it was never asked for, anyway since i had the passport, i gave it to the officer. He asks for a photocopy, then mentions that "wife ka bhi passport lagega, but you can try anyway". Photocopy done, we went back to the top of the line and got the token. This had taken about thirty minutes.
Entered another section to find a nice sitting area with screens displaying counter numbers with token numbers. This was Section A. Avanti was photograhed, finger printed, all documents were scanned, once again i was asked for "wife ka passport". This process took about ten minutes overall. Happiness returned. We were told to go to "B" section.
Happiness evaporated once again, never to return in the next three hours that we spent in Section B. All we did was wait. And wait. And wait. Token numbers were coming up on screens, peoples names were being shouted out, the loudest din was of peoples patience slowly but surely wearing out. B section is the scrutiny section, why one more scrutiny you ask.. ah.. you see the first one was done by TCS staffers, their reign ends at Section A. The scrutiny at Section B is done by sarkaari officials.
Section A has 35 counters, section B has 9. Roadblocks in the process are guaranteed by design. We had to wait for about thirty minutes additional because of lunch time.Here again, all officials left at more or less the same time, no concept of staggered lunch timings. But i must state that they came back in thirty minutes flat.
After about a three hour wait, our token flashed. Documents were scrutinised, and the "wife ka passport" bogey came up again. I said "this is the printout of documents required from your website, it has no mention of any passport of parents, you have asked for form h, which has been submitted". So the lady went it to a huddle with other colleagues, put the blame on TCS for not displaying the requirements on the website and asked me to come back again with the documents. I mentioned my wife's name on my passport, and that the same name was listed under Avanti's passport under mothers name. While the official accepted the logic, the larger committee seemed to have rejected the idea.
Aur ek trip lagega, for no fault of mine, a sarkaari reward for following the process. I am already shuddering at the thought of the hour long drive, the potholes which have to be endured, again for no fault of mine.
Simple things could have avoided this heartburn:
1. they had two opportunities - one on the appointment letter and the other in the documents required section. Original passports of both parents seemed to be a mandatory requirement (only the guard at the gate did not ask for it, everyone else did); it should have been mentioned in the two places.
2. the application scrutiny could have been done by the sarkaari officials or i should have been asked to get the "mandatory" documents. I would have saved three hours of our lives.
3. More counters, it does not take any level of genius to figure out what will happen if 35 counters reduce to 9 at the next level.
4. recovery mechanism - my wife's passport number was mentioned on the app form, all they had to do was look into their dbase and take a printout. They could have asked for her pancard number / aadhar number; these could be verified by database searches.. all these are sarkaari anyway.
5. Minors and senior citizens should be treated differently, they should not be subjected to 3 hour waits. In most cases, these are accompanies by at least one person, thereby adding to the crowds. Separate counters at B and C stage for minors and senior citizens will help ease the stress caused by a large crowd in a packed room.
6. I noticed many "family cases". Again a separate counter for these cases will help in reducing the confusion caused by people standing in different lines.
I heard someone say "pehle accha tha, agent ko diya to kaam khatam". What is the point of online proceses if at the end we have to wade through the same sea of apathy. By and large people don't want to break the rules, they do so when they are faced with a process designed to frustrate them.
Transparency about documents required, queue management, an overall approach to simplify and an innovative mindset to look for alternative solutions are the simple things which can be practiced by any organisation to help in the cause of customer service.
Enough of this gyaan, now to prepare for the next visit...
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