NISCHAY SINHA

THE BEGINNING

First in India in 1853 from Bombay to Thana.

In 1853, first railway train journeyed distance of 22 miles between Bombay to Thane.

Originally operated by private companies Englishmen.

1925-1950 GOI took over all the private railway companies.

ABOUT INDIAN RAILWAYS

Indian Railways is more than 150 years old.

It is largest railway in the world under one management.

It is the lifeline of our country.

It is the biggest employer in the world (around 14,06,430).

No strikes in last 30 years inspite of 14 lakh workers.

SOME FACTS ABOUT IR

The total route length of Indian railway is approximately 63,000 kms.

-The first electric train was opened in February 1925 on Mumbai suburban railway on Mumbai Victoria Terminus (VT) –Kurla branch line.

-As on 31st march, 2004 the electrified route was 17,503 kms.

-The Indian railway largest in the Asia and second largest in the world after the USSR.

-The total number of railway station in India is more then 7,000.

-The Indian railway operates approximately 7,525 trains' daily covering 7,031 railway stations.

SERVICE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

Service marketing environment of Indian railways can be scanned by considering six major environmental forces, like demographic, economic, socio- cultural, natural, technological and political legal. As demographic environment consists of the age mix of population, literacy and education level. Economic environment consists of income distribution of different people. Socio- cultural environment consists of influence of religion, languages and customes that shapes the values and attitudes of customer preferences, habits and behavior.

SERVICE MIX

Place (distribution) –

-service delivery point

-Stations, city booking agencies, out agencies

-places should be customer friendly.

-places should be well maintained.

Products-

-Rajdhani, Shatabdi trains

-Janshatabdi trains

-Long distance mail and express trains

-Unreserved passenger trains

-Commuter suburban Trains

-Millennium Parcel trains

Promotion -

-Each Product features to be communicated to customer in that segment using suitable media.

-advertising

-personal selling

-publicity

-sales promotion

Physical evidences –

-A Reserved Ticket

-Cheque Book

Process -

-Process Exist are complex on railways like some processes are:

-Reservation process/ refund process / claim process.

-Communication process.

People –

-Service personal

-Customers

-Careful selection and training

Customer requirement and customer expectation

- Booking from abroad is a bit difficult affair if you are totally new to the whole scheme of things. Through Internet you can directly book most of the trains

-All ‘A' and ‘B' category stations to be made model stations.

- Modern facility such as ATM, cyber cafes etc. to be provided at all major stations.

SERVICE FAILURE

Delayed trains

Lack of safety

Poor IRCTC service

SERVICE RECOVERY STRATEGIES

Improving the after sales services.

Admit and apologies.

Rectification of any error

Compensate

Minor performance lapse need monitoring

QUALITY CONCERN

Quality means watching the services from customer prospective.

The main quality concern of Indian railways are

To provide hygienic condition inside the trains.

Avoiding as much as possible the delay in the trains schedule.

Safely is also one of the concern for Indian railways.

Improving the infrastructure to world class level of standards.

Integrated gap model of service quality

The central focus of gap model is the customer gap, the difference between customer expectations and perceptions

GAP 1

Not knowing what customer expect .ie what are the expectation of customer of Indian railways. which can be due to inadequate marketing research.

GAP 2

Not selecting the right service design and standards. Indian railways have a good service design but not reached to that level of standards to meet all customer expectations.

GAP 3

Not delivering to service designs and standards. This can be due to deficiency of human resource policy of Indian railways.

And may be due to failure in meeting supply and demand. Because of the huge population of India.

GAP 4

Not matching performance to promises. This can be due to lack of integrating services marketing communication and ineffective management of customer expectation by Indian railways.

Pricing of services by IR

Fares on Indian railways across categories are among the cheapest in the world. In the past few years, despite a recessionary environment, the Indian railways has not raised fares on any class of service. On contrary there is a minor dip in fares in some categories. Ticketing services is available at all major and minor railway stations across India.

In this way, Indian railway has set the prices according to different facilities given in different compartments.

THANK YOU