SERVICE MARKETING

(A CASE STUDY OF NORTHERN RAILWAY)

DR. DALBIR SINGH KAUSHIK

Email id- kaushikdalbir@yahoo.com

The Indian Railways has emerged today as the main vehicle for socio-economic development of
the country. It is also one of the largest systems in the world. It contributes to India's economic
development, accounting for about one per cent of the GNP. It accounts for six per cent of the
total employment in the organized sector directly and an additional 2.5 per cent indirectly
through its dependent organizations. The Indian Railways, with nearly 63,000 route kilometres
fulfils the country's transport needs, particularly, in respect of long-distance passenger and
goods traffic. Indian railways run 7,500 passenger trains carry nearly 12 million passengers
every day. The present research tries to know the types and nature of services marketed and how
Northern Railway can improve its services to Cater the needs of customers/rail user’s by
matching with its service/product offered by it. The service sector if marketed in a right
direction contributes substantially to the process of economic development. The facts and figures
from the field survey reveals that respondent to the tune of 55.6% are very much satisfied and 24
% of the respondent are not satisfied with the services/ products provided by Northern Railway.
Key Words: Northern Railway, Economic Development, Service Sector,

Introduction

The Liberalization, privatization and globalization era has opened new areas for the
development of service generating organizations. The intensity of competition is found moving
upward. The service sector if marketed in a right direction contributes substantially to the
process of growth of development. The speed of socio-economic transformation can be increased
sizably if the innovative marketing strategies are practiced. In the years to come the service
sector would get a conducive environment with profitable opportunities. If we market the
services in a right direction the available opportunities can be capitalized optimally.
______________________________________________________________________________
*Associate Professor, Deptt.of Commerce, Gaur Brahmin Degree College, M.D.
University, Rohtak-124001 Haryana (India)

1
 In the field of marketing four 4 Ps represent the seller’s perspective & from buyer’s
prospective, each marketing tool is defined to deliver a Customer’s. benefit. The Service
provider corresponds to customer’s 4Ps are Customer Solution, Customer Cost, Customer
Convenience and Customer Communication. But Now a days, many developments have taken
place in transport industry. So the service sector if marketed in a right direction contributes
substantially to the process of development. The speed of Socio-Economic transformation can be
increased sizably if the innovative marketing principles are practiced.

Significance of the study

The number of developments have taken place in transport industry now a days. Growth
and developments in Indian Railways are moving very fast specially in the Northern Railway.
Modernization and technological up-gradation of its services have made the Northern Railway to
occupy the prime place in the Indian Railways. The present research tries to know the types and
nature of services marketed and how Northern Railway can improve its services to Cater the
needs of customers/rail users by matching with its service/product offered by it. The study on
Service marketing of Northern Railway is designed to focus attention on the users/customers and
the organizers with regards to product planning, promotional strategies, pricing strategies,
distribution channels, physical evidence, customer’s preference structure & the service
personnel. The present survey can help the Northern Railway for improving the service quality
and the level of services provided by it.

 Northern Railway has been able to know more and more about the application of
marketing strategies to its services, for the purpose of attaining the organizational
objectives.
 The Northern Railway will be able to distinguish its strengths and weaknesses and there-
by reduce its weaknesses.
In this survey, the researcher tried to give suitable recommendations for the application of
marketing strategies to the application of marketing of Northern Railway. He also tried to show
the practical and scientific solutions for improving the services marketing of Northern Railway.

2
The main emphasis of this study is on the application of marketing strategies to Northern
Railway services and evaluation of services marketing.
Objective of this Study
 To identify the customer needs, expectations and problem of services offered by the
Northern Railway.
 To know the pattern of services availed by the public at large.
 To find out the dissatisfied customers, so that better services recovery can be attempted.
 To evaluate the strategies adopted by the Northern Railway in improving the services
offered.

Scope and Limitation of the study

The demand and expectations of customers are increasing day by the day. The Indian
Railways are expected to and are trying to make all efforts to reach the Northern side of the
Country to cater the needs of customers particularly in rural areas. The scope of the study does
not permit the inclusion of all Zones. Therefore scope of the study is limited to Northern Railway
Zone only.

Research methodology

The research study is based on the data collected by research investigator from primary
and secondary sources. The primary sources of data include data collection through structured
interview schedule, personal observation and formal discussion with the rail users in the
Northern zones such as Rohtak, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra and Ambala.

Sample size

Sr. No. Area Sample Size

1 Rohtak 100
2 Panipat 100
3 Karnal 100
4 Kurukshetra 100
5 Ambala 100
Total 500

3
 This is exploratory and analytical case study. 500 Customers/Rail Users from different
classes of People such as Students, Businessman, Agriculturists, and employees were selected
from the Northern Area of the Country such as Rohtak, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra and
Ambala. The secondary sources of data includes reports published by Northern Railways,
General Manager’s Annual Reports, Indian Railway Annual Reports, Year Books, Magazine,
pamphlets and other publications by the Zonal Office. The data is also extracted from the
Railway Section’s Officers of Northern Railway.

Table 1: Showing different Railway Zones of Indian Railway.

Sr. Name Abb. Established Route H.Q Divisions

No. KMs
1 Central CR 1951 3905 Mumbai Mumbai, Bhusawal,
Railway Pune Solapur, Nagpur
2 Eastern ER 1952 2435 Kolkata Howrah, Sealdah,
Railway Asansol, Malda
3 North NER 1952 3712 Gorakhpur Izzantnagar, Lucknow,
Eastern Varansi
Railway
4 Northern NR 1952 6968 Delhi Delhi, Ambala,
Railway Firozpur, Lucknow,
Moradabad
5 Southern SR 1951 5098 Chennai Chennai,
Railway Tiruchirappalli,
Madurai, Palakkad,
Salem
6 Western WR 1951 6440 Mumbai Mumbai Central,
Railway Ratlam, Ahmedabad,
Rajkot, Bhavnager,
Vadodara
Source: Ministry of Railway, Indian Railway’s year Book.

4
 Table No. 2 showing the demographic profile of respondents.
(Total No. of Respondents = 500, i.e.100%)

Demographic Categories Freq. %age

Variable
15-20 years 80 16
21-25 years 135 27
Age 26-35 years 189 37.8
36-45 years 71 14.2
46-55 years 15 3
Over 55 years 10 2
Male 186 37.2
Gender Female 314 62.8
Secondary School or Lower 104 20.8
High School 92 18.4
Education Diploma 212 42.4
Certificate 48 9.6
Bachelor 28 5.6
Master or Higher 36 7.2
Student 126 25.2
Under graduate 129 25.8
Occupation Employee/Private 183 36.6
Company Employee 20 4
Government Employee/Official/State 42 8.4
Less than 5000 230 46
5000-10000 94 18.8
10000-15000 56 11.2
Income 15000-20000 38 7.6
20000-25000 28 5.6
25000-30000 32 6.4
More than 30000 22 4.4
Source: Personal/Field Survey.

Table: 3 Showing Service Satisfactions

Opinions Number %
Very Much Satisfied 278 55.6
Not Satisfied 120 24.0
Can’t Say 102 20.4
Total 500 100
Source: Personal/ field survey

5
 Table 4: Showing Level of awareness

Sr.no Attributes Aware Not Total

(%) aware (%)
(%)
1 Accommodation 171 34.2 329 (65.8) 500(100)
2 Tour Package 120 24 380 (76) 500(100)
3 Catering Service including Rail Neer 289 57.8 211 (42.2) 500(100)
4 Facilities to disabled passengers 67 13.4 433 (86.6) 500(100)
5 Pilgrim special tourist train 59 11.8 441 (88.2) 500(100)
6 Customized Package 104 20.8 396 (79.2) 500(100)
7 National train enquiry system (NTES) 302 60.4 198 (39.6) 500(100)
8 The software aided train scheduling and Network 42 8.4 458 (91.6) 500(100)
governance(SAT Sa NG)
9 Passenger reservation system (PRS) 329 65.8 171 (34.2) 500(100)
10 Unreserved Ticketing system (UTS) 272 54.4 228 (45.6) 500(100)
Source: Personal/ field survey

Table 5 Showing problems faced by the respondents

Sr.no Nature of Problem No. of Respondent

1 Lack of adequate Knowledge 461
2 Technological complexities 502
3 Financial risk/Frauds 497
4 Weak support system 468
5 Non caring attitude of employees 558
6 Miscellaneous 639
Source: Personal/ field survey

(Total number of respondents exceeds more than 500 because some of the respondents
cited more than one problem faced by them.)

Statement of the Problem

There has been a phenomenal growth in the movement of men, machine and materials.
The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are witnessing radical changes. The product
development strategy would make possible equilibrium between the transportation, demand and
supply. Transport facilities help greatly in widening the size of the market. The widening of the
size of the market rests on the creation of a network of transport and communication. In a
developing country like India, it is very much significant that policy decisions are made keeping
in view the needs and requirements of both general customers and the industrial users.

6
Findings of the study

The Northern Railway has been acknowledged as one of the best zone of Indian
Railways. Yet it suffers from many deficiencies revealed from the study in some sectors which
are as follows:

 The project investigator has found that the rail users are the least awarded persons
as far as the pilgrim’s special tourist train (88.2%) and the software aided train
scheduling and network governance (91.6%) is concerned.
 The investigator has found that catering services (52.8%) and the personal
reservation (65.8%) is the most awared service among the rail users.
 The facts and figures from the field survey reveal that facilities to disabled
passenger provided by northern railway is familiar among rail users ie 13.4%
respondents are awared while 86.6 % of the respondents are not awared about
this facility.
 The respondents to the tune of 55.6% are very much satisfied and 24 % of the
respondents are not satisfied with the services provided by northern railway.
 The study reveals that the non- carying attitude of the employees (558),
technological complexities (502) and financial frauds (497) is the most common
problems faced by the rail users.
 Most of the advertisement of Northern railway is focused on special themes but it
needs to lay more stress service delivery aspect.
 The Northern Railway is more products oriented than customer oriented.
Marketing is peripheral activity and the commercial department is engaged
limited up to selling products.
 The promotional method adopted to convey the availability of various services is
inadequate to persuade the rail users.
 Inadequate delegation of power and concentration of authority with the Ministry
and railway board are serious drags on speedy and efficient disposal of services.
 There is deficiency in customer service skills among the personnel at the enquiry
counters.
 Costumer -focus is missing and customer satisfaction is not and organizational
mission and vision.
 There is discrepancy between service delivery and service promises made.
 The advertisement released by Northern Railway is neither attractive nor creative
enough concerned messages, appeals and slogans to become effective in
informing serving and persuading the rail users.
 Although ‘Clean train stations’ has been launched to provide mechanized
cleaning to passing through trains during their halts but this is still inadequate of
en-route cleaning of trains.

7
  Lack of punctuality of mail/ express trains (arriving at destinations) inspite of
having computer based on- line system for analyzing the punctuality performance.

Recommendations

The following are some major recommendations based on the research investigation and
personal enquiry notes:-

 Passengers reservation system(PRS) may be provided to many more location/ stations

 More accommodation facilities be arranged for rail users.
 A Major thrust to improve the catering facilities provided by Northern Railway as the rail
users are making a number of complaints for under nutritious and low quality food.
 The Northern railway should put stress more on advertising related pilgrims special train
as this facility is the least awared among the respondents.
 More and more enquiry counters should be opened with skilled personnel to guide the
rail users properly.
 Decentralization policy should be adopted by the Northern Railway to settle the disputes
on the spot faced by the rail users.
 WI-FI facilities be provided free of cost at the prominent places as well as in specific
coaches/Train.
 Frequency of trains be increased on those routes where the mobility of the passenger is
more.
 Integrate the supportive function i.e. catering, selling of publications, vending at railway
platforms into high performance core processes.
 The railways, in view of severe financial crunch, must explore the possibility of attracting
direct foreign investment and joint ventures similar to Konkan Railways.
 The railway should develop an efficient professionally managed system particularly in
areas concerning passenger’s safety measures, welfare measures etc.
 With a view to provide better passenger amenities, the outlay in the budget may be
enhanced.
 It is also imperative for the northern to practice “Bench- Marketing” in order to sharpen
its marketing strategy.
 The Indian railways adopt the Kaizen strategy, which links the human resources strategy
to the business strategy for developing their employee as winning employees.
 The Northern Railway should adopt the marketing concepts rather than merely service-
orientation so that the Northern Railway may be come customer-focused organization.

8
References
1. Amba Prasad, “ Indian Railways”- A study of Public Utility Administration, Asia
Publishing House, Bombay, 1960.
2. South Central Railway General Manager’s Annual Report 1998-99.
3. Ministry of Railways, Indian Railways yearbook 1989-90 to 1999-2000.
4. Jagit Singh, “The Story of our Railways”, National Book Trust of India, New Delhi,
1989.
5. Kosteck M.M.(ed.), “Marketing Strategies for services” ,Oxford: Pergmon Press, 1994.
6. Krishna Mohan V., “Services Marketing – A study of Marketing Operations of Indian
Railways”, Ph.D. Thesis, Andhra University, Waltam, 1992.
7. www.http://cris.org
8. www.irctctourism.com/egi-bin/dev1.dll/irctic/services/vatServicesNTerms.do
9. www.indianrail.gov.in
10. indianrail.gov.in /pnr/enq.html
11. https:/irctc.co.in
12. www.cleartrip.com/m/trains
13. indianrailinfo.com