RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

ON

A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF CUSTOMER

SATISFACTION TOWARDS TICKETING SERVICES IRCTC
SESSION :( 2015-2016)

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Dr A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM UNIVERSITY

(NMBA 045)
SUBMITTED TO:
MR..GAURAV SAXENA

SUBMITTED BY:
PREETI NARANG
MBA:IV SEM

FUTURE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

AND TECHNOLOGY,BAREILLY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a subsidiary

of the Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing
operations of the railways.
Tourism industry in India is on a great boom at the moment. India has
tremendous potential to become a major global tourist destination and Indian
tourism industry is exploiting this potential to the hilt. Travel and tourism
industry is the second highest foreign exchange earner for India, and the
government has given travel & tourism organizations export house status.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. has been set up by
the Ministry of Railways with the basic purpose of hiving off entire catering
and tourism activity of the railways to the new Corporation so as to
professionalize and upgrade these services with public-private participation.
Rail based Tourism in India will be the specific vehicle for achieving high
growth in coordination with state agencies, tour operators, travel agents and
the hospitality industry. A dynamic marketing strategy in association with
public and private agencies, tour operators, transporters, hoteliers and local
tour promoters is on the anvil. Indian Railways span global volumes in
hospitality and catering sectors with services provided to 13 million

passengers everyday.
In this project we tried to identify the service delivery mechanisms adopted
by the IRCTC. As it is the only player in the online railway ticket
reservation, we have done an intensive research in the areas of technology,
demand supply, customer satisfaction and their involvement in making the
Government subsidiary a leading player in the tourism and online ticketing.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers the various aspects of strategies which help in determining
the Service offerings and analysis of this industry.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of
Services Marketing at IRCTC. In the light of this primary objective, the

following sub-objectives are set.

To review the historical aspects of IRCTC and its growth.
To know the position of the E-Commerce industry as a whole
in the world as well as in INDIA.
To identify the service and technology needed in IRCTC.
To assess the purpose and uses of effective service and
technology.
To study and analyze the further steps to be taken after
doing the necessary analysis of IRCTC.
To evaluate various techniques or operations followed in this
regard.
To know how mutuality it will increase and strengthen the
relationship between each employee and customers.
To know the commitment of the employees towards the
organization with the Companys policies.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research is an art of scientific investigation. Research comprises defining
and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions,
collecting, organizing and evaluating data, making deduction and reaching
conclusions and at last carefully testing the conclusion to determine whether
they formulating hypothesis.
Methodology: The Study is about the Services Marketing Strategies in an

Organization. It deals with the title of the study, need of the study, objectives
& Scope of study.
Title of the Study: The study is titled as Report on Services Marketing at
IRCTC, Hyderabad.
Data is collected from primary and secondary sources.
Collection of the data is of primary importance in the research process. Data
which is collected for the purpose of research helps in proper analysis which
is helpful to conduct research effectively. The data source, which is very
important in the collection of data, is primary data and secondary data.
Both primary and secondary data are taken into consideration for the study
by the strategies followed by IRCTC.
Primary Data: This consists of original information gathered for specific
purpose. The normal procedure is by interacting with the people individually
and/ or in a group, to get the required data.
Secondary Data: This consists of the information that already exists
somewhere, either in some Annual Records or Magazines etc, having been
collected for other purpose. Here the researcher has both primary as well as
secondary data.
Survey Approach:
The questionnaire was administered through direct contact with respondents.

1. Sampling Technique:
The study covers a sample of employees of IRCTC Ltd. The Respondents
were selected on a Sample Random basis from the following categories of
the employees,
a) Senior managers
b) Deputy Managers
c) Junior Officers
d) Assistants

Sampling Procedure: The sampling method used is Random Sampling. This

sampling Method is used because the respondents were selected randomly.
The sampling unit selected mostly from Executives and non executives.

E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA

The cutting edge for business today is e-commerce. Most people think e-commerce
means online shopping. But web shopping is only a small part of the picture. The
term also refers to online stock, bond transactions, buying and downloading

software without ever going to a store. In addition, e-commerce includes business

to business connections that make purchasing easier for big corporations.
E-commerce is generally described as a method of buying and selling products and
services electronically. The main vehicle of e-commerce remains the Internet and
the World Wide Web, but use of e-mail, fax and telephone orders is also prevalent.
Electronic commerce is the application communication and information sharing
technology among trading partners to the pursuit of business objectives. Ecommerce can be defined as modern business methodology that addresses the
needs of the organization, merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving
the quality of goods and services and speed of service delivery. E-commerce is
associated with the buying and selling of information, products, and services via
computer networks. A key element of e-commerce is information processing.

The effects of e-commerce are already appearing in all areas of business, from
customer service to new product design. It facilitates new types of information
based business processes for reaching and interacting with customers-online
advertising and marketing, online, order taking and online customer service etc. It
can also reduce costs in managing orders and interacting with a wide range of
suppliers and trading and trading partners, areas that typically add significant
overheads to the cost of products and services.

E-commerce industry has touched 9210 crore, online classifieds: 820 crores, online
travel: 7000 crores (30% jump from Rs 7,080 crore in 07) as per the survey
conducted by the IAMAI and IMRB
Online Travel Industry: growth rate of 30% to Rs 7,000 crore by end FY09 (from
5500 crores in 08)
Online Classifieds: reached Rs 820 crore by end FY08
Online retailing/auction (eTailing): Rs 1,105 crore industries by end FY09 (from
Rs 850 crore in FY08.
Digital downloads (i.e. downloading from Internet to mobiles using wap phones or
web) and paid content (research/exclusive videos/articles etc) for the rest of 285
crores.
The major triggers of e-commerce in India were:
Saves time and efforts
Convenience of shopping at home
Wide variety / range of products are available
Good discounts / lower prices
Get detailed information of the product
You can compare various models / brands
Some of the major barriers at present were:
Not sure of product quality

Cannot bargain/Negotiate
Not sure of security of transactions / Credit card misuse
Need to touch and feel the product
Significant discounts are not there
Have to wait for delivery

ECOMMERCE GROWTH:
During the year 2008-2009, two major Industry Associations produced separate
reports on e-commerce in India. Both the reports came out around the same time,
namely June-July 2009. One was prepared by the National Committee on ECommerce set up the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), while the other was
commissioned by the NASSCOM and prepared by the Boston Consulting Group.
Both the reports are optimistic about the growth of e-commerce in India. The
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report estimates the volume of e-commerce
to grow to Rs 1500 billion (US$ 10.6 billion) in the year 2009, out of which B2B
will be Rs 820 billion (US$ 18 billion) and B2C will be Rs 680 billion. The
NASSCOM-BCG Report, on the other hand, estimates for the same year that the

total volume of e-commerce will be Rs 1,950 billion, out of which Rs 1,920 billion
(US$ 41 billion) will be on account of B2B and Rs 30 billion (US$ 64 million) will
be on account of B2C (NASSCON and BCG, 2009).

IRCTC
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a subsidiary of the
Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations
of the railways.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. has been set up by the
Ministry of Railways with the basic purpose of hiving off entire catering and
tourism activity of the railways to the new Corporation so as to professionalize and
upgrade these services with public-private participation. Rail based Tourism in
India will be the specific vehicle for achieving high growth in coordination with
state agencies, tour operators, travel agents and the hospitality industry. A dynamic
marketing strategy in association with public and private agencies, tour operators,
transporters, hoteliers and local tour promoters is on the anvil. Indian Railways
span global volumes in hospitality and catering sectors with services provided to

13 million passengers everyday.

Mission "Enhance customer services and facilitation in railway catering,
hospitality,
travel and tourism with best industry practices".
Objectives:
(1) To be a customer friendly company through constant innovation, technology
driven and human resource development.
(2) Optimize resources, increase manpower productivity through quality product
vending and innovative marketing strategies.
(3) Upgrade and consolidate catering services in the organized sector.
(4) Expand areas of core competencies; enhance business opportunities through
efficient public - private partnerships to maximize generation of resources.
(5) Imbibe strong and ethical work culture through teamwork, build and reposition
Indian Railways in the emerging services sector.
(6) Evolve high standards of business ethics, quality management and effective
cost control measures.
(7) Concern for the environment and heritage
Tourism Railway Tourism has seen excellent growth in India. Right from IRCTC's
inception , we have undertaken dynamic marketing strategy with major tour
operators and State Tourism as our partners for providing exclusive tour packages

across the country. IRCTC arranges for full train charters, coaches as well as
reserved berth programmes through regular trains for tourism purposes. During this
short period we have been able to provide such facilities to over 50,000 persons.
Internet Rail Reservation There has been a latent demand in the country for ticket
availability at the door-step. IRCTC has already developed this facility at Delhi,
Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai. Very soon the facility will spread to
Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmadabad. After consolidation at these centers, further
development in the major towns will take place. IRCTC web enabled reservation
site is IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System (http://www.irctc.co.in)
Food Plazas IRCTC has firmed up plans to set up over 50 multi-cuisine food
plazas at major railway stations throughout the country during the current year. The
Food plazas will have contemporary decor, air conditioned ambience and round the
clock operation to suit passenger convenience with market driven competitive
pricing.
Call Center IRCTC has recently inaugurated a Call Center. A customer can dial
139 from anywhere in the country and get all information from Indian Railways.
Services provided by them are:
Catering / Hospitality
Online Ticketing
Tourism

Foundation:
IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System (http://www.irctc.co.in) is the most
successful e-commerce website in India. More than 7050 reservations everyday,
and about 8500 trains included in the booking process.
IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd., set by the
Ministry of Railways in 1999) has played a huge role in transforming customer
experience for buying a railway ticket. The lengthy queues for booking tickets or
black marketing of tickets is no more the default way of buying tickets.
IRCTC has also introduced many innovations including e-ticket and mobile
booking.
The website is a bad experience for the user. Many operations are slow, error
prone and difficult to understand. If one step goes wrong, you have to do the whole
process again.
It has taken us any time between 15 minutes to 6 hours to book a ticket
successfully. Many others share similar experience.
The new Quick Book feature addresses many of the concerns.
Yet, the process can be significantly improved resulting not only in much higher
customer satisfaction, but also much lower transaction times, and consequently,
less load and bandwidth consumption for the server.

SERVICES OFFERED :
1. Booking of I-tickets, e-tickets and tatkal tickets.
I-ticket - refers to a Railway reservation booked on this website for the
consummation of which a printed Railway ticket on standard Stationery is
dispatched by IRCTC to the Customer through the courier, which constitute the
authority to travel on trains.
E-ticket - E-ticket - refers to a Railway reservation booked on this website, for the
consummation of which the customer prints out an Electronic Reservation Slip
which, along with one of the authorized personal identification, constitutes the
authority to travel, in lieu of the regular ticket on standard Stationery.
Tatkal Ticket-A ticket booked against Tatkal Quota against extra payment of
premium charges as per extant Railway rules.
2. A maximum of six berths/seats can be booked at a time for a specified journey
between any two stations served by the train subject to distance restrictions in

force.
3. An individual user can book a maximum of ten tickets in a calendar month.
4. Booking can be done against general (GN), SS (senior citizen), ladies (LD) and
tatkal (CK) quota berths/seats only.
5. Tatkal Quota (CK) berths/seats are earmarked in all-important trains in different
classes except First Class Air-conditioned (1A) class. Ladies quota (LD) is
generally earmarked in Sleeper class (SL) and second sitting (2S).
6. In case of tickets booked through internet no concession is permitted except
senior citizen.
7. General enquiries available:
a. Accommodation available for a train/date combination
b. Current Status of reserved tickets.
c. Time table
d. Train fare
e. Trains available between a given pair of stations

8. Courier delivery of tickets (I-tickets) limited to postal addresses covered by the

pin codes listed under the link "Places of Delivery ". For details of areas where
courier delivery is provided at present, categorized by PINCODE
9. E-Booking or E-reservation facility available for all trains.

10. On line cancellation facility for E-tickets alone, up to the charting time for that
train. (E-tickets cannot be cancelled at counters)
11. Mobile booking of I-Tickets and E-tickets through NGPAY Mobile application,
booking of I-Tickets and E-tickets through CSAM- IRCTC Mobile Application, I
tickets on airtel live, via IRCTC's WAP enabled site.
12. Auto-Up gradation is available to the next higher class on optional basis. (As
per railway rules).

TICKET BOOKING AND DISPATCH SERVICES:

IRCTC agrees to provide online ticket booking facilities to registered users who
agree to the terms and conditions
Standard of Service: IRCTC will supply the service to you with reasonable care
and skill.
Service Hours: Booking through Internet is allowed from 5 AM to 11.30 PM
(Indian Standard Time) on all days including Sundays. Service hours are liable to
be changed without prior notice. If you try booking before 8 AM, for opening day's
tickets, the reservation will fail, with your account getting debited; IRCTC will
refund the entire fare and IRCTC's service charges, but the bank/card transaction
charges are likely to be forfeited

 Issue of Tickets User Registration: Must be a registered user to use IRCTC site to
book tickets and for any type of enquiries. No user can register more than once on
the site. All payments towards the cost of the tickets issued will be through one of
the payment mode provided on the payment page. The site is VeriSign secured and
credit card details will travel on the Internet in a fully encrypted (128 bit, browser
independent encryption) form. To ensure security, card details are NOT stored in
Website.

Scope of Service: IRCTC makes no guarantee that any service will be

uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free.

STATISTICS OF IRCTC

CATERING
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Catering is an efficient method of providing food for large parties. IRCTC
concentrates equally on catering services. It believes in Rail catering Multi
Dimensions. It includes Food Plaza, On-Board Catering, Catering Stalls,
Automatic Vending Machines, and Rail Neer Packaged drinking water.
Food Plaza: Food plazas are set up at major / important railway stations with multicuisine outlets dishing out vegetarian, non-vegetarian, sweet meat, pastry shop,
juice shop, ice cream corner among various other food and beverages all under one
roof in the huff and puff of the rail ambience.
On-Board Catering: Food and beverages are served on Board the Rajdhani,
Shatabdi and other mail/express trains from the pantry car and also picked up from
the well equipped based kitchens en-route.

Catering Stalls: Catering stalls are aesthetically designed on a modular stall

specification with all in built requirements to serve the quality food and beverages
on time as per the needs of the passengers.
Automatic Vending Machines: Serving hot and cold beverages and a variety of perpacked snacks are being dispensed. The product dispensed is standardized in terms
of quality and quantity.
Rail Neer Packaged Drinking Water: The bottled water brand of IRCTC has set
new bench mark for the packaged drinking water in terms of quality, visibility and
taste.
Current Trends in Industry:
I. Trend1: Money Spent at Foodservice Establishments Continues to Grow
During the last 10 years there have been noticeable changes in the eating habits of
Indians. These changes have been reflected in increases of money spent at
foodservice establishments compared with money spent on in-home meals.
However, this does not mean that fewer meals are eaten at home. On the contrary,
the number of meals has not changed just the origin or substance of those meals.
The growing availability of take-out meals from restaurants well illustrates this
trend. This not only allows the customer to eat at home, but satisfies another of the
recent trends in eating: people craving high quality meals with short to no
preparation time.

II. Trend 2: Convenience Is King

The rise in convenience foods over the last 10 years has been illustrated in the
steady growth of fast-food chains in the India. The broad success of the cell phone
is symbolic of Indians greater mobility. This on-the-run mentality has created the
need for quick, easy-to-prepare foods. The increase in single parent households,
women in the workplace and the amount of disposable income of teenagers have
added to the need for ready-to-eat meals. Convenience foods need to be easy to
make for any age group, with easy cleanup and little or no waste. Most meals are
eaten on-the-go, so the ability to hold the food item with one hand and the freedom
to eat without utensils are important.
III. Trend 3: Healthy Is "In
Another trend in Indian eating habits is the desire for healthy meals. Whether
eating at home or out, consumers are starting to demand healthy alternatives to the
usual menu fair. This change has been spawned by increased public awareness of
heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. Along with disease awareness has come
public education on disease prevention--most of all, by modification of the diet.
People now take into account more than ever the amount of calories, fat, and
sodium consumed. Other popular concerns include all natural ingredients and use
of organic produce.
IV. Trend 4: More Than Just Dal, Rice and Roti

In addition to healthy foods, consumers are requesting more multicultural meals.

With minority populations growing at increasing rates, the mobility of consumers,
and the globalization of the marketplace, consumer tastes are broadening to include
many different cultures. For example, a decade ago Mexican restaurants were few
and far-between but have now joined Italian and Chinese restaurants in the
mainstream market (Mills, 2000).

V. Trend 5: Is Our Food Safe?

Lastly, there has been increased public concern about food safety. Consumers are
looking for assurances that their food is safe and that its safety is maintained
throughout the cooking process.
Based on the current trends, IRCTC is eyeing the potential customers by
customizing the services according to the customers on / off board.
Role of Technology:
State of art technology which provides latest designs and kitchen equipments.
Telephone / Mobile technology plays a vital role in the catering services. A
passenger can place an order to IRCTC Food plazas available at major railway
stations by giving his/her details like Train No., Coach No., Name, Berth Number,
Date and Time of Journey. Passenger can choose from a wide range of varieties
available at IRCTC Standard Menu. In case of Rajdhani and Shatabdi, a passenger

can place an order through online while booking his/her ticket.

Major players in the industry:
As IRCTC is a whole and sole subsidiary of Indian Railways, it is a monopoly in
the catering services offered by it. But still IRCTC welcomes Food and Beverages
companies, Fast Food Majors, Hoteliers and other caterers to associate with the
IRCTC to become strategic partner for Facilitating quality food and beverages
services to Rail passengers.
Competitors:
IRCTC has no competitors as mentioned earlier. But thinking broadly competitors
for IRCTC exists from Housewifes and local food sellers at the railway platforms.
As per the Indian passengers tendency, most of the passengers prefer home food
because of their convenience, quality, tastes, hygiene, cost and quantity. Hence
IRCTC is putting its best efforts to provide all the needs of the passengers to serve
quality food at cost effective prices.

Tangibility Spectrum:

TANGIBLE FACTORS OF PANTRYCAR SERVICES

The service is people processing: They would know the product quality in terms of
taste. So taste is the tangibility factor.

Package quality, service provider dress code, purity of water, packaging of water.
All these factors enhance the tangibility factors of pantry car services.
SERVICE OFFERING
Customer Expectations of service:
Customer expectations are beliefs about service delivery that serves as standards or
reference points against which performance is judged. Because customers compare
their perceptions of performance with these reference points when evaluating
service quality, thorough knowledge about customer expectations is critical to
service marketers. Knowing what the customer expects is the first and possibly
most critical step in delivering quality service.
Customer expectations in train vary from region to region. As India is diversified
country IRCTC is trying hard to make common menu and also Al-Carte menu
which satisfies the regional tastes and preferences.
Customer want services like Food Served hot, with premium quality at affordable
prices. As every customer has zone of tolerance if the service drops below
adequate service customer feels frustrated and their satisfaction with the provider
will be undermined.
Bundle of benefits typically received by customers:
In Rajdhani and shatabdi trains different menus are available for passengers to
make most of it. Food price i.e., package of bed tea to dinner are included in the

Ticket fare for the passengers. For the other superfast and express trains standard
menu is to be utilized by the customers where the catering cost is not involved in
passenger tariff. For this reason the cost of each item is clearly defined so that the
customers feels satisfied and value for product. Service is fast for the customers.
Based on the packages different items are served in a combo style which is
beneficiary for the passengers.
Service Quality Dimensions:
There are five service quality dimensions. They are Tangibles, Reliability,
Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy.
TANGIBLES
Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication
materials.
RELIABILITY
Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
RESPONSIVENESS
Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
ASSURANCE
Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence
EMPATHY

Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers

Yes all the dimensions are applicable to this industry, Especially Responsiveness
and Reliability is most important when compared to others. Because prompt
service and delivery drags customers attention and wins confidence.
Customers involvement in the service delivery:
The importance of customers in successful service delivery is obvious if service
performances are looked at as a form of drama .Customer participation at some
level is inevitable in service delivery. Services are actions or performances,
typically produced and consumed simultaneously.
Customers involvement in IRCTC catering services is done by continuous
feedback right from the quality :effective or ineffective ,product appropriate or
inappropriate and services productive or unproductive based on valuable
suggestions given by customers IRCTC makes necessary changes in their service
delivery mechanism.
The level of customer participation can be low, medium and high based on services
.In this case customer participation is medium.

SERVICE BLUEPRINT
what is the value of blueprinting a service?
Managing service quality has always been a target for most hospitality

organizations in that it will result in customer satisfaction that very organization

intends to accomplish. The more influence an organization has over its service
quality, the better it will have control over its customer satisfaction. Service
encounter or the moment of truth is one of the predictors of service quality. It is a
point in service delivery where there is an interaction between the service
employee and the customer. Therefore, accomplishing a positive service encounter
is very important. When the service provider is able to understand and meet
customers expectation, positive service encounter will be attained. After analyzing
the problems and challenges in managing service encounters, several points can be
drawn in attaining positive service encounters:
1. Customers generally consider the way how the service employee or service
provider performs recovery efforts, how adaptable the service employee or service
provider is, how good is the spontaneity and how good the service employee or
service provider is in coping customers problems;
2. Adding more tangibility in the service encounter will minimize the risk of
having a big gap between customer expectation and perception;
3. Non-verbal communication should be considered as 93% of the impression
formed in the customers mind is determined by non-verbal cues;
5. Purchase motivation is also another point to consider when attempting managing
service encounter as it contends with customers expectation;

6. Last but not least, the effective use of service blueprint in managing the
moment of truth will help service provider trace some critical points in the
moment of truth when special attention is necessary so that the service provider
will have more control over the service encounters. Even for more complicated
hospitality organizations like hotels, for example, having detailed service blueprint
for every service operation will help them have more control over service
encounters and ensure service excellence.

What can a services marketer in this industry learn form this exercise?
There are several recommendations to propose:
1. It is essentially important for the hospitality organizations to equip the service
employees with the skill to manage service encounters, such as:
a. Help them be familiar with the general service behaviors, the dos and the donts
b. Help them be able to produce the right nonverbal cues
c. Help them realize the cultural aspects influencing service encounters
2. Several kinds of trainings are necessary such as: multicultural training programs,
language training programs and so on.
3. Developing the service blueprint is useful in anticipating the potential points of
service failures and emphasizing on opportunities to enhance customers

perceptions of the service and create a more positive service encounter.

4. Further empirical research should be done on the multicultural service behaviors
and its effects on service encounters.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE:What is servicecape?

The environment in which service is delivered and in which the firm and
customers interact, and any tangible commodities that facilitate performance or
communication of the service.

FRAME WORK FOR UNDERSTANDING ENVIRONMENT USER

RELATIONSHIP IN SERVICE ORGANIZATION:-

Roles of Services cape:A services cape is not a passive setting it plays an important role in service
transactions. An evaluation of the roles they have in service encounters will
reveal how important it is to design an appropriate services cape .A services
cape plays four important roles.

Package
Servicescapes package the service offer and communicate an image to the
customers of what they are going to get. It is the corporeal manifestation of
the service idea for interest groups to form a shared appreciation-ma
perceptible metaphor for an intangible service. They are predetermined to
render an intended image to the service concept and evoke a particular
sensory and emotional reaction that sets the stage for a germane experience
that augments the efficacy of the offer. Appropriate servicescaping is a sure
shot way to create an image that the service provider is seeking to put up. It
also helps moderate customer expectation and reinforces his experience and

reminiscences. Servicescape is an outward appearance of organization and

thus can be critical in forming initial impressions or setting up customer
expectation.
Facilitator
Another important job of services cape is to act as a facilitator in assisting
both the customers and service employees to make most of the opportunity it
should make the service consumption comfortable convenient for the
customer. For employees it should be pleasant to conduct activities. This
setting is designed can enhanced or inhibits the efficient flow of activities in
the service setting making it easier or harder for customer and employee to
accomplish their goals.
Differentiator
Clearly the design of the services cape differentiates one provider from its
competitors, and hints at eth segment the services are targeted at. Companies
adapt services cape to reposition the services or identify new customer
segments.
WILD CARD SELECTION
PROMOTIONS:
Home Magazines
Eticket advertising

 Stickers inside the train compartment

IRCTC website
PRICING:
Segmented price for higher class
Market oriented price for food plazas
Prices of refreshment rooms, pantry cars are controlled by IRCTC
MANAGING SUPPLY & DEMAND:
Demand is always unpredictable in railways, so they supply according to
the number of tickets booked for a train. Based on this information
estimation is done to serve the maximum number of customers.
INDUSTRY SECTION
STRENGTHS:
700 pantry cars all over India
150 food plazas
7000catering stalls
Only player for catering in Railways
Assured business
WEAKNESS:
Transport catering business can satisfy only 80% of customers
Slow implementation

OPPORTUNITIES:
Huge market
Competition free environment for entrants of new players in association
with IRCTC
SUGGESTIONS TO A NEW PLAYER:
Abundant competition
Assured business
Big area for advertising their own products
Huge profit

TOURISM
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure for business purposes. IRCTC
through tourism promotes all famous destinations in India.
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), is
a public sector enterprise under the Government of India - Ministry of
Railways and is the single window interface for providing complete travel &
tourism solutions for the various customer segments and is also taking over
catering on trains and at stations over the Indian Railway network.
VISION

IRCTCs vision for the tourism business is To be the leading provider of a

complete spectrum of consistently high quality tourism products.

IRCTCS RANGE OF PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Luxury Tourist Trains
Exclusive Steam & Hill Charters
Chartering of special trains & coaches over the IR network
Tour Packages
Bharat Darshan Special tourist trains for the budget travel segment
Budget Hotels near important railway stations all over India

Car rentals
E-ticketing for travel over Indian Railways
Call Centers for rail & tourism related information
On-board catering on trains all over the IR network
Multi-cuisine food plazas at important railway stations
Rail Neer packaged drinking water

Availability of this wide range of services under its own umbrella puts
IRCTC in the unique position of being able to offer readymade as well as
customized packages to meet the requirements of all segments of the travel
& tourism industry.

Current Trends:
Tourism industry trends can be ascertained with regard to the following
parameters. Market analysts researching in tourism industry trends predict or

provide a general layout of the trends with respect to outcomes of tourism

which is inbound, e-business in the tourism industry, development and
promoting tourism in tribal areas, trends in tourism farming, tourism
requirements, development of strategies in the context of tourism, tourism
markets worldwide, selling or promoting tourist destination.
IRCTC has introduced railtourismindia.com for booking packages keeping
in mind the different societies. It has associated with top and best hotels
wherever the tourism is encouraged. Incredible India, an initiative by Govt.
of India is well supported by IRCTC.
Role of Technology:
Internet plays an important role in IRCTC tourism sector. Customers are
provided with immense information about the packages that are available.
Packages include right from train ticket conformation to the accommodation
in hotels, booking cabs, darshans, and site seeing, food at affordable prices.
Every thing is through the main site that is IRCTC online website. Upon
completion of the booking process the customers get information either
through mail or to mobile.
Major Players in the Industry:
As travel industry is growing rapidly there is an immense presence of private
and government players in the industry. Major players include AP tourism,

APSRTC tourist package.

Competition:
Competition is from both private and public sector organizations. Some of
the competitors include

Other State Road Transport Corporations

Private Tours & Travelers
APSRTC
AP Tourism Packages
Airlines (offering packages at reasonable lower costs) Prefer for the
reason of time saving.
Tangibility Spectrum:

TANGIBLE FACTORS OF IRCTC TOURISM

Ambience: Infrastructure of bus, seating type (sleeper or semi sleeper), DVD
facility, AC, Bed sheets, Water bottles, warmers, and curtains.
TOURIST GUIDE: Uniform, Qualification, social skills.
Search and experience qualities: Distribution of brochures, Digital
Marketing improves quality.
Physical Representations: logos, colors enhances visual representation
Documentation: Displaying Quality assurance certificates by service
providers
SERVICE OFFERINGS

Customer Expectations in this industry:

Customer expectations are very high. IRCTC is meeting the expectations of
the passengers by providing security, safe travel, affordable prices along
with packages, number tourist destinations, more services during peak
season. Fulfilling the promise made by the service provider initially is the
primary expectation of the customer.

Bundle of Benefits:
Confirmed reservation in train
Hotel accommodation
Cab facilities
Al carte menu
Affordable packages
Free site seeing / experienced tourist guides
Value for the money
Insurance policies (Travel)
Medical check ups
Journey by exclusive A/C trains
Service Quality Dimensions:
There are five service quality dimensions. They are Tangibles, Reliability,
Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy.
TANGIBLES
Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication
materials.
RELIABILITY
Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

RESPONSIVENESS
Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
ASSURANCE
Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence
EMPATHY
Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers
Yes all the service quality dimensions are applied for this service industry.
The most important quality is reliability because the tourism package
involves many promises of services by the provider and it is the challenge of
the provider to satisfy and provide the promised performance. The least
applied quality is assurance.
Customers Involvement:
The importance of customers in successful service delivery is obvious if
service performances are looked at as a form of drama .Customer
participation at some level is inevitable in service delivery. Services are

actions or performances, typically produced and consumed simultaneously.

Booking tickets through rail tourism India
Knowing information through web
Giving proper feedback to improve the service
Cooperating with the service provider

SERVICE BLUEPRINT

Service Encounters:
Glitches in online reservation
When a page is refreshed member has to login again
Lot of time in crediting the amount when cancellation is done
Service not available 24 hours
Most of the time after login in and some time even it shows service

unavailable.
concurrency problems
coordination between the employees and the management
promised facilities not on time

Learnings:
More accurate online system
Eradicate system hang-ups, server down problems
Fast reimbursement of money
Proper coordination between management and third party service providers.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

Service Environment:
The place of business in which the transaction occurs has been defined as
any tangible
Commodities which facilitate s performance or communication of the
service or as the servicescape.

Service Quality:

Service quality is defined as a global judgment or attitude relating to the

overall excellence or superiority of the service, thus service quality has a
direct impact on customer satisfaction.
Expectations:

Expectation provides a standard of comparison against which consumers

judge an
Organizations performance. It is defined as the customer's frame of
reference with respect to a product/ service that allows anticipation of
product/service performance.

Perception:

Perception is defined as the processes by which people select, organize, and

interpret stimuli into a meaningful and coherent picture. Perception is a
cognitive episode triggered by causal interaction between sense and object.
This interaction gives rise to a preliminary awareness of an unstructured
whole.

Satisfaction:

The customer's satisfaction is the outcome of complex information

processing which
essentially consists of a comparison of a consumer's experience with a
purchased product or service and his/her expectations with regard to the
fitness of this product or service for its intended purpose.
Equity:

Equity theory proposes that people have a notion of fairness that influences
whether they are satisfied with a particular product or service experience or
service environment.

With increasing competition in most service industries as well as rising

customer expectations and their demand for superior services at equitable
prices, there is a need to strengthen all the facets of competitiveness. This
means the service environment is increasingly becoming important. We have
argued that the servicescape communicates quality, expectations and is the
locus of customer-provider interactions. The more conducive the interaction
environment, we argue the greater the opportunities for customer and
employee satisfaction, the more likely the future tourist patronage and the
less likely the complaints.
WILD CARD SECTION:
PRICE:
Reasonable prices compared to other service providers
Prices depend on tour packages and distance
PROMOTION:
Advertising at the railway stations
Pamphlets at the reservation counters
Magazine
MANAGING SUPPLY AND DEMAND:
Arranges special trains during seasonal time
Attaching extra compartments to handle the rush
EMPLOLYEE ROLES IN SERVICE DELIVERY:
It is the duty of the employees to take care of the customers during the tour.

For this purpose they are given special training on handling, interacting with
the customers. Delivering the promised service is the upfront challenge of
the employee in winning the customer satisfaction.
INDUSTRY SECTION

STRENGTHS:
Confirmed train ticket
Facilitation at stations
Government subsidiary industry
Price factor

WEAKNESS:
Security
Quality of service when compared to private operators
Flexibility of timings
OPPORTUNITIES:
More Pilgrimage destinations
Improve in service to attract niche market
Tie-ups and joint ventures with other service providers

ONLINE TICKETING
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC)
operate an online booking service that has simplified rail travel in India
since its deployment in 2002. During the set-up of this solution, IRCTC

overcame several challenges and its web site has now emerged as a userfriendly, profit-making enterprise.
The Indian Railways has the second-largest railway network in the world. It
is run by the Ministry of Railways, which formed the Indian Railway
Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) in 1999 to manage
hospitality services during rail travel. The IRCTC is also responsible for
information, publicity and global reservation systems. It launched an online
booking service in August 2002 to enable customers to book tickets from the
comfort of their own home and to reduce ticketing costs for the railways
through savings in manpower.
Current Trends:
In order to reach maximum number of customers, those who were looking
for the convenience of booking railway tickets online, but did not have a
credit card or a net banking facility to make that transaction on the net.
Internet Company Sify has announced its tie up with Indian Railway
Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to make online railway ticketing
service available at over 3,400 iWay cybercafs across 154 cities, on cash
payments. As the first step, a pilot project at 10 iWays in Delhi has been
kicked-off on Thursday.
With the alliance in place, users can approach Sify iWay where the cafe

administrator would book the railway ticket online, based on particulars

such as date of travel and destination.
The customer then pays cash against the ticket and collects the ticket
printout. In case of ticket cancellations, the customers will follow the
standard cancellation process of IRCTC after which the customer gets cash
against the cancellation.
But the convenience of e-ticketing would come at a price. Users opting to
book e-tickets through the cash mode would have to shell out a transaction
charge of Rs 15 in case of a sleeper class ticket and Rs 25 in case of AC
ticket.
Role of Technology:
The IRCTC reservation site allows passengers to access train fares, routes
and availability in real-time, book tickets online and track the status of their
ticket.

The system runs on a BroadVision e-commerce platform and Intel-based

servers which, according to the IRCTC, provide a robust and cost-efficient
platform. The organization also uses a combination of Intel, Red Hat and
Oracles E-Business Suite. This allows it to leverage its legacy applications
with efficient integration and provide reliability for the web-enabled

system.128-bit encryption and the practice of not storing credit card details
in the system ensures secure online transactions.
Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), which manages the
original railway reservation system, collaborated with IRCTC to integrate
the online services with the existing system. BroadVision integrated the
legacy system with the online reservation system and developed a process to
verify credit card information in real-time, as bookings had to be confirmed
on the railway reservation system immediately. BroadVision developed the
e-commerce application with an Oracle backend; HCL is charged with the
network and its security.
Major players in the industry:
IRCTC is the only online reservation site for the passengers to book the
tickets online. Apart from the IRCTC website, Indian Railways operated
reservation centers are the other players in this industry.
Competition:
Broadly thinking competitors of IRCTC are makemytrip.com, yatra.com.
But at the later stage they have established a joint venture with these
providers.

Tangibility Spectrum:

TANGIBLE FACTORS OF ONLINE BOOKING

Detailed WebPages
Easy search of information
Physical representations: Logos, colors used enhances visual representation
Documentation: Publishing of growth in usage of online booking
All these factors enhances the tangibility of ONLINE BOOKING
SERVICE OFFERING

Customer expectations:
Online reservation counters at the nearest place
More number of authorized dealers for booking of tickets
Option of booking tickets through cash
Fast completion of booking process
No hang ups in the middle of transactions
Security during online transactions
Bulk booking (more than 6 tickets)
Fast credit of money on cancellation of tickets

Bundle of benefits:
Time saving, no need to stand in queues
Easy to access as it is user friendly
All the options of direct booking available
Priority to customers associated with SBI
Availing discounts for the priority customers
No tension of loosing the ticket
Loyalty programs
Service Quality Dimensions:
There are five service quality dimensions. They are Tangibles, Reliability,

Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy.

TANGIBLES
Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication
materials.
RELIABILITY
Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
RESPONSIVENESS
Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service
ASSURANCE
Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence
EMPATHY
Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers
Tangibles and Responsiveness are applicable to this industry. The most
important quality is responsiveness and the least important is tangibles.
Customers Involvement in service delivery:
Providing proper information at the time of transaction
Finishing the transaction process within the stipulated time
Carrying the identity card to avail the Eticket booked journey
Taking the printout of the ticket rather than arguing wit the TT

 Following the instructions, terms & conditions properly to utilize the

services.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT

Service Encounters:
Only attracting middle class and high class of society
Confusing look when the website is opened
Often server down problems
Reimbursement of money when the cancellation is done
Confirmations call should be given to the member when he/she books a
ticket
Learnings:
Call centre to provide information about the booking
Continuous R &D team to handle the system more effectively

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
The environment in which service is delivered and in which the firm and
customers interact, and any tangible commodities that facilitate performance

or communication of the service.

Roles of Services cape:A services cape is not a passive setting it plays an important role in service
transactions. An evaluation of the roles they have in service encounters will
reveal how important it is to design an appropriate services cape .A services
cape plays four important roles.
IRCTC is completely an e-based service provider; the physical evidence of
IRCTC can be authorized dealers of IRCTC, SIFY browsers.
Even though the physical evidence of IRCTC online booking is not there,
the competitive edge over the other providers is great. It delivers the
excellent mechanism for the convenience of the customers.
WILD CARD SECTION
Promotion:
Through websites
Advertising at the stations
Pricing:
Service charges for the booked tickets
Pricing is the same as compared to the direct booking
INDUSTRY SECTION
STRENGTHS:

 An average of 1,00,000 transactions per day

No competitors in online booking
Fast and preferred service for booking tickets
WEAKNESS:
Security
Lapses in the technology at times
Slow processing
No bulk booking
OPPORTUNITIES:
More authorized dealers
Joint ventures with private operators
FUTURE HOLDS:
More options and features using the latest technology to attract more and
more customers and tie ups with sify and cox and kings
Opportunity for private agents to venture in to this segment.

FINDINGS
Primary purposes of website - Reservation and Train Inquiry are not
visible
Lots of advertisements on the home page
Lot of blinking / animated portions distract the user
Form does not fit into a single window, ideally it should
Checking availability is a crucial part of the booking process, but the user
has to click a button and see a popup window for this.
Many a times, this even comes up with an Unable to retrieve due to
communication failure problem!
There are too many payment options, and difficult to understand which one
is better. This also comes up in a pop-up window. Ideally, this can be a
preference that can be set in the user profile.

 It is difficult to understand the three different types of tickets, there is help

icon, but it opens in a popup window.
Value Added Services are on the same page here, which can be avoided.
The login portion itself has too many options.
Customers are complaining with the number of outlets available for
booking the tickets.
Customers have few options of selecting from the tour packages.
Employees are not trained to explain the packages available to the
illiterates.

SUGGESTIONS
Single screen, rich internet application.
Login not required for checking availability, only for booking, and can be
done after booking
Train availability select multiple trains, and click once to get availability
in all
Single spot for advertisement can rotate
Payment options one chosen by default, others available on request
No page reloads easy for the user, more efficient for the server
Ability to change one item and automatic update on others this will make
it easier for users to book their tickets significantly reducing the
transaction time
The back-end and front-end are separated, front-end is intelligent can
cache data, process it etc.
Advertisements can still be delivered; you can even deliver contextual ads
as the user plans their travel. Other pages of the site can also be integrated.
To start few more IRCTC reservations outlets for the convenience of the
customers.
More tour packages for the convenience of the customers.

CONCLUSION

With Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and travel portals
pushing sale of online rail tickets, the share of IRCTC in the reserved ticketing
revenues of Indian Railways has gone up to 40 per cent in the first two quarters of
this year, from around 25 per cent last year.
In fact, with the increasing penetration and use of the internet, IRCTCs ticketing
revenue has seen an increase of 462 per cent over the past three years. From Rs
704.9 crore in 2006-07 and Rs 1,744.7 crore in 2007-08, the corporation got Rs
3,966.98 crore from sale of online tickets last year. And, experts feel with the
Unique Identification project of the government, the market for online ticketing
will only increase tremendously.
According to ticket sale data provided by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism
Corporation (IRCTC), which sells rail tickets online, out of the 880,000-odd
reserved rail tickets sold a day between April and July 2009, around 300,000, or 34
per cent, were sold online. In 2008-09, of the 860,000 or so reserved rail tickets
sold every day, around 200,000 (above 25 per cent) were sold online. IRCTC
accounted for 17 per cent of the total passenger earnings of the Indian Railways in
2008-09.

The corporation has, to this end, collaborated with 81 organizations and 11 state
governments to operate multi-utility kiosks, which provide online ticketing
services. IRCTC has further tied-up with Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum
Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation to provide e-ticket reservation
facilities to people through their chain of petrol pumps and retail gas agencies.
Ticketing sales data from the corporation recorded between April and September
2009 reveal that online ticket reservation services have had a good response from
people of lower income groups.

IRCTC, making efforts to make e-ticketing facilities available and accessible to all
sections of society.