SERVICE MARKETING PROJECT

Service marketing project

On

INDIAN RAILWAY CATERING AND TOURISM

CORPORATION

(IRCTC)

By

DINESH.R

ROLL NO:- A30601909062

MBA(2009-2011)

AGBS HYDERABAD

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CONTENTS

1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2.SCOPE OF STUDY

3.OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

4.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

5.INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

6.SERVICES OFFERED

7.ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY

8.COMPETITION

9.TANGIBLE SPECTRUM

10.SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS

11.SERVICE BLUE PRINT

12.PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

13.WILD CARD SECTION

14.SWOT

15.QUESTIONAIRE

16.FINDINGS

17.SUGGESTIONS

18.CONCLUSION

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 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 every day. 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.

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 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
Company’s 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.

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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.

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 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. E-commerce 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

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 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 E-Commerce 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.

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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

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 Foundation:
• IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System (http://www.irctc.co.in) is the most
successful e-commerce website in India. More than 7050 reservations every day, 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.

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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.

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 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
IRCTC’s vision for the tourism business is “To be the leading provider of a complete
spectrum of consistently high quality tourism products”.

IRCTC’S 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

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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.

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 Tangibility Spectrum:

Tangibility Spectrum
Salt
 Soft Drinks

 Detergents
 Automobiles
 Cosmetics
Fast-food
 Outlets

 Intangible
Dominant

Tangible

Dominant Fast-food
Outlets 
Advertising
Agencies

Airlines 
Investment
Management 
Consulting 
Teaching

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

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 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

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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 show’s service unavailable.
 concurrency problems
 coordination between the employees and the management
 promised facilities not on time

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

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SERVICE BLUEPRINT FLOW CHART:-

Physical Trains service

Evidence times Bill
Website Locations boxes Credit Card
design Net banking
Debit card

Customer Open Log in to Availing Payment Sign out

website website Services of bill of
website

C O
Showing the
o n
train timing
n
t s Conforming
a t ticket
c a
t g
e

B
P
a
e Taking inputs
c
r
k
s
o
S
n Providing
t Updating reservation
a the system
g
e

Updating the
Support Checking the Database
Process availability of
trains

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 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
Organization’s 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 influence’s 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

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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 (SWOT)

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

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 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 user-friendly, 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 cybercafés 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.

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 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 Oracle’s 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

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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

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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
Learning’s:
• 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.

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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.

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 QUESTIONAIRE

Q.1 ARE YOU AWARE OF E TICKETING PROCESS

a)YES 17
b)NO 13

a)YES
b)NO

Interpretation:-
As we can see in growing economy all are aware of using internet and it is going to be
much growth in e commerce in near future.

Q.2 HOW IS THE WEBSITE DESIGN

a) GOOD 8
b) AVERAGE 16
c) BAD 6

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c) BAD

b) AVERAGE

a) GOOD

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Interpretation:-
IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version because people
need accurate service

Q.3 HOW IS THE WEBSITE ACESSNESS

a) FAST 5
b) SLOW 7
c)MODERATE 18

a) FAST
b) SLOW
c)MODERATE

Interpretation:-
IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version by using lastest
HTML processes, because people need accurate and fast service.

Q.4HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO BOOK A TICKET ONLINE

a)LESS THAN 10 MINUTES 12
b)MORE THAN 10 MINUTES 18

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18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
a)LESS THAN 10 MINUTES b)MORE THAN 10 MINUTES

Q.5 DO YOU FEEL ONLINE TICKET PRICE MUCH MORE THAN MANUAL RESERVATION TICKET
a)YES 2
b)NO 28

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
a)YES b)NO
Interpretation:-
Instead of being slight higher price than manual booking cystomers are not worried at all
so IRCTC should maintain the same price as now to attract customers.

Q.6WHAT MODE OF PAYMENT DOES YOU USE TO BOOK A TICKET

a) CREDIT CARD 9
b)NET BANKING SERVICES 21

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b)NET BANKING SERVICES

a) CREDIT CARD

0 5 10 15 20 25
Interpretation:-
IRCTC must tie up with other private banks to give netbanking services to IRCTC
customers which will help customers to use more net banking process.
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.

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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, IRCTC’s 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.

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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.”

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