This presentation talks about 7Ps of Services Marketing and various features of IRCTC services. It enlists future opportunity and growth challenges for Indian Railways.

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1) Company Profile
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) is a Public Sector Enterprise
under Ministry of Railways & incorporated as a company in 1999. It 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 professionalise 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.
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) Optimise resources, increase manpower productivity through quality product vending
and innovative marketing strategies.
(3) Upgrade and consolidate catering services in the organized sector.

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(4) Expand areas of core competencies, enhance business opportunities through efficient
public - private partnerships to maximise 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
2) Current trends of services offered by IRCTC
Railway Tourism has seen excellent growth in India. Right from IRCTC's inception, they have
undertaken dynamic marketing strategy with major tour operators and State Tourism as their
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.
Tourism
Packages
Ticket
Reservation
System
Catering/
Food Plaza
Call
Centers

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Under Tourism & Travel promotional services- IRCTC offers
• Luxury Tourist Trains & Exclusive Charters
• Tour Packages
• Bharat Darshan –Special tourist trains for the budget travel segment
• Information on Budget Hotels – near important railway stations all over India
In Ticket Reservation System booking of I-tickets, e-tickets and Tatkal tickets are offered by
IRCTC.
I-ticket- refers to a Railway reservation booked on the 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- It 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.
Apart from this, IRCTC is constantly working on improving its online ticket reservation system
for E-booking. The future here is to integrate IRCTC online website with M-Commerce
gateways.
IRCTC has firmed up plans to set up over 150 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. Currently they have On Board
Catering Services in Rajdhani / Shatabdi / Duronto and Mail / Express Trains and Static
Catering Units such as Refreshment Rooms, Book Stalls, Milk Stalls, Ice Cream Stalls, etc.
across the Indian Railway Network. IRCTC also owns its Mineral Drinking Water brand ‘Rail
Neer’.

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In recent years, IRCTC has inaugurated a Call Centre operations to provide Real-Time
information to its customers. A customer can dial 139 from anywhere in the country and get
all information related to services offered by Indian Railways.
3) SWOT Analysis of IRCTC (Industry wise)
STRENGTHS
Subsidiary of Ministry of Railways.
Government supported
Excellent Faith & Goodwill
Largest e-commerce website
Monopoly in Rail tour packages & Rail
Ticketing
Concession on booking of charters
Citizen centric services
WEAKNESSES
Bureaucratic decision making process
Poor Promotional activities & public
relation
Non existence of full fledge Marketing
team.
Attitude problem of employees
Lack of motivation in employees
OPPORTUNITIES
High potential in Tourism Sector
Increase in Individual disposable income
Air Packages & Road Transport
Packages.
Booming Hotels &Resorts Industry
Bids for Contract
Strategic Tie-ups for better &
improved performance.
THREATS
Leading web portals like Make My Trip,
Cox & Kings, Clear trip, Thomas cook,
Yatra etc.
Cyber Attacks like DoS
Withdrawal of government support
Low fare Airlines
Private Small Tour operators
Increasing Inflation rate
IRCTC

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4) Services Marketing Mix
7 P’s of Services Marketing From IRCTC’s Point-of-View
Product Tour packages, Flight, Hotels, Tourist Train,
Cab and Loyalty Program , Rail-Neer
Drinking Water , Train food,
Non-core product : Online shopping
through IRCTC website
Price Low cost as per Government in case of
railway services IRCTC is way cheaper than
other competitors/substitute travel ways.

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Place Five Zonal Offices are working at Delhi,
Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and
Secunderabad.
Promotion Advertisement, Subh Yatra Card, SBI
Railway Card , promotional offers through
debit card/credit card
People One of the largest employer in the world.
Their employees comprise of IRCTC Direct
Employees, Deemed Deputation absorbers,
Deemed Deputations, deputations and
fixed term employees. Agent Network
across India.
Process Online processing, counter , Home Delivery
facility available, e-ticketing, SMS based
ticketing , Android / Window based Mobile
platform ticketing
Physical Evidence Well-developed web site with whole lots of
information, Counters and ‘139’ customer
enquiry service , round the clock ticketing
service , food Plaza and restaurants
5) Innovative strategies adopted by IRCTC
Mobile platform is being used innovatively in service delivery mechanism. i.e., Android
based app. It has attracted lots of channel partners for delivering the various services.

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Technological up-gradation of the online ticketing is being done regularly to meet
customers’ expectations. For ex. During tatkal the web portal is light.
Jago Yatri Jago Campaign – drive to curb overcharging by service staff - Toll Free No.
1800-111-139 & SMS on 9971111139
Contract of various Government Departmental canteens
6) Future Trends & Conclusion
Effective use of mobile platforms to engage customers & inform them regarding
various offers & discounts in services
Use of Big Data analytics to predict and act according to changing consumer lifestyle
& buying behaviour.
Integration with Ru-Pay debit cards (Initiative by Govt. of India) for efficient payment
portals.
Improving the efficiency of their online ticket reservation portal, constantly solving
the lag/bugs in it meet customers’ expectations.
Tie-up with Fast Food giants like KFC, Dominos for On Board Railway Food services.
Consumer friendly & predictable PNR status checking system
Employee Training Courses for IRCTC staff in order to retain customers with growing
threat from low-cost Airline industry.