CUSTOMER CARE
Saibal
Kumar Bose ’83
“How do you cope with
the service provided by the Railways?”. That must be the question
I have been asked frequently. I often reply, “I don’t have to. The passengers
do”. It’s certainly true. I travel in cozy comfort in an anxiety free and
psychologically comfortable atmosphere cooked up by the personal staff provided
for my benefit. The crocodile tears that have been shed over Railway’s
passengers would flood the Brahmaputra once again, so there no need for me to
add my drop to them. No matter how much it may upset you, it’s better to be
honest and admit that I have learnt to live with Railway callousness. The only
excuse I can give is that millions of passengers suffer the trauma of rail
everyday.
This environment has
come to stay like the ubiquitous and to drag us down. Customer Care cannot survive in an over regulated
dominance of the ‘filariat’ enshrining the divine right of pen pushing babus.
Our organisation is on
trial and that is the central problem. In an imperilled organisation, becoming
a true public servant has become a master game, a challenge, and our last
exercise in heroism. A recovery of the self to serve and a revision of goals
should be our topmost priority, the roots of our new life and the very sense of
service. Customer Care and public service shall never come by proxy.
To implement the
concept of ‘CUSTOMER CARE’ a vision is needed to inspire and cement together a
team of marketers, designers, engineers and finance people to create winning
products. Winning customer approval on Indian Railways has taken a backseat for
want of a battleground where brand values play a crucial role in encouraging a
customer to choose your service than the competition.
Quo vadis? How does one
build in prestige and added value in rail service? For instance, a train
is a unique environment. As Paul Theraux while writing the foreword “ WHY
RAILWAYS” for The Book of World Trains claims that “the train is the only
vehicle that permits the traveller access to all his luggage. In a car it’s
hidden in the trunk, in a plane or bus it is hidden in the underbelly; on a
train it travels with you, suitcase, valise, messkit, library, parcels; and the
headache of keeping it together is relieved by the fact that at any moment you
can root around, change your socks, find another book, verify that you haven’t
forgotten your tennis racquet, set out your bottles and invite that corker in
the next carriage over for a drink. What a comfort to be among all your
belongings!” But often technology is driven by the need to leapfrog the
competition by innovations to redefine expectations – art rather than craft.
Therefore if one dares to innovate, the process of certification needs to be
carefully managed due to aggressive time-scales to meet stipulations of rail
standards (generally RDSO) and government and safety regulations.
Notwithstanding the
bureaucratic jamboree, we must closely examine the ideas, which spring to mind
for the railway’s image enhancement and catering the essential services for
highly valued journey experience, which leaves the customer longing for more.
INTERIORS
Providing variety is a
means of enhancing journey experience and also a guaranteed of pleasing most of
the people most of the times. It involves creation of an environment to suit
one’s choice of mood or activity with a level of refinement, sophistication and
a choice between socialising and privacy. A premium class interior consisting
of interactive in-seat entertainment systems and executive style rotating seats
with electronically operated facilities are to be implemented. In order to
offer variety within these facilities, add a high quality restaurant service, a
work surface with integrated electrical sockets for lap-top computers and
portable phones, and a stress free journey. These offerings epitomise
excellence and highest levels of service and drastic improvements compared with
existing journey experience. Since the varied facilities, such as vending
machines, telephone kiosks, coffee bars and entertainment systems are revenue
earning, and also have the additional merit of alleviating the monotony of a
standard journey, their inclusion into the vehicle layout is fully justified.
Furthermore, monotony propagates vandalism; so any gain in this direction has
to be positive in terms of cost savings and intact vehicle appearance.
The criteria for choice
of rail travel needs to be examined in view of the facilities offered. Some opt
to make full use of travel time and offered facilities to work individually, or
alternatively use the limited time available during intense travelling for high
quality rest.
The most important
single item is the seat or berth. It must be highly flexible, softer in
appearance and assuming a look and feel of luxury. The pitch must be generous
for long distance trains. The surrounding environment will form part of the
customer’s package. By adjusting window curtains or blinds, air-condition
temperature, and individual lighting, passengers should be able to alter the
local ambience to suit their individual requirements. Care must be taken to
ensure where possible, that access and egress should not disturb fellow
passengers, thus eliminating any possible psychological discomfort.
The Gardenmoen airport
project in Norway placed high demands on industrial design from infrastructure
to train crew uniform. One of the psychologically comforting factors of
interior design is that wherever the passengers choose to sit they will always
be in view of their luggage. Luggage space has been expanded totalling 30-metre
square from conventional luggage racks above the seats to accommodate smaller
items. Adequate waste bins have been catered to and one entrance is equipped
with a totally concealed ingenious lift that a wheel chair passenger can use
with one quick press of a button. The general ambience of the passenger areas is
enhanced by light, spacious interior designs using neutral colours with
contrasting strong colours for items such as coat hangers and handles.
Knowing that most
existing dreams stand an excellent chance of becoming a reality, it is
necessary to constantly look at and predict future trends and developments.
What is obvious is that in the conception of vehicle design simplistic
philosophy of modularity is to be married to flexibility, needed to cater for
individual and diverse requirements.
ONBOARD ENGINEERING
Since the train travel
can give quality time for passengers to work, socialise or rest, zones are
required. Phone free zones using special glazing technology to prevent radio
signals entering the vehicle (as done by Antranz) will be required considering
the hostility towards mobile phones. Microenvironment can be created for
example by creating the entrance at the centre instead at either end. This
enables two vestibules to be combined into one large place thus creating a
retail, bar and lounge area of what is now otherwise a wasted space. This also
doubles as a security facility.
Noise and vibration is
a primary input in passenger comfort. This also improves train performance and
reduces maintenance costs. The leading designing was done for Shinkansen trains
(series 700) which include the 8.5 metre long Aerostream nose. it fulfils
multiple functions – improves ride comfort (by preventing turbulence to
restrain Karman vortex effects), reducing pressure waves at tunnel entrances
and exits (by employing an optimised constant rate of change of cross-sectional
area) and reducing wayside noise. “Smoothing” the coach body and underflow
surfaces also reduces wayside noises. Introducing anti-yaw dampers that absorb
vibrations and suppress lateral and longitudinal motion enhances ride comfort,
and as also bogie damper (semi active) which is a microprocessor controlled
sensor continually adjusting the force between bogie and body producing the
same effect (also introduced successfully in Shinkansen Series 700).
Noise can be reduced in the passenger area by
using a double skin insulated extruded al structure for the car body and floor.
Further reduction will be possible by a two-stage air-conditioning system using
small high-speed turbo fans. Simultaneously, relocating the air conditioning
ducting can raise ceiling. Privacy can be enhanced by providing glazed screens
between bays as adopted by London Clubman t.
As a further step
towards improved safety, the arrangement of under floor equipment can be such
that inspections can be carried out from the side eliminating the need for
maintenance staff to crawl beneath the coach.
Speeds of the trains
are now mainly dependent on track layout geometry. to increase speeds at curves
requires easing of super elevation by longer transition curves meaning land
acquisition and new tracks laying. Successful commissioning of ICT, German
Rail’s (DB) high speed tilting train has changed this for now.
Technically, ICT is the
forerunner of the next generation. It will significantly reduce journey times
on sinuous routes by being able to run through existing curves at speeds up to
30% faster than conventional trains.
TICKETING
London Transport is
negotiating for a new smart card based contact-less fare collection system for
its underground. The main aims of the new ticketing system, involving new gates
and touch screen ticket issuing machines are to provide customers with:
·
a quick, convenient and accessible ticket selling service.
·
fares and ticketing that give potential customers confidence to use
railways
·
fares and tickets that will maximise demand
·
tickets that reduce journey transaction times and therefore make travel
easier.
Evaluation of its costs
is comparable against that of a conventional purchase contact. The system also
generates analysis about customers and their travel patterns, reduces
opportunities for fraud and offers flexibility to adopt existing fares as
market conditions change.
CONCLUSION
Ideas need to be
explored and new designs must be inherently feasible to manufacture no matter
how novel and must meet the stipulations of regulations and maintainability.
All details must be carefully managed so that the end result matches the vision
of customer care. Only an integrated design and engineering process, working in
partnership with commercial people and manufacturer will achieve any tangible
results for the benefit of the customer.