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This first appeared in a blog maintained by Aparna Singh of
Kaybase, Bangalore. You can read more of
Aparna's blogs at...
http://apusworld.wordpress.com
Yesterday, I travelled by the Shatabdi train from Chennai
to Bangalore, which set me thinking on the appropriate components
of a service - In any good or service being offered to a customer,
there will be multiple components, not all of which are perhaps
necessary. The consumer may not value these equally. Some
are hygiene (basics/musts), some are truly relevant, some
differentiate the brand from others, some don’t make
a difference whether they exist or not - and some, they actually
pull the brand down. The last one can be a challenge for any
business - knowing what to leave out.
Now, in the case of the Shatabdi, the fact that it covers
the journey within 5 hours as opposed to the 7 hours that
other trains take is truly differentiating. Even if you compare
it to flying, with the security checks, waiting time etc,
a flight ends up taking 2 hours, and the Shatabdi costs half
the price of the cheapest flight. So yes, there is a worthwhile
benefit there. The fairly comfortable seats, now thats become
a basic for me - something I demand when I pay 700 bucks for
a train ticket. The food - well its so average that it doesn’t
make a difference to me, but yes, it could perhaps be another
basic factor.
But the one thing that actually made my journey yesterday
thoroughly unpleasant, was the fact that the train had curtains
on all its windows - dirty, dusty curtains at that. I got
the window seat and spent a good part of the journey coughing
away, until I took some medication.
Two things. Firstly, I am not sure why an AC train needs curtains.
Surely one of the pleasures of the Indian train journey is
being able to look outside and see things pass by. Little
villages, green fields, cattle, small towns, people going
to work. This is part of what makes the journey fun. And the
AC has closed glass windows which in any case shut out the
dust and heat. So first thing, this feature is perhaps superfluous.
Secondly, why offer a feature that a business cannot maintain?
Don’t promise something which you can’t do well
or do consistently. So the railways has decided to put in
curtains on the Shatabdi windows, because it is a “premium”
train and they think curtains make it look fancy. But, unless
they can be maintained in good order, its just annoying to
passengers.
Like I said, sometimes, its better to leave out some things.
Less can be better?
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