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.
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