The customer orientation policy is aimed at implementing a clear understanding that the quality of services and products directly depends on the quality of production processes, which can be achieved through coordinated activities of all divisions, business units and business units of the holding.
The concept of the organization of a Single Policy defines the organizational structure of the management of the implementation of a Single Policy, tools and methods of implementation, as well as methods for evaluating performance and performance indicators (Figure 2.5).
The purpose of creating a Unified customer-oriented policy was the creation and implementation of corporate principles for managing the processes of forming a complex of new services provided and supporting old ones, as well as improving the quality of relationships with customers of JSC «Russian Railways», aimed at solving the following tasks:
– increasing profitability, competitiveness and efficiency of activities;
– increasing the volume of sales of services and entering new market segments;
– elimination of losses in the holding’s production chain;
– optimization of business processes;
– improving the quality of services provided and, as a result, reducing the overall losses of the company;
– expansion of the offered goods and services;
– increasing the period of interaction of the Holding with the client;
– formation of a knowledge base based on the study, accumulation and systematization of the experience of large Russian and foreign holdings;
– training and completion of professional development courses by personnel, comprehensive development of human resources, etc.
3 INNOVATIVE PROPOSALS FOR THE CUSTOMER ORIENTATION DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIAN RAILWAYS HOLDING
3.1 Organization of transport and logistics service packages based on segmentation of clients of JSC «Russian Railways»
The basic principles of customer orientation are aimed at solving the main task – optimizing customer relations. Attracting and maintaining the customer base of JSC «Russian Railways» is possible if the conditions of customer orientation and all the obligations of the company are met.
One of the proposals for the development of customer orientation of the holding may be the organization of a comprehensive service based on segmentation of customers and manufacturers, as well as the formation of service packages.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to use marketing principles, the complex of which includes:
– comprehensive study of the market, desires and needs of customers;
– determination of the capacity of the transport market;
– processing of the collected information, identification of consumer preferences, segmentation of the market by blocks;
– development of «individual» services based on the results of the analysis of information about the needs and needs of customers;
– justification of the feasibility of introducing new services;
– control of results and promotion of basic and additional services on the market.
When determining a market segment, it is necessary to develop research methods that may depend on the purpose, object of research, the degree of coverage of the transport market, etc.
A market segment is a part of the market allocated in a certain way, which must have one or more common features. [3] In turn, the feature will be a way to highlight a market segment. Each customer is a potentially defined market with their own preferences, desires and needs. It is quite difficult for such a large holding company as JSC «Russian Railways» to determine the range of services individually for each client, therefore, the company needs to provide high—quality service to homogeneous segments – groups of transport services customers that differ in the nature of demand and purchasing power. Today there is no single way to divide the transport market into segments, but the most significant factors for splitting can be: geographical, demographic, psychographic and behavioral.
Dividing customers into segments will allow the company to study the structure and needs of the transport market, the proposals of competitive companies, establish a rational price component, prepare and modernize vehicles, provide high-quality training of personnel to master the selected segments of the holding’s customers.
In addition to customer segmentation, segmentation for transport services can also be done in the same way. It is possible to segment services in the format of transport and logistics packages.
In the process of introducing such packages to the transport market, the income and profitability of the company increases, due to the optimization of customer awareness, the range of services, the quality of support services, an effective system of interaction with the customer in the 3PL/4PL service format and the formation of an appropriate pricing policy.
3.2 Introduction of digital technologies into the transport and logistics activities of JSC «Russian Railways» as a method of improving the customer service quality
To improve the main indicators of the holding, laid down in the Long-term development program until 2025, new commercial solutions and improvement of the existing technology of the companies will be required.
In addition to these actions, an important factor is the constantly changing customer requests.
The main goal of the company is to become a company that not only receives income from the inertial growth of traffic volumes, but also occupies a stable position in the market as a transport and logistics company. This task can be solved by developing mutually beneficial partnerships with customers and service providers, constantly changing, creating new products and services in the interests of consumers.
To date, a significant part of the initiatives are already being implemented, forming a model in the future, the center of which is the Company’s customers. The basic principles of its construction are presented in Figure 3.1 [7].
Most of the principles lie in the field of business solutions, but an important role will be played by the support of ongoing initiatives with digital solutions and services built on the basis of advanced technologies.
Currently, the Company has created an extensive IT infrastructure of the railway transportation market based on the AS ETRAN, which over the period of its existence has transformed from a departmental system of JSC «Russian Railways» into a state-scale system and has essentially become a global information space for all participants in the railway transportation market (Figure 3.2) [7].
However, it is necessary to modernize the commercial infrastructure of the market, which includes a complex of production and digital technologies that reflect the railway’s ability to provide revenue from providing services to the transport market. This can be achieved by digitally transforming the business model of the market (Figure 3.3) [7].
Nevertheless, the development potential of the ETRAN system has not been exhausted and will be directed to the field of intersystem interaction with Federal executive authorities and other participants in the transport market, the development of electronic