Exemplary Governance in Public Enterprise!

An example of exemplary governance in Public Enterprise is the Hon. Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu, bringing customer centricity in the passenger division. Many a news articles have come about their being instant responses from the minister himself or the railways responding to customer tweets. One such was the coverage by the Economic Times. Another recent article on the team behind Twitter response at Indian is at the Better India.

One off or reality is a question an ever skeptic would ask. Here's my experience. Last week, I was on my return journey back to Baroda by 12955 BCT-JP Gangaur Express. And there was a minor inconvenience - no running water in my coach. I sent a tweet to @RailMinIndia with my concern. Here's what happened then.

My Twitter Conversation with IR!

1. In about 10 minutes, I got a tweet from @RailMinIndia that the matter was directed to relevant DRM office and some senior twitter handle in the Mechanical division of IR (maybe the coaching division).
2. In about 15 minutes from my tweet, I get a tweet back from a concerned officer, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer (SrDME-BCT), saying what, a. regretting the inconvenience b. giving prompt solution and c. soliciting my confirmation of matter resolution. 
3. In about 20 minutes from my tweet the train reached Surat, the coach was watered, and I overheard the coach attendant speak to some senior people over a mobile phone of the matter being resolved. 

Wow! World Class! That's all there is to it. Customer is King, that's something that we are taught in business schools and companies strive for those. Turning around the biggest employer in the world to be so customer centric, and that too, in a public service enterprise (mind you, railways main charter is not for commercial gain, but for transport) is nothing short of revolutionary. 

An excellent case study in top-down management, setting priorities right and bringing customer centricity. @SureshPrabhu Sir, corporate sector can learn a lot about customer service from IR today! Kudos, IR machinery from the twitter back-room of IR to individual Indian Railways staff on ground! You are showing your class!