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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 document management both in domestic transportation and in international transportation.

With a promising growth in demand for transport services, it is planned, especially in the segments of small and medium-sized businesses, to sell them online. The use of WEB technologies is considered as the most democratic, promising, mobile and rapidly developing network environment for the implementation of the Company’s services.

As an example, a new service is presented – the client’s personal account on the website of JSC «Russian Railways», where in addition to calculating the cost of transportation and additional services, the client can find the nearest «points of sale» of the company’s services on the map in real time, get information about the location and technical condition of wagons, provide documents in electronic form and contact the unified information reference center.

In the future, it is planned to expand the functionality of the personal account: obtaining an assessment of customer satisfaction with the quality of services provided, providing personalized offers, news, promotions and other information, including notifications for car owners about the arrival of the car, movement, refusal of the recipient from the car, displaying contracts concluded by the client, agreements and services included in them, the possibility of concluding a contract in electronic form according to the principle of the offer, displaying the status of a single personal account of customers, the possibility of filing a claim by the client for consideration by JSC «Russian Railways», recording the client for certification of cargo fastening, ordering the company’s services, etc.

Digital innovations are gaining popularity in the Call Center of JSC «Russian Railways» in freight transportation. One of which was the artificial intelligence «Alice for Business». The main goal of the project is to automate the customer service process of the Holding as much as possible using artificial intelligence technologies. Today, Alice is being trained for self-service by artificial intelligence of calls on topics of a reference nature, outgoing call service with various service scenarios by voice portal, work in the chat channel-the possibility of contacting the robot through a form on the website and integration with messengers. In the future, it is planned to implement various service scenarios with a voice portal, depending on the emotional state of the client, the deployment of a subsystem of biometric identification of the client.

One of the most ambitious projects is the development of a service for monitoring smart contracts for freight transportation based on a blockchain in the transport and logistics activities of JSC «Russian Railways». The aim of the project is to create a unified information space between the participants of transportation and to ensure monitoring of the implementation of smart contracts for freight rail transportation based on a distributed data registry platform. The main advantages of this project will be: the speed of improvement of logistics operations, transparency of processes, improvement of corporate technological discipline, reduction of act and claim work, cost optimization, quality control throughout the route.

3.3 Development of customer-oriented electronic service

One of the main directions of improving the processes of organizing electronic document management.

JSC «Russian Railways» has converted into electronic format a number of documents that are necessary for transportation at all stages from the moment of planning to the issuance of cargo and preparation of financial documents.

To date, work is underway to expand the use of electronic document management, which is used at almost 4,000 stations in the form of work with electronic documentation (ED) due to the presence of an electronic signature (ES) among employees.

Almost 100 thousand external users have electronic keys for signing transportation documents.

As part of the organization of electronic document management to reduce the delivery time of financial documents to the client, JSC «Russian Railways» has introduced electronic document management of accounting documents using an electronic signature. To date, in addition to invoices, acts of services rendered and lists to them, the client receives in electronic form with an electronic signature: the act of reconciliation of settlements, invoices for payment of penalties.

Electronic document management is widely used in international transportation. International transportation has already been implemented on electronic legally significant waybills with Finland, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Kazakhstan. In the near future, the list of such countries will be replenished, which will significantly reduce the transportation time and improve the communication component with cargo owners.

Since 2017, a new type of public electronic service has been introduced for cargo owners and rolling stock operators, aimed at creating and developing a comfortable communication environment for all categories of customers based on modern hardware and software products – the electronic trading platform «Cargo Transportation» (ETP CT). ETP CT is a specialized information system that allows using Internet technologies to provide a comprehensive cargo transportation service with the provision of operator wagons. The main advantages of this system are:

– low percentage of Agent’s commission;

– non-discriminatory access to Russian Railways services;

– freedom to join the service.

Currently, the software content of the ETP CT, technologically integrated into the complex of interconnected information and control systems of the Russian Railways holding, makes it possible to optimally solve the maximum number of tasks related to transportation, focusing on the priority – meeting the needs of service users and promptly responding to the challenges of the transport market.