Why you should care about your customers in the example of Deutsche Bahn !

Connecting people from A to B and bring them together is one of the important things in the modern world. The Humans invented many different ways to travel, but one of the outstanding ways is traveling by train.

In Germany this sector is ruled by Deutsche Bahn who was owned by the government until the year 1994. Now the “DB” is nearly a monopolist and a private company who owned by many shareholders. Usually a perfect situation for serve your customers well. But instead of using this power to innovate and implement a punctual and convenient system for customers, Deutsche Bahn try to get in foreign markets in Europe (England, Italy) and the world. The care more about their shareholders to maximize their profit and make them happy.

In other big company’s that wouldn’t be a problem, but the DB got in 1994 the whole rights for the German railroads. The German government pay billion of Euros every year to the DB for maintaining the railroad system. The first task for this Big Player should be connecting people in Germany from a to b.

Going by train is fast, comfortable and good for the environment. Also you arrive mostly in center of the city, instead of the outskirts if you going by bus (like Greyhound). If you hungry you can use the food store on board. If you looking for a toilet, you just have to go. There are so many advantages to other ways of traveling but Deutsche Bahn is still confronted with a very bad image.

To book a Ticket is sometimes very annoying the prices are change all the time. Sometimes is cheaper to drive 200Km more and you pay less. Also the service counters at train stations are in a bad conditions, the staff is often very unfriendly and lines are packed with people.

These all are reasons why Deutsche Bahn losing many customers to other travel systems like Bus (Greyhound) and Services like Blablacar (ride shares). DB should start thinking about to change this or they get in big trouble in the future.

Conclusion

I am using Deutsche Bahn very often. I love going by train and reading a book and enjoy the silence. If they 5 mins late i don’t care. But I don’t understand why there are no special offers for students. If I become accustomed using a train instead of cars or planes, I also use the train if I am done with my study’s and earn more money. In addition to that I don’t understand what is so difficult for DB to implement a easy and a clearly arranged Ticket System.

I am sure if the Deutsche Bahn can fix these problems and concentrate more on their key business, they are win against traveling by bus, car or domestic flights.