Why Indian Railways is too Eager for Feedback all of a sudden?

Recently, I was travelling by Train and suddenly a Railways employee came to clean it. In the next five minutes a few people (including yours truly) received a rather elaborate feedback form and a pen to fill it.

Not knowing what rating to give on the provided scale of 1 to 5, I filled up numbers between 2 – 4 to give them an average rating of 3. This is similar to the technique I used to answer multi-choice questions in exams, but that’s for a different post.

I left the PNR No. column empty. But the attendant wouldn’t take it without that all-important information. He made me refer to it on my phone and fill it up. I obliged. I was glad that I was done with the feedback thing with my contribution towards improving a thing or two.

The next day, I got a call from Indian Railways in the morning when I was taking bath. I missed it. I got another call soon after and I missed that too. I attended the third call which I got after a couple of hours and then cut it hoping that will stop the calls.

But it seemed IR was not pleased with my inaction. I got one more call. This time I made sure I not only attended it but also chose all the appropriate options for the feedback before cutting the call, hoping to end the call series.

Interestingly, one of the questions was about punctuality. I used this opportunity to give them a ‘2’ rating for taking us 1-hour late to the destination. That one grace point was for starting the train on the correct time 🙂

Now, since I have dutifully given my feedback, I hope not to receive any more calls. Just to make sure, I sent a reminder to Indian Railways over Twitter (this account was mentioned over the phone). Here is the screenshot –

indian railways feedback

I mean, I am a dutiful citizen who wants to give feedback to the Indian Railways to improve services and all, but this, I felt, was stretching the feedback activity a bit too much. Don’t you agree? 🙂

Destination Infinity 

8 thoughts on “Why Indian Railways is too Eager for Feedback all of a sudden?

  1. Pradeep

    Yes, I too have noticed this eagerness to get feedback. But I haven’t got that form that you had to fill in.
    Getting feedback is one thing, acting on feedback is another.
    I am hearing that the government is trying hard to bring in more efficiency and accountability, to what I think is the world’s largest train network But how far they succeed (considering our approaches to efficiency) is debatable.

    1. Rajesh K

      It’s a difficult task, but I hope they will be able to improve efficiency and bring in accountability.

      Destination Infinity

  2. SG

    Was that an automated call or a real person calling you?

    1. Rajesh K

      It was an automated call, of course 🙂

      Destination Infinity

  3. Jeevan

    Wish they work on rather receiving plainly feedbacks… I have travelled in train only at childhood, but I really wish at least I take the metro train sometime

    1. Rajesh K

      Direct feedback may also be available, need to check…

      Destination Infinity

  4. Avada Kedavra

    5 times? wow. Usually survey calls are made only once. This is some persistent automated system.

    1. Rajesh K

      Yeah! 🙂

      Destination Infinity

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