End-to-end Customer Experience

Thursday, May 7, 2015
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM

Description:
In 2012, Carol Hyams led a special project to analyse the passenger end-to-end experience at Toronto Pearson Airport and propose how to improve human interaction at significant touch-points.  Among those recommendations was to introduce an airport-wide volunteer program designed to provide basic information and way-finding services to passengers in ‘zones of confusion’.  In December 2013 “The Welcome Team” was launched and has grown to a membership of over 100 amazing airport ambassadors.  In this presentation you’ll hear how a volunteer program was developed and launched in record time, what was learned about volunteer management by the support team, and within the organization.  Assumptions are often made that volunteers should be treated as paid employees and this can cause unrealistic expectations on both sides. How does one grow a program while successfully maintaining a highly motivated and engaged volunteer force?  In addition, what learnings can be transferred to other areas of the business?

About the Speaker
Carol started her career in the shopping centre world, and managed a number of different malls primarily in the GTA including the Toronto Eaton Centre and the opening of Vaughan Mills.  In 2010 she joined the Greater Toronto Airports Authority in a new role as the Senior Manager of Retail Programs and created and launched a variety of programs to drive sales and improve the customer experience with the airport retail community.  After working on a special project to build a service framework for the end-to-end passenger journey, the GTAA created the role of Senior Manager, Customer Design, that enabled the development and integration of many of the recommendations stated in the report.  One of these recommendations was to introduce an airport wide volunteer program at Toronto Pearson, and this was realized in December 2013.  In December 2014, Carol moved over to the Sunwing Travel Group as the Director of Customer Experience, a new role introduced by Sunwing to build a company-wide customer service strategy in order to drive a consistent, measured and elevated experience throughout the company and its’ affiliates.