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Humans of Helsinki Airport: Sini Kaikkonen, Customer Experience Champion

Article published
30.6.2017 at 06:00
Archived
A woman posing to camera at departures lobby.
People & Aviation Travel
Humans of Helsinki Airport: Sini Kaikkonen, Customer Experience Champion

“As a Customer Experience Champion, half of my time is spent working as a terminal host, guiding passengers and making sure everything – such as trolleys and flight information screens – is in order or running smoothly. I walk around and talk with customers and staff members, looking for ideas on how to improve the customer experience. The rest of the time I’m at the office, where I coordinate smaller service development projects. These can be anything from setting up mobile device charging solutions to collecting real time customer feedback.

“My team and I are also in charge of organizing live music performances at the departure gates. These require preparation that starts about two months before the actual gig. We apply for visitor cards for the band and decide the best time and place to hold these performances. Most of the work is done before the first chord is even struck.

“I have been working at the airport for a total of six years. I first started as a part-time Service Advisor, and my job was to help passengers to use the automated border control. I eventually got to know the terminal well enough to give guided tours for visiting groups. That is still one of my favorite things to do.

“I’ve wanted to work here since I was a kid."

“I’ve wanted to work here since I was a kid. The airport has always represented positive things to me because it has been the starting point of family holidays. I remember jumping around my apartment when I heard I got the job.

“The best feeling is when I am able to help. The airport can be an intimidating place especially if you don’t travel often, or you haven’t been here before. If a stressed out passenger leaves our conversation with a confident smile on his or her face, I feel like I’ve done my job well.

“The other thing I love about my job is the community I get to work in. The airport is full of nice, professional people from whom you can learn a lot. I consider all of them my colleagues. During my years here I learn more and more, but at the same time I realize how little I actually know.

Read more from our Humans of Helsinki Airport series: Krista Peurasaari