“I have noticed that lack of information at certain touch points in the airport create confusion and stress. For example; at which touch point do I show which type of documentation? — Better information about this at the specific touch points could smooth processes in security, boarding, immigration and passport control.”

We think that Mette is pointing out an important issue.

This is one of the things that our service development & customer experience specialists have thought about. As some of you know, we @HelsinkiAirport are one of the main partners of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012, with a reason: we are dedicated to enhance our customer experience and are using service design – and quality hunting! – to do that.

Information throughout the passenger journey is a key for successful travel. Airports can be fussy and confusing, even intimidating. After extensive studies we know quite a lot of the different emotions people go through during their path to, through and from the airport and have set a goal to make things much smoother. We are stating that in our promise: for smooth travelling.

One of the things we are focusing right now is the security control. This is one of the places everyone has to go through. We want to make sure passengers know what is happening and hence feel less stressed. Plenty of thought has been given to pre-information, orientation and guidance. In our brand new security check trial at terminal 1, we are using icons and pictures instead of words. In our country alone we have two official languages, then there’s English, and on top of those we are also providing information in Russian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese in many places – we find this really important. But in some places with limited space pictures speak for thousand words and they are universal too. One of the things we’ve also implemented already before is the waiting time information we are indicating.

Beyond the visible pictures and words, we are focusing on three different aspects of service design: people, processes and places. We want our staff to be there for our passengers. We want the process to be easy and smooth. We want the premises be cozy.

This trial is just the beginning: we want to hear your feedback and make it even better. Our staff at the security check is listening. And we are too. Don’t hesitate to give us a tweet @Helsinkiairport

Be sure to try this mobile website and check waiting time at security at any time.Combined with the redesigned security experience it should ensure you have a smooth travelling experience.

Click to visit the Pinterest board

Now it is the time to move on to the next phase: creation of the interior design of the Book Swap.

The basics

The way it looks right now – renovation work about to start:

The floorplan:

• 17m²
• Silver colored ceiling – room is 2 meters high. We know this is low, but we want to take advantage of it in the most positive way, to make it an interesting and cosy place.
• Wall will be white for now, suggestions for wallpapers and decorations welcome

Furniture options:

Based on your ideas we’ve selected to partner with Satelliet, who is providing the chairs/sofas and tables. Click on the image below to see them on Pinterest:

So what we are looking for?

We’re looking for your interior design with furniture placements, wall decoration options, and other ideas… you name it. When you’ve done the creative work, share with us by:

• Pinning your ideas on Pinterest and providing us with a link. It can be a picture, a floor plan, or any design concept.
• Sending a tweet with your ideas to our Twitter account @QualityHunters. Be sure to mark your tweets with the hashtag #QHbookswap.

Our goal is to combine the best ideas and make them happen! (we need to reserve the rights to make some changes, hope you are cool with that).

This is your chance to shine. As requested by the community: the names of the contributors will be put on a special “wall of fame” in the #QHbookswap to honor their help in designing it.

The Helsinki Airport Book Swap will be located on the second floor of Terminal 2, upstairs from gate 27 and next to the Fly Inn restaurant.

So the space is there but we don’t have the interior plan yet.  Our dream is to design the space with you to make it cozy and special.

The Space

• 17 m² (4.2 x 3.9 m)
• wooden floors
• silver ceiling (a little lower in the middle to cover the duct work)

These are the basics and you can help us make it into something amazing! To get started, we are looking for some inspiration from the community . What would the ideal book swap space be like?

Tell us by:

• Pinning your ideas and sharing it with us on Pinterest, it can be a picture, a floor plan, or any design concept.
• Sending us a picture of your ideas to our Twitter account @QualityHunters. Be sure to mark your tweets with the hashtag #QHbookswap.
• Leaving an email at qualityhunters@gmail.com or including your ideas in a comment to this blog post

For the next two weeks (until Tuesday 27 March), we’ll be using your pins and boards for inspiration to prepare for the next phase, where we will match our resources with your ideas. In the end we will proudly display the names of all who inspired the design of the Book Swap. Then we can celebrate the project we created in collaboration with you – a sleek, stylish Book Swap that is used to recycle literature and to bring joy to all the travelers going through Helsinki Airport.

And now let your imagination fly!

It’s a very exciting time at Helsinki Airport – we’ve opened the brand new Design Gallery and the first exhibition named Sit Down and Seize the Moment. It presents Finnish furniture design with 15 hand-picked chairs by well-known and up-and-coming designers. They offer a possibility to sit down and relax. There are also noise protectors provided for cutting down the excess noise.

The exhibitors are Heikki Ruoho, Milla Vaahtera, Ilkka Suppanen, Pasi Kolhonen, Kasper Tammela, Jukka Setälä, Mikko Paakkanen, Ilari Airikkala, Yuki Abe, Kai van der Puij, Timo Ripatti, Ari Korolainen, Harri Koskinen, Jouko Järvisalo and Tuula Vitie.

Located at gate 11, the Design Gallery is open to all passengers. A warm welcome!

The restaurant had a special menu during those couple of weeks, which was also something that especially our Quality Hunter Sanjoo asked for.

We also had a little draw going on and to celebrate the year of the Dragon, we drew two tickets to our new destination, Chongqing, China. It’s a bustling metropolis famous for its hot pot. But don’t worry, it’s still not too late. Simply answer the question on this website and enter the draw as well. (Alternatively, if you’re from Asia, we’ll fly you from Chongqing to Europe!)

To win return tickets to Chongqing for two, enter here: www.finnair.com/win

A few weeks ago we informed you that the first Quality Hunters idea is being implemented at Helsinki Airport and now it’s time to tell you some more of the latest developments: we’re happy to introduce to you the Artport Gallery.

The Artport Gallery is not one but many: we’ll have several dedicated spaces for displaying photography, design, and art. We’ve placed these spaces around the airport as we want as many people as possible to experience and enjoy art and have a nice start to smooth travelling from Helsinki Airport.

The first exhibitions are by Finnish artists and feature Finnish design. This decision was based on your wishes. Thanks to @kathereal who commented that she would love to see art that is connected to Finland – through the landscape, culture or tradition. Our aim is to make this happen.

The first gallery, which we just opened, is a Photo Gallery and is located at terminal 2, in the arrivals hall. Currently showing is the Portraits of Aviation exhibition, open until June this year. It showcases the work of six Finnish portraits artists: Mikaela Löfroth of Hämeenlinna, Peero Lakanen and Sami Reivinen of Tampere, and Petra Tiihonen, Sami Tirkkonen and Tiina Mickelsson of Kuopio. The pieces portray aviation in many forms: glamour, vintage style and futurism.

The second gallery to open will be dedicated to design. The Design Gallery will be located at Terminal 1, gates 11-12. The first exhibition will showcase Finnish design. The grand opening will be held on 15 February. You’ll hear more about it soon!

Thirdly, we are also opening an Art Gallery, at which we’ll showcase Finnish contemporary art. The Art gallery is planned to open its doors already on 1 March.

How does this sound to you all?

Anna Tuomi, Helsinki Airport

• Share your thoughts: @qualityhunters on Twitter

The exact form of the community and its parts is currently taking shape and we would love your feedback on what YOU would like to see the Quality Hunters become. Developing air travel and the airport experience will still be the focus of the initiative, but do tell us how you would like the development to go on in a productive and fun way!

What kind of art would you like to see?

During the past few weeks – and for weeks to come – the team of us working for Helsinki Airport have carefully reviewed your 250 and more ideas and recently announced that we will put into practice the first development ideas in early 2012 already.

As we are kicking off the World Design Capital year here in Helsinki, one of the first ideas we will be introducing is an airport art gallery. Food for thought for the development of the art gallery was given by @qhtomas and you – so we are excited to say that this will be the first developed by the Quality Hunters community project to be implemented!

The main question to you is: what kind of art you would love to see? What inspires you? And a bit beyond Helsinki Airport: what are your favorite places of art and where in the World are they? MoMA in New York is one prime example of a place an art lover must visit. Maybe you find modern art interesting too? Would Helsinki Airport be a place for  displaying some?

Anna Tuomi, Helsinki Airport

• Check out the current art exhibitions at Helsinki Airport

The eco-friendly book swap for passengers to trade second-hand books is aimed to be introduced in early 2012. Practicalities involved in offering “Meat Free Monday”, meant to decrease the food service related carbon footprint, as well as some other food-related suggestions, are being investigated.

Some ideas, such as developing family travel in business environment and improving luggage claim areas, have been selected to undergo internal development processes.

Overwhelmed by the richness of ideas received from the Quality Hunters and from the public, Finnair and Helsinki Airport are considering more entries for implementation. An art gallery, for example, will open up at Helsinki Airport in 2012.

“We are thrilled with the quality of ideas we have received, and our intention is to relay the benefits of the project to our passengers by putting into practice as many ideas as possible as soon as we can”, says Johanna Metsälä, Customer Experience Manager at Helsinki Airport.

“Our initiative clearly shows that initiating a frank and open dialogue between airlines, airports and their passengers can have tremendous results”, says Antti Nieminen, Marketing Innovations Director at Finnair.

Follow @qualityhunters on Twitter to join the discussion on how to improve air travel and to follow up the implementation of the development ideas. We are definitely not ending here…

Once again, a big warm Thank You from the team!

–

We all have expectations, regardless whether we acknowledge them or not. They can be positive or negative. They can be related to mundane topics such as having electricity, running water, or a flight on time. Then again they can be something completely opposite as well; consider, whether you have some expectations when you see your friends? And how about the morning rush-hour, what do you expect from your fellow commuters? Or have you ever sacrificed a single thought to what are you expecting from a service? Let it be a visit to cinemas, an evening in a restaurant, or an intercontinental flight in first class?

Most of us, if not all, know how to complain when we receive bad service. But what is it that makes the service bad? Usually we feel like something is a bit off, the service differs negatively from our expectations. On the other hand, it is sometimes hard to notice the positive difference in levels of service. We are delighted for a moment when our expectations are met to a further extent than we had thought, but as discussed earlier by Alf Rehn (http://qualityhunters2.com/?p=251), what happens when the quality of a service is already, by default, at such a good level that it meets our expectations? Will we think of it as good service or will it be regular service?

The answer lies within your expectations. Every time you fly the service should be at least as good as the previous time, but every flight should also contain an element of positive surprise. Otherwise you will get too used to the good quality – it will be trivialized.

—-

As if Quality Hunters Season 1 would have contained the first and only true testers of flying quality. Quite the contrary—in case you’ve ever flown you are likely to know more than the crew!

How could you know better than the crew itself? The explanation is simple: the staff is influenced by the infamous Curse of Knowledge, the flipside of adapting to any new role. Right from the point of being hired, the flying personnel starts learning about airline operation and, at the same rapid pace, forgetting about what it was like to be on the customer’s side of the seat row. Of course, no professional would just suddenly turn as insensitive as a block of wood. Yet, with the perspective of a customer giving way to a service provider view, the staff cannot possibly catch all the details in need of improvement. This leads us back to your role.

You do look at air traveling through the customer’s angle. God forbid, maybe you have even encountered shortcomings that you, in your mind, might have registered as too trivial for the crew to put right. What if it wasn’t so? What if the airline or airport just never saw the forest from the trees? What if all you would have needed to do is to have submitted a request for another course of action? After all, this is what the Quality Hunters initiative stands for in essence—to re-educate your flight organizers about what matters to their customers.

The Quality Hunters initiative is about handing the power back to the one ultimately in control of an airline’s and airport’s very existence. The power lies with you, the customer.

So, how much of a Quality Hunter mentality do you display? Can you find anything that you would have liked to change with your flying experience, were it down to you to make it happen? Is there a trade-off involved to sacrifice a less important function yet enable something bigger and better in its stead? Take a moment to think it through. It is your voice that counts.

P.S. No need to content yourself to lonely contemplation. Have a look at the ideas and comment on them – you might just add that pinch of insight that cooks up a truly perfect idea!

P.S. #2 To see how the whole initiative takes effect, Aalto University has opened a survey. Show what you know of Quality Hunters and WIN a gift card at http://bit.ly/vnvO92