Creating a seamless passenger experience

The passenger harbours of Helsinki are a fixed part of a ship passenger’s chain of travel, and the passenger experience there should be seamless and functional. Instead of just focusing on the sea and ground traffic services, the Seamless Passenger Experience spearhead project highlighted the importance of passenger and travel chain focus and the development of buildings and passenger services.

Understanding of passenger needs steers the operations

The systematic measuring of passenger experience was started in the Port in 2019. Based on the results, each passenger segment has it own needs, which are taken into account when developing the services provided by both the Port itself and its partners.

• The average grade of passenger satisfaction in 2019 was 4.05 on a scale of 0 to 5. As a whole, it reached a fairly good level, but the grade varied a great deal between the terminals, based on the condition of their infrastructure and their service selection.
• The Net Promoter Score (NPS) illustrating the passenger experience was 33 (introduced in March 2019). This will be used as the base level for future years. The NPS also varied a great deal. The West Terminal 2 received an excellent score of 63.

A model for maintaining the terminals in the property strategy

In addition to the passenger experience, lifecycle thinking and sustainability also guide the development of the Port properties and infrastructure, which sees some very heavy use. Most of the Port’s own energy consumption is due to properties and their maintenance, so they also have the potential to cut the Port’s carbon footprint.

The Port’s property strategy was completed in August 2019. It defined an environmentally responsible model, here the properties were divided into different categories based on their condition and lifecycle.

An extensive renewal at Katajanokka Terminal

As the first part of the Port’s investment programme, the renewal of Katajanokka passenger terminal was started. In the renewal, the terminal’s services will be fully upgraded, its appearance and waiting areas renovated and signage improved. One goal is for the versatile services on the terminal’s entrance floor to facilitate not only the passenger experience but also the everyday life of local residents. The renovations started at the beginning of September 2019, and will be completed at stages during 2020.

The renewal of Katajanokka Terminal’s district heating equipment was also completed in summer 2019.

The service concepts and plans have also been finished for other ship terminals in Helsinki. Next up is the renewal of the historic Olympia Terminal in 2021. The terminal’s condition survey was carried out in autumn 2019, and the planning work for the renewal is currently underway.

New side ramp to speed up vehicle boarding

A new upper ramp was completed at Katajanokka Terminal, which will speed up the boarding and unloading of vehicles and improve the customer experience of passengers travelling with a car.
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Service selection to increase

The Port of Helsinki is strongly developing its commercial cooperation with other parties and signing new partnership agreements on providing restaurant services and advertising in the terminals, for example. It also launched the tendering processes for taxi and parking services.

Advertising cooperation with Clear Channel, which was started in December, will make the quality of advertising more cohesive in the different Port areas, and it will also be strongly developed with the help of trends and passenger data acquired.

Most of the financial growth of the Port’s passenger traffic was generated by various services, such as parking, rental premises, restaurants and advertising. In total, the commercial operations of passenger traffic generated a revenue of €6.8 million in 2019.

Enriching experiences through trials

Among other actions, the Port of Helsinki expanded the product presentation and pop-up opportunities in its terminals and, together with its partners, carried out a Summer Pop-Up Lounge service trial for Tallink Silja’s Gold customers in West Terminal 2 in the summer.
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The service design of parking helped the Port to come to an understanding on how parking services will be implemented in, for example, the carpark that will be built in the West Harbour in 2021, the maintenance and operation of which the Port of Helsinki will be in charge of. The service concepts designed were also tested in a workshop that included both ship passengers and Jätkäsaari residents as well as representatives of companies operating in the West Harbour area.