3.0 THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ADVISORY PANEL
Mr. Steve O’Brien, the general manager of One King West Hotel and Residence, was appointed chair of the Customer Service Advisory Panel on February 17, 2010. He spent the following weeks appointing the members of the CSAP.
On March 2, 2010, he announced the full panel that would join him to review and make recommendations on customer service at the TTC.
The Members of The Customer Service Advisory Panel (CSAP), an independent group of volunteers, are:
Steve O’Brien
Chair, General Manager, One King West Hotel & Residence
Steve O’Brien is general manager of One King West Hotel & Residence, a 575-suite hotel and residence at the corner of King St. W. and Yonge St. in downtown Toronto. Mr. O’Brien has 30 years experience in the Toronto hotel industry, having worked with Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Hilton International, Delta Hotels & Resorts, and Ramada Canada. He has been an integral part of the opening team for four Toronto hotels and has served on several high-level hotel brand and customer service councils.
Matthew Blackett
Publisher and Co-Founder, Spacing Magazine
Matthew Blackett is the publisher and co-founder of Spacing magazine and has been a regular TTC rider since 1994. His magazine, launched in 2003, has become an integral voice on a variety of city and urban issues, including public transit. As publisher of Spacing, he has helped shape the magazine into one of Canada’s top small magazines. Mr. Blackett was named Editor of the Year for 2007 by the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors, which also named Spacing Canadian Small Magazine of the Year in 2007, 2008, and 2009. He was awarded a 2007 Canadian Urban Leadership Award, for “City Soul,” by the Canadian Urban Institute for his part in creating Spacing. In 2004, he created a series of buttons reflecting various TTC subway stations, and has since sold more than 120,000 of them — demonstrating that Torontonians have a deep affinity for their transit system.
Robert Culling
Transit Operator, Toronto Transit Commission
Robert Culling is a professional transit operator for the TTC and is proud to serve the people of Toronto. Formerly a tow truck driver with CAA, Robert was hired by the TTC as a transit operator and has since worked numerous routes throughout the city. In 2009, he received three commendations for outstanding service. His involvement in the panel stems from his desire to provide the best quality of service possible for TTC riders, and to ensure that people view the TTC as a safe, reliable, and enjoyable way to get around the city of Toronto.
Susan Davidson
Chair, ACAT
Yves Devin
CEO, Société de Transport de Montréal (STM)
Yves Devin has been STM’s CEO since May 2006 and is widely acknowledged for his strong leadership and consensus-building abilities. Under his leadership, STM recorded more than 382.5 million trips in 2008, a record for ridership in Montréal transit’s modern history. As a prime motivator for change, he believes that communication plays a major role in successfully engaging employees. Mr. Devin has a Bachelor’s degree from Université Laval in industrial relations and later attended the University of Philadelphia, studying strategic planning, and Boston’s Levinson Institute, where he studied work organization.
Tyson Matheson
Vice-President of People Relations & Culture, WestJet
Tyson Matheson is WestJet’s vice-president of people relations and culture. His escalation within the organization since joining WestJet at its 1996 inception, through various human resource–related positions, has contributed to the airline’s highly admired culture evolution. Thanks to a strong campaign led by Mr. Matheson, WestJet ranked sixth in the 2010 edition of Canada’s Top 50 Best Employers by Hewitt Associates and The Globe and Mail. With a solid operational understanding and an influential position within the airline industry, Mr. Matheson is in an ideal position to bring insight and leadership to the TTC.
Dr. Roy Morley
Professor of Marketing, Ryerson University
Dr. Roy Morley is a professor of marketing in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Civil Engineering, an MBA from York University, and a PhD from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He is also a Professional Engineer (PEng). A TTC user for the past 35 years, his primary area of interest is services organizations — particularly services marketing, services management, service quality, customer/client satisfaction, and the design and operation of effective service organizations. His business experience includes engineering design and construction, project management of large, complex projects, business planning, consulting, marketing, and operations management in a number of countries around the world.
Sue Motahedin
Manager, Loyalty & Retention, and TELUS Community Ambassador — President, Toronto East
Sue Motahedin, of TELUS Communications Inc., manages both a union and management team within the company’s Loyalty & Retention Department. With more than 15 years of management experience, she is focused on creating a world-class client experience for all of her customers through a team of engaged employees. A daily TTC commuter, Ms. Motahedin is looking forward to helping create a better TTC by balancing the customer perspective with a realistic understanding and appreciation of the demands on TTC’s workforce and infrastructure. She brings experience in creating and delivering training, developing and implementing quality/satisfaction measurement programs, and supporting emerging and changing technologies to help drive positive impacts to the end user.
Krisna Saravanamuttu
President, York Federation of Students
Krisna Saravanamuttu is a fourth-year Criminology major at York University and an aspiring law school candidate. Growing up in a poverty-stricken area of Toronto, he, among many others, depended upon affordable and accessible public transit to get around the city. As the current president of the York Federation of Students (Local 68 of the Canadian Federation of Students), he represents 50,000 undergraduates, 60 per cent of whom are commuter students. In November 2009, he had the pleasure of delivering a deputation on behalf of York students to lobby the TTC for the $99 discounted Metropass. Building on that success, he looks forward to working with the panel to share the perspective of student riders and holistically working towards making the TTC one of the best public transit systems in North America.
Kripa Sekhar
Executive Director, South Asian Women’s Centre
Kripa Sekhar, the executive director of the South Asian Women’s Centre, arrived in Canada as an immigrant in 1990. She has made it her mission to advocate for the needs of the most vulnerable women. A regular TTC user, she has been on many advisory committees and boards at the local, national, and international level, and has worked closely with marginalized communities in Saskatchewan and Toronto. A results-oriented professional with an extensive background in public relations, public policy and administration, community networking, and program development, she continues to work with a diverse collection of women, women’s groups, and other social justice organizations locally, provincially, nationally, and internationally.
Julie Tyios
CEO, Red Juice Media
Julie Tyios is the CEO of Red Juice Media, an online marketing firm. She is also the marketing and community manager of Vestiigo.com, a Canadian start-up. She is a regular TTC rider and avid mentor, writer, and philanthropist, donating her time to help not-for-profit organizations raise money for various causes. Heading into her seventh successful year as an entrepreneur, customer service has always been a top priority for her. Through the panel, she aims to generate key user feedback that can be used to improve the daily TTC experience for riders and TTC employees.
The mandate of the CSAP was to conduct a comprehensive review of the TTC’s operations, identify issues and problems that may have some impact on service quality and customer satisfaction, and make recommendation for improvements.
Activities included, but were not limited to:
- A review of operator, collector, and other frontline employee initial training, as well as recertification training
- A review of the commendation/complaint process
- A review of the selection and hiring criteria for frontline employees
- Development of a Bill of Rights that includes employee and customer expectations
- A review of current TTC plans to address customer service
- Conducting public consultations/meetings/focus groups
- Conducting employee consultations/meetings/focus groups
- Developing a public report identifying issues and recommendations
- Advising on the expertise and resources required to achieve success