Ferrying Excellent Customer Service

Transportation providers have one of the most rewarding and challenging environments in which to deliver excellent customer experiences (CXs), including through their contact centers.

Each person, in every role - like the contact centers agents - must work together to have their customers (people, including their pets, and shippers’ products) arrive at their destinations safely, on time, and comfortably: in that order.

The transportation operator is there, and they and their employees deliver when everything goes right, providing the type of superb, and yes, fun, CXs you see in ads. They are also there when things don’t go as planned, such as with bad weather, demand spikes, equipment breakdowns, delays, and mishaps, or when critical staff unexpectedly do not show up.

Ferry companies transport the CX to a different level. They handle most every customer type and mobility mode: on-foot and on a vast range of vehicles from mobility devices to bicycles, motorcycles, cars, buses, trucks, and vans, and with trailers. The vessels operate in daytime and often at night, and in quickly changing conditions. The crews squeeze customers on safely, but sometimes they get left behind.

The contact center plays a key role with ferries. The agents provide information, including updates to customers before boarding and to those expecting them or deliveries. They also facilitate reservations where they are offered or required, including last-minute changes.

“Our agents are extensively trained to handle calls...and have a robust understanding of the many different questions our customers may have...” —Clare Donnelly

As ferries are vital to the people and businesses in the communities they serve, and as ferry services are often publicly-owned, every facet is under the public spotlight. The employees who engage with the customers – including the agents – hear the bad, but sometimes the good. They can relate, as they are often customers too – and in the same boat.

The BC Ferries Story

An independently managed private company contracted to provide ferry services for the Province of British Columbia, in Canada, BC Ferries is one of the world’s busiest and highly diverse ferry operators. Consider the following:

• In 2024/2025 BC Ferries carried a record 22.7 million passengers and 9.7 million vehicles, with demand up for vehicles by 2% and for passengers by 1% from 2023/2024.
• Between May 15 and August 31, 2025, BC Ferries transported a summer season record of 9.4 million passengers and 3.7 million vehicles across all routes – up 2.2% and 2.0% respectively--compared to the same period in 2024.

Little wonder: BC Ferries has 37 vessels of varying sizes that ply a network of 25 routes along 1,000 miles of coastline, encompassing the mainland, Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island, and the North Coast, calling at 47 terminals. The communities it serves range in size of 300 or so residents on the smaller islands to over three million in Metro Vancouver.

The routes and journey times range, as examples:

• Campbell River to Quadra Island is one of the shortest, at 10 minutes.
• Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay is the busiest as it connects Metro Vancouver with Victoria, the provincial capital, along with its metro area. Popular also with tourists, especially in summer, the travel time is approximately 1 hour 35 minutes terminal-to-terminal, which are situated south and north of their respective cities.
• The Inside Passage from Port Hardy, on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, to Prince Rupert on the north coast, is the longest and takes some 16 hours to traverse, longer in the off-season when additional stops are made on this route.

The vessels are sized accordingly, and according to demand. Like the 47-car/399 passenger-and-crew Island K’ulut’a and Island Nagalis, the 358-car/2,100 passenger-and-crew Spirit of Vancouver Island, and the 115-car/638 passenger-and-crew Northern Expedition signed to the above routes respectively.

The conditions in which these vessels can be smooth sailing on clear days, where passengers crowd the decks taking photos of whales pointed out by the crew, and against dramatic mountain backdrops.

Then there is the fog, winds, rain (and sometimes snow), changing swift currents, tides, unmindful other sailors, and logging debris that BC Ferries’ professional, well-trained, and experienced crews must contend with. Then there are the sometimes-unruly customers and malfunctioning vehicles.

As the lifeline for the province’s coastal communities, when there is news of BC Ferries it is widely reported and posted on social media and raised and debated by elected officials. BC Ferries is also a major employer and contractor with over 5,000 employees: many of whom are also customers.

If this sounds like I am personally familiar with BC Ferries, that is correct. My wife and I are BC Ferries’ customers, we’ve called customer service, and yes, we have booked sailings (also see BOX below).

To learn more about how BC Ferries delivers excellent CXs to residents, visitors, and businesses through its contact center, I had a virtual conversation with its team of professionals. They are:

• Karen Tindall, Director, Customer Care
• Clare Donnelly, Manager, Customer Service Centre, Customer Care
• Zoe King, Manager, Customer Service Centre (Key Accounts), Customer Care
• Rhonda Daye, Manager, Customer Relations, Customer Care

Q. Tell the story of your contact center. Include any milestones/changes over the years.

Zoe: We first opened our [then-named] “Reservation Centre” in 1975 at 1045 Howe Street, in downtown Vancouver, to provide information on all BC Ferries routes. It also handled reservations for the southern Gulf Islands (to/from Tsawwassen) and Inside Passage routes.

Additionally, we had toll-free phone lines from Victoria as well as from Salt Spring, Pender, Saturna, Mayne, and Galiano Islands. We typed confirmation of space forms for each regular Inside Passage booking and created manual sailing manifests for the Southern Gulf Islands departures.

To help provide information to our customers, we also had dedicated lines for media to call and obtain updated ferry reports, as we did not yet have the internet. Customers would tune in on their radios for the latest updates.

Our technology improved as well. As soon as it became available, an automatic call sequencer was installed in August 1979. This allowed the caller to hear a pre-recording and then they were placed on hold in order of sequence. We put in a Datapoint computer that provided over 124 pages of information regarding vessel and terminal details.

“...there's a dedicated team working behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly...” —Zoe King

Of note, Gulf Islands reservations could be made seven days a week from 8 am to 5 pm. To assist the traveling public, also to curtail the number of “no-shows,” clerks in the center were available to accept Gulf Island cancelations from 6 am to 10 pm daily.

In 1986, the Reservation Centre moved to Victoria, B.C., on Fort Street on the edge of downtown, and then in 2011 to our current location on Blanshard Street, in the Atrium Building. We also renamed ourselves the Customer Service Centre (CSC) to reflect the full service we provide on all our routes, terminals, products, fares, and schedules for our customers.

In 2020, COVID-19 created the need for us all to work remotely, and though we have transitioned back into the office, our agents now have the benefit of a hybrid experience, working from home or from our Atrium location.

Q. Handling bookings for the different types of customers must require considerable behind-the-scenes support. How do you provide it?

Zoe: While passengers enjoy the scenic journey across British Columbia’s coastlines, there’s a dedicated team working behind the scenes to ensure everything runs smoothly: no matter the size or complexity of the booking.

Our Key Accounts team quietly manages over 250,000 reservations each year on behalf of our Commercial and Travel Trade partners, playing a vital role in keeping people, goods, and services flowing seamlessly between the mainland, Vancouver Island, the North Coast, and the Sunshine Coast. We also support many overwide requests for travel of some very large vehicles to/from Vancouver Island.

But their work doesn’t stop there. From coordinating travel for large groups and B.C. student field trips to organizing baggage carts for foot passenger groups, the team’s scope is as vast as the waters they help navigate. They even handle the unique logistics of the film industry, booking travel for production crews, coordinating onboard shoots, and arranging vessel charters to meet filming needs.

And when the unexpected happens - whether it’s a weather disruption or another operational hiccup - this team steps in to manage cancelations and rebookings, ensuring that customers are taken care of with speed and care. It’s detailed, fast-paced work that rarely makes the spotlight, but without it, the whole system wouldn’t sail so smoothly.

Q. With BC Ferries operating in several distinct environments, does this result in variations in the types and nature of customer contact?

Clare: It does! And here’s how:

• Our Mainland - Vancouver Island routes will involve more booking-related calls with all types of travelers.
• We will see a lot more commuter calls for our Sunshine Coast routes.
• Our minor routes, serving the Gulf Islands, are primarily non-bookable, so we’ll get a lot more general questions for that region.
• The northern routes are a mix of locals travelling for various personal needs and tourists visiting from far-flung locales.

Our agents are extensively trained to handle calls on all these routes and regions and have a robust understanding of the many different questions our customers may have regarding their travel.

Q. Does the CSC connect with other points of customer contact, such as the terminals’ staff?

Rhonda: When issues arise at the terminals or on board vessels, our Team Leads in the CSC are available to assist [on-site staff and] crew members with customers in real time, helping to resolve situations and ensure customers can continue their journeys.

For more complex concerns or those requiring investigation and follow-up, our Customer Relations team works closely with employees across terminals, vessels, and other departments to provide accurate information and resolve matters effectively. Multiple teams collaborate with each other to ensure a seamless experience for our customers.

“When issues arise at the terminals or on board vessels, our Team Leads in the CSC are available to assist [on-site staff and] crew members with customers...” —Rhonda Daye

Q. Describe your agent hiring, assessment, onboarding, training, and coaching.

Clare: We begin our seasonal hiring in January each year. We screen all applicants with a suitability questionnaire and resume reviews and bring the qualified applicants in for an interview.

Our interviews are in the background-action-result (BAR) format. We also include a written component to assess information processing and written communication.

We conduct two-three hiring classes each year, and training is six weeks long with four weeks in classroom (with weekly written assessments) and two weeks practical on the phones.

After the training period, we assess each hire’s on-call performance on our various call types, and they must be cleared for each call type before they are considered successful through training.

Once cleared, all our agents receive monthly coaching and performance check-ins from their assigned assistant manager, and as needed coaching from our team leads.

Q. What are the key challenges facing the CSC? And how have you responded?

Clare: In this type of operation, we must always deal with sailing cancelations (be they weather-related or otherwise) and we are also responding to rising costs as are all industries.

We are always looking to improve efficiency and to educate customers on self-service options. In the last five years we have gone from 75% of bookings being made self-serve online to 90%. We also have a very seasonal operation, so we have a large seasonal hire every year.

Fortunately, we have a wealth of historical data to draw from when trying to predict what each year may hold. We use this information, along with known planned events, to plan our team size each year, and we recruit a mix of employees who would like to stay long term and students who are looking for summer work while in school.

To combat attrition, we conduct a yearly engagement survey to understand employee pain points and work to improve them. We have made changes based on this feedback that have reduced our attrition by 33% and improved our amount of returning seasonals by 300%, allowing us to have much smaller seasonal hiring groups.

Q. Do you benchmark against other similar contact centers?

Clare: We do benchmark against Washington State Ferries as another west coast ferry operator and Marine Atlantic on Canada’s east coast. But we also compare ourselves to larger players in the travel industry such as WestJet and Air Canada.

Q. Where does the CSC go from here? What are your plans? Are you looking, for example, to shorten the length of contacts or shift more of your contacts to automated applications with AI?

Clare: We are investigating the applications of AI to improve our self-serve options as well as to assist our agents in finding the right information to assist callers.

We expect there will always be a need for a personal touch with more complex customer situations, but we want to make it as easy as possible for them to handle the bulk of their concerns using our self-serve offerings.