This article was put together by my colleague Tyler Heshka from CMBC’s employee communications team!

With the Olympics in full swing, our customer service call centre has been almost as loud as the argyle pants of Norway’s curling team!

Customer Information (CI), who answers system questions and helps with trip planning, had their busiest weekend ever from February 19 to 21, with a 25-30% increase in calls per day.

On Saturday, February 20, the CI team took an unprecedented 8,258 calls in person, along with 12,882 calls taken by their Interactive Voice Response system, and 51,070 hits to the TransLink website. (From February 10 to 21, 39.2% of the visits to the TransLink website were from new visitors, too!)

Our Customer Relations team (CR), who handles commendations and complaints, also had a very busy weekend. On Sunday, February 21, CR actually recorded more commendations than complaints!

Many customers called to gush about our transit system, our transit hosts, the fast-moving lines at various stations, and our many transit operators who have put customers at ease with a friendly smile, a positive attitude, and a well-timed joke or two. Thankfully, our CR representatives were up to the overwhelming task of talking to all the impressed riders and recording all the positive comments.

To help with the Olympic demand, both CI and CR added more staff for the Games period. CI even started fielding Olympic-related calls weeks before the Games started, often from visitors planning their trips and learning get from their hotels to Olympic sites on transit.

Julie Bailey, manager of Customer Information, has had a front row seat as her incredible team has tackled the enormous challenge of the Olympic workload.

“The CI and CR teams have done an outstanding job of keeping up with the increased call volume during the past few weeks,” she said. “The staff have been providing excellent customer service to our existing and visiting customers and have proven that when given a challenge, they really rise to the occasion.”

If you need to reach the Customer Information team, call 604-953-3333! Our staff is taking calls from 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., which are our extended hours for the Olympic period.