By Marlon Madden
During the pandemic, Finland national Sirte Pihlaja took a leap of faith with her husband and two children to move to Barbados for one year under the Barbados Welcome Stamp Programme.
While here, Pihlaja fell so in love with the island and its people that she started the process to establish an arm of the Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA) in Bridgetown that would serve the Caribbean region.
Pihlaja, is the owner of a customer experience agency based in Finland but does work globally. The industry expert of more than two decades is also head of activities at CXPA Finland.
She told Barbados TODAY it was her intention to establish an arm of the non-profit organisation to serve the Caribbean. This organisation, she explained, is dedicated to increasing the visibility and effectiveness of the customer experience profession and helping to set standards. CXPA is already in over 80 countries.
“I was talking with a person from Trinidad who is also in customer experience and she has agreed with me to start the CXPA here in the Caribbean. Other customer experience professionals will then be able to meet with each other and network and share experiences and learn from each other. That is something I would love to bring to the Caribbean,” she declared.
Pihlaja, who is expected to be in Barbados until the summer, said she was hoping to have the first meeting for the establishment of the network here towards the beginning of next month.
She said such a movement stood to benefit just about everyone and this would be her small way of giving back to the island.
She pointed out: “Whether it is business to consumer or business to business, even the government is engaged in customer experiences with citizens. Everybody who wants to share their knowledge within this network can help each other and that will then be of benefit to everybody.”
In fact, she said with Barbados and other regional states heavily-dependent on the services industries for their economic growth, it was critical that customer experience remains top-of-mind and is strengthened in every possible way.
“That is something I have been thinking about, what could I do to help Barbados and all the other Caribbean countries as they get all of that tourism coming back,” she said.
Anyone interested in being a part of this development, she said, could get in touch with her on her LinkedIn account or visit www.cxpa.org.
The customer service professional, who has been on island since May 2022, said she believed Barbadians had a natural knack for being hospitable and that was what captured her heart the moment she arrived on the island.
“What I am referring to is how people behave in their normal daily lives when we pass each other,” she said.
“I have mostly loved the people here because they are so genuine. We have met so many people who have been so nice to us, just saying ‘hello’ when you pass people in the streets; everybody says hello. I have never experienced that before anywhere, that you feel welcomed everywhere you go. It is like hospitality is in people’s DNA here,” she explained.
She said she has also been quite pleased that Barbadians often slowed down the pace of their speech once they realised the difficulty understanding what was being said.
However, having had one of her worst experiences here while conducting business at a financial institution and an online grocery store, Pihlaja said she believed customer service was in need of “a nudge” especially in those areas.
She said while the language was never a concern for her and her husband, the children had a little bit of difficulty in the beginning.
“But within two months they are getting some of the best grades. So it worked out,” she added.
Pihlaja said while she would love to extend her stay on the Welcome Stamp, the family would be returning to Finland in July “because of the children” ages 14 and 10 years.
“The school has been magnificent with the kids. It was one of the reasons we came here, we wanted the kids to have another cultural experience coming from a totally different background,” she said.
“We loved being here and I have been thinking of ways how we could give back because Barbados has given so much to us during the year and we love the country,” she said.
Over the past year, the family has visited St Vincent and the Grenadines, Martinique and St Lucia. While expressing her appreciation for the difference in the islands, Pihlaja declared “I must say, we love Barbados the best.”
Pihlaja and her family have seen just about all of Barbados already. She said one thing she was sure to take back to Helsinki was “the customs of smiling and greeting each other”.
She said her favourite Bajan phrases were “yes please” and “no please”, adding that, “I never used no with a please before. It is funny”. [email protected]
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