S Group

Strengthening CX skills with international best practices

S Group’s Travel & Hospitality leadership and managers were inspired by Alec Dalton’s international keynote speech and our workshop. The combined training was emotional and thought-provoking and provided concrete ways to strengthen customer experience competencies at the organisational level.

“ The talk and workshop facilitated by Shirute strengthened our understanding of how management can practically support the development of customer experience - not just with words, but with actions and examples. From Alec's presentation, we gained concrete insights on what behaviours we should encourage in our day-to-day work. At the same time, it reinforced our pride in how far we are already on the road to an experiential customer culture.“
Juha Helminen
Senior Vice President, Hotels and Restaurants, S Group
“ Alec Dalton's speech managed to stimulate thinking on a whole new level. We got concrete ideas for making the customer experience a competitive advantage for our entire MaRa sector. Alec is an exceptional storyteller - his warm and captivating speech spoke deeply and made us see everyday customer encounters in a new, inspiring light. The lessons learned from this presentation on improving the customer experience provide valuable inspiration for any industry where customer service and attention to the customer are key.“
Jaana Matikainen
VP, Travel Business, S Group

Challenge

S Group is a Finnish, customer-owned network of companies offering services in the supermarket trade, speciality store trade, fuels retail and service stations trade, travel and hospitality business, car dealerships and hardware stores, as well as S-Bank’s comprehensive banking services. The group has around 2 000 outlets in Finland. It consists of cooperatives and SOK and its subsidiaries, which engage in supermarket trade and the travel and hospitality business in Estonia.

Customer satisfaction in S Group hotels and restaurants reached record levels in 2024. The travel trade returned as the market leader in terms of room sales in euros.

Sokos Hotels was also ranked number one in customer experience management in the last two CEM Benchmark surveys. It wants to further develop its CX competencies across the organisation.

To support this goal, S Group’s Travel and Hospitality (MaRa) business invited Shirute to talk about customer experience management to the MaRa Leaders’ Day, an event that brought together around 650 managers and supervisors. The aim of the keynote presentation was to deepen the participants’ understanding of customer experience management and inspire them to take the culture of happiness to the next level.

Solution

The keynote speaker for the event was Alec Dalton (CCXP), an international expert in CX who has worked in customer experience management for Disney and Marriott International, where he has been responsible for the quality of customer service at all of the brand’s nearly 8,000 hotels worldwide, including the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain.

Alec Dalton brought practical lessons from Disney and the Ritz-Carlton on how to build meaningful customer encounters in the everyday of the hospitality industry to S Group’s travel and hospitality managers and supervisors.

He illustrated inspiringly how the smallest of details and employee ownership can create world-class customer experiences that leave a mark on the heart. The speech culminated in a touching personal story of how these small actions can work wonders and build unforgettable customer experiences.

The NPS of the powerful and emotional keynote was an amazing 97.

The day after the event, Alec Dalton and Sirte Pihlaja facilitated a workshop for MaRa’s leadership team that deepened the understanding and insights of the keynote. The participants worked on the themes and explored concrete ways to put the lessons into practice.

This concise and compelling workshop stimulated new thinking and provided managers with valuable tools for developing customer experience and their management styles. Small group work and discussions highlighted in particular the role of management as cultivators of customer experience skills and builders of an inspiring work environment where customer experiences come naturally and generate joy and results.

 

  • The keynote speech led the leadership team to reflect on the importance of customer encounters and how big emotions often arise from small everyday actions.
  • International and touching examples from Disney and the Ritz-Carlton brought new perspectives to customer experience management.
  • The workshop addressed the role of the leadership team and management as enablers of CX excellence and reinforced a common direction.
  • Participants were provided with practical tools and behavioural models to develop customer culture.
  • The event reinforced pride in how far S Group’s MaRa business has already progressed in customer experience.