Overview
In January 2023, Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR) enhanced its Lost & Found operation and traveler experience by partnering with Boomerang, the leading Lost & Found platform. By joining Boomerang, SYR’s team has both modernized their tech stack and unlocked data insights for their Operations team. This investment in Boomerang positions SYR well for the anticipated growth and expansion at its fast-growing airport.
Miles from the masses and nestled between three lakes, SYR is Central New York’s gateway to the world. At summer’s peak in July 2022, 116,323 travelers passed through SYR, compared to 90,602 in July 2021 – this represented an increase of 28.39% Year over Year. In January 2023 alone, a total of 2,834 flights passed through SYR, with a traveler count of over 2 million. This surge in travelers has created additional pain points for one of SYR’s most critical services: Lost & Found.
As the Chief Commercial Officer at SYR. Jason Mehl is dedicated to ensuring a smooth and enjoyable travel experience for passengers, even amidst the current period of rapid growth. Jason recognized that achieving this goal required innovative technology to provide data insights and support long-term scalability.
After meeting with Boomerang, he saw the benefits of digitizing the Lost & Found department to streamline operations and enhance the traveler experience.
Solution
SYR has transformed its Lost & Found department from what was once a pen and paper process into a measurable and scalable operation. With its operation digitally available on Boomerang, SYR’s team now has increased visibility into a number of metrics: claim counts, claim breakdown, inventory counts, inventory breakdown, and match rates. Instead of tracking the numbers of claims and items by hand, the department now leverages easily-accessible dashboards. These insights establish data benchmarks for the department and can be used to power decision-making in optimizing internal operations and traveler experience.
Boomerang strives to make sure all Lost & Found data is easy to capture, no matter the situation. In addition to Boomerang’s standard Report a Claim feature, airports like SYR need a channel to serve hurried travelers who arrive at the Airport Communication Center to retrieve a found item quickly before they board their flight. To meet this use case, partners like SYR leverage the Return Now feature, which allows partners to collect traveler contact details and securely initiate a return in seconds. This feature allows SYR to deliver in those time-pressing customer interactions, while still maintaining process and data integrity. It has proved especially valuable for SYR’s ASO model, through streamlining the team’s responsibility among the myriad of tasks.
Key Insights
Within the first eighty days of partnering with Boomerang, SYR has established multiple baselines for their Lost & Found operation. Now, on top of being able to track their inventory and claims, SYR can be data-driven in their future initiatives.
Comparing SYR Inventory vs Claims by Category
Over the last eighty days, SYR logged more lost items than claims for every category except wallets & purses, jewelry, and electronics. By comparing the number of items found versus claims submitted, SYR can gain a better understanding of items that travelers value and improve the processes around collecting those items.
Analyzing SYR Claim Intake Week over Week
In the last 12 weeks, SYR had three high-traffic periods, which showed spikes in claims received. By analyzing claim submission week over week, Boomerang partners like SYR can allocate resources and manage staffing accordingly to accommodate returning items to travelers faster.
Diving into SYR Match Rates
With Boomerang, SYR has insights on a metric they previously did not have: match rate. In only two months of partnership, SYR has already seen a 20% improvement in match rate month-over-month with an upward trend. Additionally, they have visibility into the key categories where they are excelling in returning items to travelers.
