For an airline that’s celebrating its 97th birthday, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has done a pretty good job of innovating in the digital space. It was the first airline to start using Facebook Messenger to communicate with its customers.
It’s been active on social media – its Lost and Found video – featuring a cute doggie has garnered more than 20 million views and President and CEO Pieter Elbers says people get upset when they don’t see the beagle at Schipol Airport.
Beyond using canines to win the hearts of customers, though, Elbers knows it’s got a long road ahead. With future generations connected 24×7, he told the audience at the CAPA Aviation Summit in Amsterdam that customers today have different expectations. “Yes, safe travel is still number one but now they want personalisation.”
And airlines who can personalise will be the airlines of the future, said the executive who is on a mission to digitise the airline.
Traditional businesses lack the mindset to innovate fast – experimentation, data sharing and agile internal processes need to be part of the cultuire. “We’re happy with 12 releases in a year, Google is testing everyday, how we deal and share data will need a mindset change,” he said.
Airlines are struggling with new technology, he said. He cited WeChat as “paving the way for the Western world” in mobile innovation and pointed to companies like Airbnb, Uber and Netflix which have revolutionised the industries they are in. Undoubtedly, there will be new players entering that we haven’t yet heard of, he remarked.
With 65% of KLM’s customers connecting at Schipol, he said KLM has to match the digital world.
He shared the digital footprint of KLM – 22m connected customers on Facebook, 100,000 incoming social media messages per week, 9% of 14,000 iPads rolled out for frontline staff, 33% of all tickets sold online, 70% online check-ins (exclusing kiosks) and 132m visits on https://www.klm.com
With more than 60% of all visits now coming through mobile, Elbers said it’s time to move from mobile first to mobile only. “We need to be where our customers are,” he said, citing its Facebook Messenger service. Its shop on Alibaba gets more visitors a day than an entire year on its website. “The future is in generic apps.”
Beyond being digitally-friendly to customers, airlines also need to change staff processes. When he became CEO, he said staff processes were the same as when he joined the airline 24 years ago.
“If we want to be a digital company, we need to be one for our employees too.”
