There is an interesting slideshow available about the customer experience at KLM. It's currently hosted on Slideshare.net: http://www.slideshare.net/jvlasveld/...e-20100624-klm

Choice quotes:

Okay, they noticed.

Profit maximization.
Totally understandable reason for a company but I can't help to wonder if KLM has understood that profit maximization and customer satisfaction are not necessarily diagonal but that this is often the case. If you concentrate on the Biz Class flyer and devaluate your Y product you get a large number of unhappy Y customers. If you now lower prices, you make a lot of these Y customers happy again because they got it cheap (compare RyanAir) and get some of them rather irritated because they didn't want to fly RyanAir but also didn't think your C tickets are a good value proposition.

A nice example of past performance at KLM is the current FB program: On C and F you get decent earnings and if you're travelling on Y, please go f### yourself, you are not part of the 10% of travellers who generate the 60+% of our earnings.

Genuinly Dutch, that they are.

Seems they have the current service described aptly. Interesting that they identify their customer base as mostly using the flag carrier which explains why tickets originating in Amsterdam are 3x as expensive as flights inbound to Amsterdam.

KLM claims that they are able to improve on the described experience due to their Dutch heritage.

This sounds like a worthwhile direction to pursue. I am sceptical however if they will succeed. It is my understanding that the single person at KLM is not in a position to act pragmatically as they are hampered by processes put into place and even if willing are not able to "go the extra mile" for the customer.

The passenger matrix is very interesting:

Only the minority (~40%) of their premium pax (~90% F/C) are members of any FFP.
90% of the frequent business pax however are FFP members and they travel in all classes. I guess that would be us. :-)

These premium pax are not considered price sensitive. I assume these are the 10% of passengers KLM identified as being responsible for the 60+% of their earnings. Not being price sensitive means no need for promotions or a better valued C product.

The business eco class of passengers are price sensitive and fly mostly in Y. Only about ~35% are FFP members for European travel and for intercontinental this number goes down to about ~21%.

The leisure traveller is price sensitive as well. 15% FFP for TAL, 34% for Intra-EU.

This matrix shows that KLM seperates their customers into two itinerary segments (Intercontinental vs. Intra-European), two market segments (Price sensitive vs. non Price sensitive) and two travel styles (Business vs. Leisure).
Based on that, the KLM customer mix consists of 75% business travellers. (Maybe I should start checking Business as a reason for my frequent flyer addiction :-)

KLM have identified three improvement areas/customer stories:

Making travelling easier/faster. The usual: Mobile/Online Checkin, fast track lane here, priority line there, premium parking, minimum distance to walk, KLM cart to rush you to your connecting flight (YEAH!)

Improving communication: Rework of the customer communication, FlyingBlue Redesign (be scared!), improve FFP enrollment, better website to offer the information the customer seeks, language proficiency etc.

Offer more packages to the customer, that means to offer more bookable added value, meaning additional revenue. The Economy Comfort package could be considered one of these examples.
Packages identified so far are:

1. Express Package - "Minimize your time"
2. Luxury Package - "Luxury Travel Experience"
3. Refresh Package - "Arrive refreshed"
4. Relax Package - "Make the journey part of the experience"
5. Escort Package - "Take the stress out of travel"

This looks interesting but I fear a devaluation of the basic product in order to improve conversion ratio to these upgrade packages. This would decrease customer satisfaction immensely.

This looks really good. Easy but recognizable improvements.

• Consistently offer premium access for elites
• Allocate premium short haul flights close to the terminal - Less bus gates? How? The Fokker fleet often cannot pull up to a terminal bridge due to it's low height.
• Fix priority luggage arrival - Excellent. Fix it in your homebase first please. Up to 30min waiting time for intra-European luggage is horrible.
• Communicate office capabilities - Better advertisement of their Lounge biz areas.
• Easy access to tables, power outlets, and Internet while waiting at the gate - Who in their right mind is waiting at the gate? Most airports are not set up for that, the ambient noise is way too much, the gate lice are standing in the way etc. Go to the lounge, as a premium traveller you have access.
• One call center - One worldwide premium number. Trials starting in NL. - Uhoh. Premium number sounds like 0900. This sounds bad considering current waiting times. Please do offer regular local numbers as well.
• Birtday Recognition - A happy birthday card handed out by in-flight-crew. Ohhh, the fake personal touch. I like. Maybe AF could lean from that: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...hday-cake.html
• Proactive and differentiated recovery for premiums - Buzzword error but a nice promise of better service for Premium passengers.

That is my analysis. Interesting changes to come, I am wondering however if KLM is able to pull this off.

Discuss. :-)

Having the fast tracks and priority boarding procedures is one thing, actually making them work is another as we have all seen.

If they want to improve FFP enrollment, they first need an attractive FFP. I also think that FFP enrollment is not the main issue, it is previously loyal pax having aborted AFKL due to the AFD changes and continuous 'service enhancements' such as introduction of ES.

Anyhow, I would expect that any pax regularly flying KL is already an FB/other ST FFP member. For those occasional pax who aren't members the 20 month expiry rule is a big obstacle to enrollment.

Maybe they should liaise with Schiphol about why Privium is such a successful programme, despite the added cost. In my opinion, Privium is actually what Schiphol and KLM should offer to the most frequent flyers free of charge!

I won't complain if they improve their website.

Is the 'pay for a decent meal' test part of this exercise? In any case, why introduce ComfY if it is really a 3-class config you're after - the SK model that is.

Agree with your comments re consistently, bus gates, bagage service allthough some of these are Schiphol issues not KLM issues.

I don't think their lounge facilities need better communication.

With regard to gates, my guess is that they want people at the gates earlier and allow them to work there. Might actually fit with the Schiphol plans.

A birthday card is nice but I'd rather see real improvements; What is missing in the list is:

- consistency, consistency, consistency
- a decent European C product. Middle seats blocked, proper meal
- lie flat long haul C seats
- select seating to work properly on European flights (ComfY has made it work on long-haul)
- enforced priority boarding procedures
- roll-back of some of the AFD changes
- upgrading possibility also from non-full Y fares (as in the FD days)

plus
- a special section in the back for family and friends

Absolutely. But the first step is always realising that there is a problem. That priority boarding does not always work is another problem.

One of the main points AFKLM are regularly mentioning is how many people sign up with the FB program. Their churn ratio however is unknown.
I think the attractivity of their FFP mirrors exactly what they are mentioning on their presentation: Focus onto the 10% of their passengers creating the most revenue. The people having left their FFP are probably not that demographic. Neither are most people on this board.

What they are forgetting however is, that the people having left their FFP might have been some of their most loyal customers and happy _and_ loyal customers are serving as an excellent multiplier for attracting new customers.

I have to admit, I find the outrage over the 20 month expiry rule somewhat irritating. It's called a FFP, not a Rare Flyer Program. Someone who doesn't do a flight every 20 months generally does even have close to a worthwhile amount of miles, so why the outrage? And hey, if your miles are so important to you, dump 200 EUR on a trip every two years and stop complaining.


Privium is a decent program. The Lounge is very nicely designed and the food/snack offers are better than at the Crown Lounge. The drinks are better at KLM however.
Optically, the Lounge is top notch.

But the rest of the program is not that great IMHO. The security lane is nice, but as a Elite passenger in most cases the regular Priority Line is equally fast. Admittedly, at some gates Privium is a real benefit. But for my flights I do not see a benefit in having a Privium card. The parking is similar, for some it's great, for me it's useless.
A bunch of my colleagues from the UK however have a Privium card. They are often flying the route STN-AMS-STN which is only available on EasyJet. Privium is their way of jumping the queue at security and having a Lounge.
My routing looks different and I am getting the same offer from SkyTeam.

And do not forget that Privium is a paid-for program, not unlike Priority Pass. The target audience is different. The irregular flyer is who buys access, the FF doesn't really need it.

But I wouldn't complain if they just hand me a Privium card together with the Platinum one as long as the iris-scan crap is left out.

It's shoddily done but it's not that bad. It does mostly work for me.

I think it's the ancillary revenue game: Make the base product cheap and then have people pay for add-ons: Food instead of a snack? You pay. Luggage? You pay. Marginally improved seating? You pay. A bit more comfort for your seat? You pay.
It's like using the price to attract the price sensitive customer and then after he booked offering additional services in the hope that they go for it. That's the same reason why they try to tie in a hotel and a car rental with the booking.
What I find interesting however is, that they changed from being a direct booking.com affiliate to outsourcing all the hotel booking and car rental to iSeatz who is using booking.com as well as Avis.
They have the same offerings as before but just added another layer. Why?


Absolutely. But whenever I get one of these questionnaire forms I usually give the air crew good grades but horrible grades to the ground crew. And all the bad experiences I had were with KLM ground staff, seldom with Schiphol staff. Except sometimes at the security line. Some of the morons they have there are just unbelievable.


Agree. They need an overhaul instead.

Does KLM suffer from delays related to passengers appearing to late at the gate?


Hmm. I do not agree. I had a Europe Select trip beginning of June. First one since I started flying KLM last year. Seat: Average, I had more leg space in the exit row. Food: The breakfast was nice and the orange juice great. The service: Excellent. A personal touch which was a refreshing change.
So it's the ES surprise box or the service which would lead me to buying premium fares. A birthday card is part of that personal touch making you feel somewhat valued/recognized.

The AFD changes will not be rolled back. But on everything else, I believe these are possible changes which would improve the KLM customer experience. Especially about the C product. The fares KLM asks for C are amongst the highest on the market and the value they provide for it is nearly non-existent. I just do not get it, why people are flying it at all.

What I like about ComfY seating is the fact that it's free for Plat members. THAT is the major reason why I booked 20 more flights than initially planned for this year. It's a valuable improvement of the Plat membership.


That would remove a main gripe about non-rev passengers getting all the goodies. I like this!

Has anyone perchance mirrored the slides somewhere? They appear to be gone from slideshare.

They are available at http://imgur.com/a/5668D/klm_custome...ence_program/1 in random order.

Correct order:
Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 3
Slide 4
Slide 5
Slide 6
Slide 7
Slide 8
Slide 9
Slide 10
Slide 11
Slide 12
Slide 13
Slide 14
Slide 15
Slide 16
Slide 17

cheers.