KLM’s social media team can now respond to thousands of user posts every day.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the leading airline in customer service, is driving the customer journey by taking service to new heights with Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, and Chatter from Salesforce. With email messages that require only one click to book travel, social sharing that lowers trip costs, and inter-department routing for service cases, KLM is pioneering experiences that are revolutionising the travel industry with Marketing Cloud. KLM uses Service Cloud and Chatter to quickly resolve customer service cases that arise online, at check-in, in the lounge, or at baggage claim. KLM loads more than 30,000 messages onto Salesforce on a weekly basis from social media alone, organised by language and topic and then routed to service teams worldwide who are able to assist with each specific query. Chatter allows service teams to collaborate on responses that require input from multiple teams and specialists. “We’ve made it mandatory to be available to customers online 24 hours a day,” says Viktor van der Wijk, Director of Digital Marketing. “With the help of Salesforce, our 24/7 customer service department uses social media as an end-to-end source for solving any queries.” A quick look back to an event in 2010 illustrates how social made all the difference, and what it’s evolved into today. When the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted that year, so did social media traffic. In the biggest disruption to European air traffic since WWII, a cloud of ash grounded flights across the continent. Stranded travellers rushed to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook in search of help, and KLM jumped right in. Using the same social platforms, KLM was able to “respond more quickly to customer inquiries, re-direct them to other means of travel, and protect the KLM brand image,” says van der Wijk. It was this quick-to-respond moment that prompted Peter Hartman, CEO of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, to declare social media the centre of KLM’s customer service efforts. The goal was clear: Cut resolution time to one day with an initial response time within an hour of a social media post.

With Salesforce technologies at the heart of their operation, KLM transformed into a socially connected business that can intelligently and efficiently collect and track all social conversations, measure brand sentiment on the Web, and achieve their goal of one-hour response/24-hour resolution time. And, they introduced the first social media-driven flight schedule, which led to loyal, positive ambassadors for the airline. Says van der Wijk, “Now we can identify their experience at check-in, in the lounge, or when they’re collecting their bags. Any problems in any of these areas, and we are straight on the case via social media. That’s the power of the Salesforce.”