KLM launches customer service with KakaoTalk

A screenshot of KakaoTalk chat with KLM Courtesy of KLM

Tjalling Smit, senior vice president of e-commerce at KLM

By Kim Se-jeong

AMSTERDAM ― Have you been on hold for a very long time while talking to an airline customer service center staffer over the phone?

This rarely happens with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, especially now that the Netherlands’ flagship carrier recently launched a new customer service with KakaoTalk, Korea’s most popular messaging app.

“With many connections between Europe and Korea weekly and 134 worldwide onward flights from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Korean passengers represent an important market for KLM,” Tjalling Smit, senior vice president of e-commerce at KLM, said during a recent meeting with Korean journalists in Amsterdam. “Replying (to customers) in Korean on Korea’s most popular social media platform allows KLM to be in close interaction with its Korean customers. Accordingly, KLM can provide customers an even better service.”

To use the new KLM customer service on KakaoTalk, customers need to search for KLM and make a friend request. They can type their questions in Korean, as the service has Korean-speaking staff.

The service aims to solve customers’ problems within one hour, regardless of the time of the day the requests are received.

KakaoTalk is one of the social media networks and messaging apps that KLM is working with.

KakaoTalk is one of the many social media networks and messaging apps around the world that KLM is working with. The list includes the U.S.-based Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Vine; China-based Sina Weibo and WeChat; and Russia-based VKontakte.

KLM’s Facebook page has more than 5 million likes and its Twitter account more than 1 million followers.

KLM’s approach reflects the growing competition in the airline industry in Korea and worldwide. All major European carriers fly to Incheon, including Italian carrier Alitalia, which launched direct flights to Korea on June 5 and is the latest one to join the competition.

Following China and Japan, Korea is the third-largest Asian market for KLM. Daily flights depart from Incheon at 12:55 a.m., making the flights popular among business customers. The flights arrive at Amsterdam at 4:55 a.m.

KLM’s online services are reliable because of the airline’s collaboration with social media networks and messaging apps, which began in 2009.

The company said a significant portion of its customers use its website (

https://www.klm.com

) to make reservations ― almost 30 percent of its revenue comes from online purchases. This is because the website offers the best deals and enables electronic check-ins, which 70 percent of its passengers now use.

The airline’s e-commerce team also launched a game app, called Jets, that helps customers pass the time. The app is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store at free of charge, and KLM passengers who show up at the gate on time receive a game reward.

“We have to be where our customers are,” Smit said.