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MARKETERS RISK MANAGEMENT

KLM turns social

insights into profits
with social listening
KLM remains an industry leader for their innovative use of social media
customer service to drive profits – now they’re bringing AI into the mix
WRITTEN BY
Thea Sokolowski
Director of Marketing at Outside Insight

Thea Sokolowski holds an MBA from Oxford University's Said Business

School and has been uncovering insights in the social and media space for
nearly 10 years.
KEY TAKEAWAY

If you’re not listening to what your customers are saying on social

media, you could be missing out on real profits. Industry leaders like
KLM are investing heavily in customer service agents using social
media, and employing AI to help, and they’re finding significant
returns.

User experience is the new

winning strategy
The ever-increasing importance consumers are placing on
purchase experience as a reason to buy is not a secret. Today’s
consumers are far more interested in the journey and their
interaction with a brand than they are in loyalty for the sake of it.

According to marketing expert Shep Hyken at the recent Social

Media Marketing World conference, despite reporting positive
sentiment, up to 40% of satisfied customers don’t come back.
Companies need to provide a predictable, consistent customer
experience to retain these users. A big part of that experience is a
brand’s direct interaction with its customers – often through social
media.

Jay Baer similarly noted, “The best companies in the world are
raising the bar of customer expectations,” Baer said. He suggested
that companies must do three things to stay ahead: Be faster, be
more human and be more proactive than customers expect.

Think social media data is just for the marketing and PR teams to
look at? Think again. Social is often the first place your customers
are interacting with you, and they’re volunteering not only their
feedback, but their advocacy on your behalf. There are golden
insights tucked around every corner within your brand mentions –
and they can translate into massive savings.

KLM turns social customer

service into cash
The story of KLM’s social media innovation is a prime example of a
brand that has leveraged Outside Insight to its benefit by
implementing social listening to their advantage.
As KLM’s social media manager Gert-Wim ter Haar
told VentureBeat, “Social is more and more becoming a profit
center. It’s first about service, then brand and reputation, but also
about commerce … we have to make money.”

KLM by the numbers

2,013KLM began investing heavily in social media customer
support agents

235 +# of agents dedicated to client service on social media

15,000# of conversations held 24/7 by each agent
10# of languages serviced by KLM agents
$ 25 Millionrevenue saved by investing in social
media customer support

2 Million# of total Twitter followers

Customer service agents at KLM do far more than respond to
complaints – they can almost entirely manage new client bookings
via Twitter, Facebook, or other social media – directly connecting
social listening to revenue.

If they’re not listening in real time, they’re missing out on cold, hard
cash.
 AI enters the arena
In 2016, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines became the first major consumer
brand to deploy an AI-infused deep learning application, integrating
AI from startup DigitalGenius directly into their Customer
Relationship Management tool. According to a post on KLM, it
“provides a layer of deep learning and artificial intelligence to
service agents in real time,” helping the agents to massively
accelerate their productivity.

“Applying AI, KLM can handle a greater volume of questions while

still maintaining its personal approach and speed,” said Tjalling
Smit, Senior Vice President Digital Air France KLM. Through this
approach, the standards for customer experience remain high.

According to ter Haar, the result goes beyond revenue, extending

into major boardroom decisions that have changed the company by
bringing the outside in. “All this is driving us to be more customer-
centric.”
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