KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Communicating flight delays
2017
“My Delay” is a communication system integrated into the KLM mobile app, which is activated personally for each passenger when a disruption occurs. It is created with the goal to deal with disruption in a smooth and user-centred way.
Individual project
#1 - No Customer Journey Overview
All the different departments send messages to the customer, but there was no full overview of the customer journey. How will we understand when there is too much and too few information?
#2 - Busy Environment
Airports are very busy environments full of information. How will we grab the passenger’s attention the right moment?
#3 - Different situation with different level of Urgency
Disruptions have different levels of emergency and impact on the journey of the passenger. How will we address the proper level of alert?
#4 - Breaking bad news
Disruption influence the passenger’s journey negatively. How will we communicate the bad news with the most positive impact for the passenger and the brand?
Currently, the handling of delays that occur within an hour prior to the departure is very poor. Passengers are informed only by the screens of the airport and sometimes by the announcements at the gates. That results in negative feelings like anger, frustration and disappointment.
In 2017, KLM focused on improving the experience of frequent flyers travelling for business. They are always connected on their phones and they own the KLM app. They seek effectiveness and time efficiency.
By conducting user research on the emotions of the passengers, it was revealed that passengers seek honest and transparent information by the airline. If they are offered this kind of information, they are ready to empathise with the airline company.
All the different departments send messages to the customer, but there was no full overview of the customer journey. How will we understand when there is too much and too few information?
For gathering this information, I interviewed the stakeholders of all the departments who communicate with the customers. The result was a detailed customer journey.
The problematic area was 30 to 60 minutes prior to the departure. This very important moment, in which many disruption occur, passengers were being informed only be the KLM crew and the screens of the airport. There was no personal communication.
Airports are very busy environments full of information. How will we grab the passenger’s attention at the right moment?
We decided to design a communication system integrated into the mobile app and create special notifications for each situation.
Disruptions have different levels of emergency and impact on the journey of the passenger. How will we address the proper level of alert?
An alarm philosophy was created in which 4 levels of criticality were identified. The criticality was measured according to how important or how urgent is the action that needs to be made by the passenger. In other words how high should the actionability of the passenger be.
The four levels should derive certain emotions in order to trigger certain behaviours:
According to the level of urgency, the main elements of the message are changing, the notification sound, the color and the quick links on the tap bar.
Disruption influence the passenger’s journey negatively. How will we communicate the bad news with the most positive impact on the passenger and the brand?
Accounting for a delay is delivering bad news. Thus, the structure of the message and the menu of the application are based on the “delivering bad news in a corporate environment” theory of management studies.
“My Delay” aims to make the passengers feel in control of the situation, less angry and assist them to make the most of their time.
After a user test of the application, the Net Promoter Score for Disruptions was rated 55 from 16 that was previously. Thus, there was an increase of 600% in customer satisfaction.
“You know that reason of the delay and that is reliable." Suzy, 58, USA, Blue
“Very good, unambiguous”, Jason, 45, UK, Yellow
“This is the key message, it is enough information.” Phi, 40, China, Orange
“That’s a fantastic message, because it’s crystal clear, there is no doubt about it.” Danny, 52, USA, Red
“I think you’d rather know, instead of going on the news and someone message you “What’s going on” and you’re like “I don’t have a clue”. So I think it is scary but it is good that they keep me updated.” Ruby, 32, UK, Red
