KLM - Somewhat Reliable, But Really Predictable

As a frequent flier I get to fly with many different airlines, and it is always interesting to note the many differences in service offerings between them. When I first moved to The Netherlands in 2000, I was amazed at how poor the KLM flight service was as compared to other airlines I had regularly been using – these being mainly Air Canada, but also USA airlines like Continental, AA and United plus Brazil’s Varig airline, Singapore Airlines and a few others. I knew (and still know) people who just point blank refused to use KLM, and while the reasons may differ somewhat in the specifics, there is still today a consistant theme - KLM really just doesn't understand customer service. This isn't limited to just KLM I suppose, as the topic of ‘customer service’ in general, always seems to eventually pop up at after work conversations amongst EXPATS based in NL. The general observation (and recognising that generalities are dangerous) is that Dutch customer facing businesses often seem to apply a noticeably different customer service standard, than what is normally expected in North America, or indeed many other parts of the world.

Lets be clear – for an occasional flier just going for a bit of a holiday its really the cost that counts and you don’t generally expect to be pampered too much. There are many airlines working the low end of the fare range, and in The Netherlands KLM. Transavia and Martinair each offer affordable economy fares, zero leg room, potentially DVT (deep vein thrombosis) inducing seating and cardboard food (in some cases for an additional fee !) at about the same levels of competitiveness. For business class travel though, you do expect a bit more. In 2000, after having flown business class regularly with Air Canada and Continental, it was a real shock to experience the poor food and even worse in-flight service of KLM. The only compensating factor was these cute little houses they handed out in business class, each of which was full of Dutch gin ! Today, I’m pleased to say the food is now up to where Air Canada and Continental were five years ago, and they do still offer the little houses, but that customer service gene for the most part still seems to be missing. You can easily test this by asking for something slightly out of the ordinary and invariably you will hear, in the most starched and proper manner something like: “ that is not allowed,” or "its not possible", and perhaps also, after a short pause for emphasis, “we have to follow the rules you know !”. They just don’t get it, and I think my view is supported by what I see at http://www.airlinequality.com/index.htm and also http://www.freddieawards.com/ which are two major travel industry quality ranking and award organisations. Scanning both the 'Freddie Awards', and the 'Airline Quality' sites, you will note KLM seldom (never ?) features as being a winner in the service quality area against its peers.

Here’s a few specific items KLM could consider if they wanted to improve their ranking:

• I regularly see empty business class seats on KLM flights and when I’ve asked why they don’t upgrade frequent flier members who might be elsewhere on the flight, or indeed others willing to buy an upgrade with mileage/points I’ve been told a) it was not possible (you hear 'its not possible' a lot) as they had the wrong fare type for upgrades or b) they could not pick between fliers, and rather than upgrade one they preferred to upgrade none (true story - I was told this on a flight from Aruba to Amsterdam !!). If I were KLM, I’d take a page from Continental’s play book and upgrade the frequent fliers regardless of fare class as by definition they are your best customers and therefore potentially your best allies.


• Rebadge a few rules as ‘guidelines’ - empower the gate agents and lounge guards to exercise some customer focused thinking (although this may require injecting some people coming from ‘customer focused’ cultures into the staff mix), and reward them for doing so. I’ve seen instances of lounges being almost empty, but Silver and Platinum level people being turned away as they wanted to take in more than one guest – this has personally happened to me a couple of times when accompanied by my wife and two boys (of course if they were infants, I suppose it wouldn’t be an issue – perhaps next time I’ll carry them !). It makes little sense to restrict access to your frequent fliers if the lounge is not busy, and it would buy a lot of good will. Alternatively, offer lounge pass memberships either for sale, or for mileage/point redemption - members would buy them purely for the convenience and use them either for themselves, family members or as gifts. Continental does this today.


• Make the Platinum level mean something – at the moment, there really is next to no added benefit having a KLM Platinum level membership (other than the low budget membership card from which all the printing rubs off after you’ve had it a short while) . Take a page from Virgin, BA or Singapore Airlines and make the top tier membership actually worth having.

And finally:

• Just once I would love to see the KLM priority tagged luggage off the plane and onto the carousal ahead of all the other checked luggage – it may never happen in my lifetime, but I can dream !