Flying with KLM, you can use special Whatsapp service

7 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

KLM has launched a Whatsapp service for businesses, allowing passengers to receive flight information through the messaging app.

The Dutch company has become the first airline out the gates with a presence on Whatsapp Business, a dedicated channel in which companies can reach out to their customers.

The Whatsapp business account is able to provide passengers with booking confirmations, check-in notifications, boarding passes and flight status updates, and is configured in ten different languages.

The service is slowly being rolled out country by country, but will be more widely available in the coming weeks. It is available to those that book tickets or check in through the airline’s website, and opt in to the Whatsapp service. Passengers will also be able to contact the airline’s social media service agents through the app.

KLM president & CEO Pieter Elbers remarked: “I am very proud that KLM is the world’s first airline with a verified WhatsApp account. This unique partnership with WhatsApp underlines our position as an aviation pioneer.

“We want to be where our customers are and, given the 1 billion users, you have to be on WhatsApp. With an account verified by WhatsApp, we offer our customers worldwide a reliable way to receive their flight information and ask questions 24/7. This truly is a major next step in our social media strategy.”

Beyond offering customer services on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, the airline has also added Facebook Messenger service, WeChat services, recently adding WeChat Pay, and is also active on Korea’s KakaoTalk.
The airline maintains a staff of 250 dedicated agents on its social media team who process over 100,000 weekly mentions, about 15,000 of which are questions or comments.