A guide for sharing proactive and feed-forward information with airline passengers during a disruption

Abstract

This master thesis report is the culmination of six months of collaboration between TU Delft and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The aim of the project is to investigate ways by which KLM can change the perception of passengers during a disruption event such as flight delays, cancellations, and missed connections. In order to accomplish this, the Double Diamond approach was used along with the addition of an envisioning phase based on the inside-out process of meaning innovation pioneered by Roberto Verganti (Verganti, 2016). KLM is one of the world's oldest airlines that still operate with their original name. Their ambition is to become Europe’s most customer-centric, innovative and efficient network carrier by offering memorable experiences by leveraging new market opportunities and technological developments to deliver superior customer service. KLM has done extensive research and examined and identified certain gaps in their customer journey experience to focus on and improve. One of the key gaps identified is disruption handling. KLM projects almost 4.5 million passengers to be affected by disruptions in 2019 (KLM, 2019). During a disruption, passengers experience increased stress and seek guidance and quick resolutions to their problems. A disruption is a sudden event and that passengers do not have control over it. Thus the only way they will feel some sense of control is if they have information about it, information that is transparent and information that will help them take their next steps. In fact, one of the core customer needs gathered from research is the receiving of proactive information in the event of a disruption. Regardless of the cause of the disruption, passengers are usually quick to blame the airlines for the negative situation. Therefore, effective communication might help in reducing that perception and might generate a positive sentiment about the airline. According to KLM’s own disruption communication mandate, passengers should receive information that is consistent, relevant, contextual, personalized and transparent at the right time. However, that is sometimes not the case. KLM uses a number of communication channels to provide information. However, most often, all these pieces of information are not consistent, relevant, personalized or on time. In addition, as per the KLM compass and their new emphasis on customer intimacy, KLM wants to show passengers that they care about them, that passengers feel recognized, comfortable and touched. However, these particular aspects of customer intimacy do not translate to the information that the passenger is being sent. Therefore, the tone of voice, the nature of the information ( helpful, not helpful, feed-forward ) also makes a big difference in how passengers perceive KLM as a brand. In order to make all information more coherent and consistent across all channels and touchpoints, there was a need to evolve a communication structuring, design, and dissemination framework which effectively and consistently delivers the most relevant informational content as expected and desired by passengers under conditions of flight disruption and otherwise. Thus, The Asix structure for information content was created to unify all the information content. The Asix structure provides guidelines as to how the information should be structured along with giving guidelines about the tone of voice of the message as well. In essence, messages designed on the basis of the Asix structure make the passengers feel more recognized, acknowledged and seem to be more sincere and heartfelt which positively influences their perception about KLM and their situation as well, thereby increasing their trust in KLM and their belief that KLM truly cares for them. This is a good positive step towards positively changing the perception of the passengers during a disruption.