Aviation

KLM claims airline first with WhatsApp Business Platform

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has announced that it is the first airline, and one of the first companies around the world, to join the WhatsApp Business platform.

The airline will now offer customers booking confirmation, check-in notification, boarding passes, flight status updates on the WhatsApp messaging service, and answer customer questions around the world in 10 different languages.

The new service is part of a pilot program by WhatsApps to extend its reach beyond personal messaging and into business applications. WhatsApp has created a dedicated enterprise solution which is being rolled out in a limited number of countries with broader availability in the coming weeks.

KLM president & CEO Pieter Elbers says of the new service:

“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.”

KLM has been consistently adding platforms and discovering new digital platforms on which to connect and transact business with customers over the past few years.

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.

Still, KLM has experimented with AI to boost the performance of human service agents, working with DigitalGenius in San Francisco to accelerate the responsiveness of its CRM tools, making it easier for agents to find the information customers need.

KLM director of social media Karlijn Vogel-Meijer explains that the addition of the WhatsApp platform is just another way for customers to reach the airline, in line with a strategy by KLM to be everywhere customers might be already, rather than forcing customers into one specific platform or another.

“For a company like KLM, it’s very important to be where your customers are.”

What WhatsApp brings to the table are numbers. The airline finds the statistics of international adoption warrant adding the new platform. For example, in Brazil, 85% of all citizens actively use WhatsApp.

It is also a significantly more popular messaging platform in the Netherlands than Facebook Messenger. In the US market, Messenger is predominant. In Asia, and particularly in China, KLM customers prefer WeChat. By adapting its CRM to all of these platforms, the airline can better serve all customers, Vogel-Meijer explains.

Aviation

Boeing, Antonov to Collaborate on Defense Projects

– MOU represents Boeing’s commitment to work with Ukrainian industry

– Includes exploring opportunities for collaborating on in-country support of Unmanned Aerial Systems

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed today by Boeing and Antonov Company to investigate potential collaboration on defense-related projects.

“We’re happy to keep collaborating with the Antonov Company to help Ukraine’s economic development and expansion,” stated Ted Colbert, CEO and president of Boeing Defence, Space, & Security.

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“This agreement demonstrates our ongoing efforts to find more opportunities to work with Ukrainian industry, which was underscored by our signing of the Ukrainian Defence Industry Compact earlier this year.”

The areas of potential collaboration identified in the agreement consist of training, logistical support and overhaul services for tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems utilized by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which includes the ScanEagle. In addition, the companies will also explore opportunities for Antonov to provide engineering support to Boeing.

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“A strong, innovative, and efficient defense industry is key to sustainable economic development and national security, and we are extremely excited to collaborate with Boeing,” said Ievhen Gavrylov, CEO of Antonov Company.

This agreement brings a whole new level of opportunity to implement the latest and most effective solutions – in addition to the possibility of future projects with Boeing in the aerospace and defense industry.”