Digett, strategic consulting and web-marketing firm, published an article and video on January 11, 2010 called “KLM Surprise: How a Little Research Earned 1.000.000 Impressions on Twitter”. (http://www.digett.com/2011/01/11/klm-surprise-how-little-research-earned-1000000-impressions-twitter) It reveals how in November 2010, Dutch Airline KLM used social media to connect with their customers by being where they are and knowing who they are.
It all started with an experiment. KLM has launched a program called “KLM Surprise” (http://surprise.klm.com/) to surprise their customers at Amsterdam Schipol Airport with a customized gift based on information customers have shared previously on Social Networking sites. KLM employees collected information from their Social Media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare; chose an individual gift for selected customers, located them in the airport terminal and delivered a gift to them and then shared this information again on KLM’s Facebook page and Twitter account. On top of that, it was not just any kind of gift; it was a personalized surprise of something that would be of use for the customer on or during their trip. An elderly lady for example was upgraded to fly first class, another woman received a distance-tracking watch because KLM found out that she was going to go hiking, a man travelling to do humanitarian work in Mexico was given a care package, etc.
Social media helped KLM to surprise their customers and to emblaze a social media storm. Even though only 40 passengers had the honor to receive such a personalized gift, KLM'c Twittter feed (http://twitter.com/KLMsurprise) was viewed more then 1.000.000 times in November.
This campaign has been highly successful; Digett however criticizes the remaining customer interaction and surveillance of social media channels. The corresponding video for example, has also been posted on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHWAE8GDEk) More than 73.000 people have watched it; the comments are not only positive though and mention problems such as lost luggage, etc. something that has nothing to do with the actual video. KLM in this position has missed the opportunity to be more visible on the channel and deal with those complaints and not let this success be spoiled.
In addition, the article negatively mentions that KLM could have used this successful experiment to spread the word even more by a case study discussing the outcomes such as booking numbers, ROI, new customers, etc. Instead, after their short Twitter boom, their social networking sites seem to be ignored and the KLM Surprise website quite stagnant.
This experiment has shown how powerful Web 2.0 can be by providing a platform on which people can connect – anywhere, anytime. One could argue that KLM has not used its full potential with their campaign and that a little more invested time for monitoring their social media channels could have led to even greater success now and in the future.
Dr. Harish Kotadia, Ph.D. in Marketing Management and CRM Program and Project Manager for Fortune 500 clients, defines Social CRM as “the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with the goal of building trust and brand loyalty“. He continues and summarizes that the “KLM Surprise team is engaging customers through Social Media for building trust and loyalty and as a result, KLM Surprise is a Social CRM program....” (http://smartdatacollective.com/hkotadia/30201/klm-surprise-it-social-crm)
We consider KLM´s surprise idea a great innovation that takes customer service one step further. They took advantage of what information million of people reveal on the internet day by day and rewarded the ones that included KLM in their statuses, posts, blogs, etc. That experiment shows how much potential virtual platforms have and in which extent businesses can use their customers affinity with the internet in their favor.
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