Forgotten users: designing employee experiences at KLM
2018 Talk
Topic(s):
Description
Over the last couple of years, the Dutch airline KLM has won many awards for the use of digital tools to help its customers have better travel experiences[1] and the company definitely profited from these investments in social customer care[2].
However, until recently, another type of users of its digital services, its own employees, have not had that much attention nor have they benefitted from investments in their digital well-being. But that is changing rapidly,
KLM’s internally-focussed Digital Studio, located at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, is part of the Digital Transformation program of KLM[3] and employs almost 60 people with a business, technical or design background. Based on my time working there, I will highlight a few of the recent projects, and introduce the people and processes involved that make working for the airline a better experience.
Example projects include a personalised intranet, an augmented reality maintenance tool[4], and design sprints for onboarding new employees and professional development solutions.
In this presentation, I will explain what I have found to be different working for employees versus customers, and will share what attendees might learn from this.
[1] A Google search on “klm customer service awards” yields, amongst others, the following awards: 2012 Customer Data Award, 2017 Webby Award for Customer Service, 2017 Messenger Service Spin-award, 2017 Airline Strategy Award, and 2018 Best Service Award.
[2] KLM’s 150 social media customer service agents generate $25M in annual revenue (https://venturebeat.com/2015/05/21/klms-150-social-media-customer-service-agents-generate-25m-in-annual-revenue/)
[3] KLM Digital Studio – The Digital Transformation (video) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_i3ZXUJEAE)
[4] MRO.AIR – Artificial Intelligent Reality (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYddQcSEXbQ)