Very intrigued with the discussion that instructor Silva facilitated in lecture surrounding the customer excellence of Singapore Airlines and its success in retaining loyal customers, I wondered about other examples in the airline industry. When travelling to Asian countries, I am  loyal to China Airlines, because of the very positive customer service experiences that I recall from when travelling as a child. Added onto the exceptional service that my family consistently received, I remember that they would also provide my siblings and I with playing cards, drawing books, and even a small stuffed animal on one occasion.

Due to the increasing competition in the airline industry, especially with the increase in airbuses offered at significantly lower prices, it has become tremendously important for airline companies to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage. Clearly, the 93- year old airline has been able to achieve customer excellence through various savvy campaigns, such as a social media powered “Meet and Seat” matchmaker and a Sims-like “mobile aviation game.” The post that instantly caught my eye when browsing through BrandChannel’s blog was its most recent campaign when I noticed that it involved direct interaction with children. Forming a partnership with Disney, KLM invited a handful of lucky kids to a pre-screening of Disney’s new film, Planes. But instead of it taking place at a local cinema, the children watched the movie on one of KLM’s planes parked in a hangar.

“While the movie played on the airline’s seat-back entertainment system, airline crew got busy outside the aircraft launching smoke machines, blasting streamers and even creating a rain storm. Essentially, the tiny passengers experienced everything that the film’s main character Dusty did.” [1]

From the reciprocity principle, the company may hope that providing this brilliant experience for the children will result in them choosing KLM over other airlines in the future. Whether one believes that the campaign was just a marketing ploy, one thing that most of us can agree on, is that KLM has invested a great deal of its resources into increasing its brand awareness among consumers of all ages, and certainly has achieved customer excellence.

Blog Source: [1] http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/10/11/KLM-Disney-Planes-101113.aspx

Disney’s Planes: spectacular pre-screening on board of a KLM plane