KLM has introduced an emoji service for Facebook Messenger, which allows travellers to request directions to points of interest simply by sending an emoji to the airline.
For instance, if you are looking for a train station, you just have to send the train emoji to KLM on Messenger. You will then receive an instant reply with the address of the nearest train station. Or if you are looking for an Italian restaurant, you can just send the pizza emoji.
Tjalling Smit, Senior Vice President E-commerce, Air France-KLM, said: “We believe we should be where our customers are and therefore KLM and Messenger are the perfect fit. Since March last year we offer our customers the option to receive all relevant flight documentation and information in one single Messenger overview.
“KLM flies people all over the world and knows how difficult it can be to quickly find your way in unknown places, and therefore offering this new emoji service is a logical next step.”
The emoji service is just one of many services KLM offers on the Facebook Messenger platform. Passengers can also choose to receive their booking confirmation, boarding pass and flight status updates via Messenger.
In an in-depth interview with FTE last month, Michel Pozas Lucic, Air France-KLM’s Vice President Customer Innovation and Care, explained why the carrier sees social media as an important communication channel with its customers. “If the customer is on social media, we should be able to serve them on this channel and not push them back to the dot-coms that we have,” he said.
