Q-go customer case In the past financial year, KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) took some 22 million passengers to their destinations. Currently, online bookings account for one-sixth of KLM’s total revenues worldwide. Direct answers to all Customers prefer to book their flights online rather than spend their your questions with free time visiting travel agencies. “Online booking takes less time and is very simple”, says Joris van Nederveen, e-Commerce Manager at KLM. “Nevertheless, if custom- KLM and Q-go ers still had questions, they contacted us via e-mail or phoned the callcenter, or they used the search engine by clicking on topics and typing in keywords.”

KLM, which aims to see the number of online bookings grow by around 30% annually, found that many of its website visitors contin- ued to turn to the callcenter or an e-mail application to get answers to their questions. What the airline needed was a new search system that could provide fast, targeted answers to the majority of online queries. A system that would help them reduce the number of calls and, consequently, cut costs. KLM’s search for the best system quickly led them to Q-go, the producer of Natural Language Search technology (NLS).

Quick search “The search engine we were using was very static and didn’t live up to our expectations”, Van Nederveen explains. So KLM went in search of an intelligent search option that would allow customers to Natural language search makes it possible for our custo- find the right information quickly. Van Nederveen: “We were looking mers to find information on the KLM website unassisted. for a product that customers visiting our website could use intui- “Joris van Nederveen, e-Commerce Manager at KLM tively, and thought that online search based on natural language ” offered the solution we were looking for. Q-go’s NLS-based search engine makes it possible for customers to frame their questions in The challenge natural language, which yields faster and better answers to cus- Answer a larger number of questions quickly and accurately tomer queries. We have every confidence that the Natural Language via the website in order to ease demand on the callcenter and Search technology developed by Q-go will enhance the self-service save costs. facilities we offer our customers.”

Pilot phase The solution Following a successful round of discussion, KLM was ready to Q-go Natural Language Search, a search engine that allows launch a pilot on the Dutch and English versions of their website. customers to frame questions in natural language for faster, “We began by building a new interface that would make it easy for better answers. customers to retrieve the right information quickly. The FAQ was still based on the website’s old look and feel”, says Van Nederveen. “Moreover, we wanted to adapt its design to the new method of The advantages interaction. Q-go joined us in looking at all the best practices for Fast and relevant answers to customer questions. A 12% reduc- an initial interface design. We also sat down with the information tion in the number of telephone enquiries and a 6% reduction owners to make sure that the right content would be retrieved. Be- in e-mail enquiries. Clear and continuous insight into what yond that, Q-go assisted us in reading and analyzing reports your customers are looking for. and adding new information.”

Natural Language Search

www.q-go.com In just a little under two months after the first meeting, KLM was ready to go live with the pilot. KLM used the period between About KLM October 2006 and January 2007 to test the NLS-based system. Van Nederveen: “After one month we conducted a usability study among a number of customers. The results were used towards a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the national airline of the new interface with improved answers. For example, customers in , with its home base at Airport the study asked about the duration of a flight, so this was data we Schiphol. KLM forms the core of the KLM Group, which could add to the booking process.” also includes KLM Cityhopper and . In 2004 KLM merged with . Fewer phone calls and greater customer insight The system is now operational. Thanks to Q-go NLS technology, The relationship between Air France and KLM strength- customers visiting the KLM site can now type their questions ens both airlines, ensuring a maximum coordination of using natural language, ensuring they get better answers faster. their networks and three core activities: passenger trans- “The results exceeded our expectations”, Van Nederveen says port, cargo transport and aircraft maintenance. The Air enthusiastically. “The pilot achieved a drastic reduction in in- France-KLM partnership is the leading worldwide airline coming requests via telephone and e-mail. During the pilot alliance in terms of revenue volumes. period the volume of calls dropped by 12% and e-mails by 6%.” KLM is a member of SkyTeam, one of three airline Not only did Q-go NLS technology cut call volumes, it also pro- alliances active at the global level. vided clear and continuous insight into customer needs. This insight yields data that can be used to develop new products and new FAQs. It was on the basis of frequent customer queries in the pilot phase, for example, that KLM decided to add information about carry-on baggage to the search engine database.

Future plans The success of this project gave KLM all the assurance it needed to extend collaboration with Q-go into the long term. “We are very pleased with what the Q-go NLS search engine has done for us, and are secure in the knowledge that Q-go can help us to expand and optimize this service”, Van Nederveen says.

KLM envisions the addition of more dynamic questions, so that content and customer questions can be even more closely aligned in the future. The airline is also working on rolling out the service worldwide. Q-go is currently available on KLM websites in English, Dutch, German, French and Spanish.

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