Amstelveen,
24
August
2017
|
08:30
Europe/Amsterdam

KLM takes next strategic social media step with WeChat Pay

KLM first non-Chinese airline to offer WeChat Pay

Summary

As of today, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines offers her customers the opportunity to pay for tickets and ancillaries via WeChat Pay on KLM.com and WeChat. KLM is the first non-Chinese airline to offer this payment option on the number 1 social media platform in Mainland China.

“The WeChat Pay option is a perfect next step in KLM’s social media strategy. We believe we should be where our customers are. In China we therefore have to be on WeChat. China has developed into an incredibly important market for KLM. By offering WeChat Pay, KLM has made it possible to book a ticket and pay for it via WeChat, subsequently receiving flight info and ask questions 24/7 all on the same platform. The WeChat Pay feature gives us valuable insights for implementing payment options into other worldwide social platforms in the future as well. By taking this next step, we continue to be an aviation pioneer.’’
Pieter Elbers - KLM President & CEO

WeChat has over 963 million monthly active users of which 600 million have activated WeChat Pay. This is a payment feature integrated into the WeChat app, which makes it possible for users to complete payment quickly with smartphones without leaving the platform. WeChat Pay is accepted pretty much everywhere you go within China and over 40% of all mobile transactions is being executed this way. The service is available for all users that have a Chinese bank account.

Paying for a KLM ticket has become simple: once a passenger booked a ticket on KLM.com via desktop, and chooses WeChat as the preferred payment option, a QR code appears. Users scan this code which refers them to WeChat Pay, the money is amortized and a successful payment is done. If a customer booked a ticket on mobile or via the WeChat app, and chooses WeChat as the preferred payment option, the customer is automatically referred to WeChat Pay and able to pay for the ticket easily. Users need to bind their bankcard only once to use WeChat Pay.

KLM on WeChat
KLM opened a WeChat account in 2014 offering her Chinese passengers service, brand content and commercial offers via the platform. Since May 2017, KLM customers have the choice to receive their booking confirmation, check-in notification, boarding pass and flight status updates via WeChat. So far nearly 25% of all Chinese KLM customers booking online, receive their flight info via WeChat. KLM gets over 8000 servicing questions a week, mainly in Simplified Chinese.

About KLM and Social Media
Since 2009 KLM gained a reputation as an initiator and pioneer in the area of social media services and campaigns in the social landscape. In April 2017, KLM had over 25 million fans and followers on various social media platforms. Through these channels, KLM receives over 100,000 mentions every week, 15,000 of which are questions or remarks. These are personally replied to by 250 service agents, forming the world’s largest dedicated social media team. On Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, WeChat and KakaoTalk (Korean) KLM offers her customers a 24/7 one-stop-shop in 9 different languages: Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. During office hours KLM also services in Italian. KLM was the first airline worldwide to offer customers the option to receive flight documents and status updates via Messenger. KLM also offers this service on Twitter and WeChat.