Customer orientation
Just a click away
The implementation of a customer oriented approach
Monique Bergers Amsterdam, Juli 2003 University of Groningen
Faculty of Management and organisation
Supervisors:
After a 9 months flight full of turbulence, I finally reached my destination. This thesis is the result of a research on the implementation of a customer-orientated approach by means of an e-service desk. The research was done in order of and in co-operation with KLM e-business. This thesis is my final product for my study Management and Organisation, specialisation business development, of the University of Groningen.
I experienced my flight at KLM as very pleasant. To me the subject of e-business proved to be a really interesting research field since it is moving forward all the times. The e-service desk project was a very interesting research object. It was above all very interesting since I became a member of the project team and had to deal with several stakeholders. This enabled me to learn a lot in a relatively short period. The e-service desk project turned out to be a very successful project. The desk went live the 1st of April and gains huge popularity already since it generates cost efficiencies and delivers an excellent service towards the customer. And last but not least, the desk generates very valuable customer information, which is distributed to the whole organisation. At this moment the follow up on the acquired information is very good.
My acknowledgements go to all the people of KLM and Cygnific that contributed to this research. Special gratitude goes out to Gerard Bakker from KLM for his supervision during this research. Without his help and contacts this research would not have been possible. I also would like to thank Maartje Hilgers and Marjolein van Zalen for correcting my so-called ‘dutchy’ English. I hope they had a good laugh with it. Further I would like to thank Professor Van Engelen for his directions and pleasant co-operation. I provided him with the challenge to push me in a scientific direction. In the end, he managed to achieve the point that I even enjoyed writing this thesis and applying the theories and liaisons. Due to his directions, the final result is presented here. I would like to thank Mr. D. van der Wal for his flexibility and time to supervise this thesis. Finally I like to thank my family and friends for their unconditional support.
Amsterdam, July 2003 Monique Bergers
Preface
The airline industry is currently in a turbulent business environment due to economic recession and the consequences of September, 11th, the Iraqi war en the SARS virus. Airlines are forced to collaborate, reorganise and rebuilding customer satisfaction. But above all, they have to generate cost efficiencies. One of the most efficient ways to generate cost efficiencies and though take care of the customer satisfaction is to make use of the Internet as a communication-, service- and sales channel. The Internet creates value on the demand site by allowing the airline to customise to customer needs and on the supply side by reducing costs. Since the Internet functions as direct sales channel agents’
commission costs and Central Reservation System costs can be avoided. In general, websales are four times cheaper.
E-development is now one of the major focus points of the commercial organisation of KLM. The management set an online sales target of 40% for the financial year 2007/2008, which means the percentage online sales has to double each year. This target is an overall target for all e-business of KLM, which means Business to trade, Business to consumer and Business to business. This thesis only focuses on the business to consumer area. To reach the target KLM has to deliver products and services to the customer needs, thus KLM has to strive to a more customer-oriented approach. This can be done in various ways. This thesis focuses on the e-customer service processes, since the customer service department is in direct contact with the customer and thus can influence the perceived value and can identify customers’ needs and wants.
The problem formulation of the research reads as follows: In what way does KLM e-business have to redesign and implement its internal business processes to attain a more customer-oriented approach by means of their e-customer service.
To come to a more customer-oriented approach both internal- and external customer orientation have to be in place. The e-service desk has to be continuous up to date and has to deliver valuable customer information to KLM to make continuous site improvements and to deliver products and services to the customers needs. The marketorientation literature is of great importance for this research in that it pays attention to the generation, dissemination of and the responsiveness to customer intelligence.
The degree of customer orientation can be improved through the redesign of the current business processes. In this thesis the process approach of the University of Groningen, the so-called ‘4 spades model’, was used. This approach is founded on the notion that business process redesign efforts need to be directed by a customer value statement, which functions as an unique selling point yet also as a directive for the internal business processes. Therefore the current performance of the websupport was examined by a quantitative customer research. The research is conducted by means of a questionnaire survey because with this technique it is relatively easy to study a diversity of attitudes, motivation and opinions in a limited time frame and at low costs. The population consisted of the online customer that received websupport by phone or by e-mail. The SERVQUAL method was used to design the questionnaire. The response was very low due to technical problems, which resulted in a not reliable and valid research. Though, the results could serve as a nice indication of the customers’ satisfaction with the service.
The results of the customer satisfaction research suggest that KLM scores high on general callcenter features yet can improve its specific KLM.Com skills to attain a
Management summary
more satisfied customer. The satisfiers of the KLM websupport turned out to be accessibility, friendliness, ability of solving the problem, patience and willingness to solve the problem. Dissatisfiers are the extent in which the problem is solved, Internet knowledge, KLM knowledge and the ability to solve problems. When looking at the customer value statement; reliable, punctual, caring and friendly, can be concluded that KLM scores low on reliability with their e-customer service processes since all dissatisfiers can be classified in this category. Remarkable was that only 48% of the respondents did book a flight at KLM. This harmonises the ratio tickets sold/ contacts of 100/106. This ratio needs to be decreased. This can be done by taking care of the availability of the site, by amending the bookingtool towards a more customer friendly one, by guiding the customer through the booking process and by pushing the customer into cheaper service channels.
In order to find the reasons for the unsatisfactory performance and to have an insight in the current level of customer orientation, an assessment of the formal and actual behaviours, the current processes and enablers is done by means of observations and semi-structured interviews. This assessment will help KLM to identify the main business processes in the value generation process that needs to be redesigned to obtain a more customer oriented approach.
The results of the research showed an e-customer service organisation, which scores poorly on both internal and external customer orientation. SZ generates hardly any customer information and neglects the callcenter as the most attainable and valuable source for customer information. Although the callcenter is in direct contact with the customer and thus can influence the perceived satisfaction, KLM underestimated the role of Cygnific for years. In the initial design of the e-organisation and the e-bookingprocess, websuppport was given no extra attention. Cygnific employs very professional agents, who lack specific knowledge on the Internet and especially on the KLM.Com. Which can explain why the respondents in the customer research indicated their dissatisfaction with the agent’s ability to solve problems and knowledge on KLM products and the Internet. The calls are treated as a normal reservations call, which is no good for the tickets sold/service ratio. The major problem turned out to be the lack of a formal e-customer service organisation. Cygnific is not in the information loop for regular updates and they do not know who to contact in case of a problem. The present customer information is forlorn because no one knows where to go and what to do and because the decline in labour at cygnific is very high. Above all, the service level agreement is not obliging Cygnific to acquire customer intelligence. At the side of KLM there are no formal processes present for the dissemination of and the responsiveness to the acquired customer information.
The weekly reports are neglected and no one really takes care of the dissemination of the relevant information. Some issues arrive at the establishments, yet there is hardly no follow up on these issues and most of the times they do not arrive at the responsible person. When analysing the data can be concluded that the current use of enablers is poor. The management takes no specific attention to the e-customer service processes and they do not provide feedback on customer oriented behaviour. A lot of information exchange networks are present, but are not formally used for the information which is derived from the callcenter. KLM mainly focuses on cost efficiencies and develops projects from a technological perspective. No one is really responsible for the generation, dissemination and responsiveness of customer intelligence, partly because of the huge workload. In conclusion KLM has to redesign its internal business and has to take care of the appropriate behaviour. It has to provide Cygnific with an extended training on KLM.Com and with regular feedback. Both on the side of Cygnific and KLM responsibilites and roles need to be defined and tools to faciltate the processes have to be developped. The excisting information networks can be used and new platforms can be created. Bt most important, all
stakeholders need to be aware of the value of the new e-service desk.
Management is now very committed to the e-service desk project but has to commit itself to exemplary behavior in the future.
The results of both researches have identified the areas for improvement. Next, the current process needs to be redesigned. First, the objective will be defined by setting the customer value for the e-service desk. The customer value of KLM reads: Reliable, punctual, caring and friendly. These are the KLM values that are central to everything they do. They characterise the service and the relationships with customers, employees and the environment. This customer value is operationalised to a proper customer value statement for the e-service desk:
Delivering timely, consistent and accurate information in a customer friendly way. By implementing the e-service desk KLM mainly expects to increase customer benefits by delivering an excellent service and to decrease customers’ acquisition costs. Customers’ acquisition costs can be decreased by taking away the frustrations and problems with the website and by helping them to make a booking online and hope to attain loyal e-customers since the effort to acquisite a flight at the KLM website is decreased by the help of the callagent;
Based on the value delivery strategy KLM needs to translate this internal strategy into the internal business processes. The new internal business processes are presented in this chapter 8. The new processes take care of a timely, consistent and accurate service towards the customer and of the generating, dissemination and responsiveness to customer intelligence.
A redesign of the actual processes will not always immediately influence the behaviour of organisation members. An organisation may believe something is important, but fails to act on its beliefs. Therefore, enablers are deployed to increase employees’ motivation for customer oriented behaviour and to remove personal and situational restrictions to customer oriented behaviour. At the same time, the enablers serve to anchor the new behaviours in organisational systems, structures and formal processes. In this thesis the enablers as described by van Raaij are described; feedback, management behaviour, information exchange networks, roles and responsibilities, tools, processes and procedures, resources and skills.
First Cygnific has to apply dedicated e-agents and the skills of these agents need to be developed by providing them with an extended training on the KLM.com.
The enabler feedback is crucial for the e-service desk to keep the agents’
motivated to deliver the required service. SZ has to keep the e-desk continuous up to date and has to provide them with timely feedback on the daily issues and enhancement suggestions. The management has to show exemplary behaviour in that they show commitment to the desk and motivate employees to act in a customer oriented way. This enhances organisational commitment, which contributes to delivering an excellent service and products. The existing information exchange networks can be used for the dissemination of the acquired customer intelligence. The issues and enhancement suggestions will be disseminated and Cygnific will be kept up to date by using these networks. The issues are segregated into three types of issues. Type 1 and 2 issues contribute to the operational performance and type 3 errors can be used for strategic purposes. The different issues require a different timespan and procedure for follow up. New platforms can be created to disseminate these issues and to take care of the follow up. In example, brainstorm sessions or a two monthly e-service desk meeting at Cygnific where the agents are allowed to sprout all their comments and someone of KLM is invited to present its project. E-mail will be the most effective means of communication in that screendumps can be added, it preserves the content of the problem and can be forwarded to the responsible
person easily. Roles and responsibilities have to be determined and communicated. At the side of KLM the role of knowledge broker who is responsible for the generation, dissemination and maintenance of KLM.com will be introduced. This person will be in direct contact with all stakeholders and the dedicated supervisor of Cygnific and will be located at SZ. Several tools have to be developed facilitate the processes. A wrap up tool will enable the collection, dissemination and storage of customer intelligence. The new state of the art Kana IQ tool will generate cost efficiencies in that it serves as a cheap service channels towards the customer and for the agents it will serve as a knowledge database, which stores all corporate knowledge. Thus, it preserves the consistency of the service. The kana IQ tool will also contribute as a control mechanism for the follow up on the information.
The dedication of these enablers and the redesign of the process will contribute to the overall business goals set by KLM. The customer satisfaction will be increased, site improvements can be made, service costs will decrease and the customer will receive a timely, consistent and accurate information in a customer friendly way.
Preface I
Management summary II
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Organisation 3
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 KLM 3
1.3 KLM Strategy 4
1.4 Organisation 5
1.5 E-business KLM (SZ) 5
1.5.1 Structure 6
1.5.2 Strategy 6
1.5.3 Culture 6
1.6 Customer service KLM (Cygnific) 7
Chapter 2: Context of the research 8
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 The airline industry 8
2.3 Strategy KLM 9
2.4 Multi-channel strategy 9
2.5 The e-service desk project 10
Chapter 3 Research design 12
3.1 Introduction 12
3.2 Problem statement 12
3.2.1 Objective of the research 12
3.2.2 Problem formulation of the research 13
3.2.3 Conceptual framework 14
3.2.4 Sub-questions 15
3.2.5 Definitions 15
3.2.6 Constraints and limitations of the research 16
3.3 Set up of the research 16
3.4 Stakeholders 18
Chapter 4 Theoretical framework 23
4.1 Introduction 18
4.2 Customer orientation 18
4.3 Market orientation 19
4.4 Business process redesign 21
4.5 Customer value 23
4.6 Enablers 24
4.7 Conclusion 25
Table of contents
Chapter 5 Research methods 27
5.1 Introduction 27
5.2 Designing in action 27
5.3 Primary data 28
5.3.1 Qualitative research 28
5.3.1.1 Method 28
5.3.1.2 Sample and data 29
5.3.1.3 Quality of the data 29
5.3.1.4 Analysis method 31
5.3.2 Quantitative research 31
5.3.2.1 Research method 32
5.3.2.2 Design of the research 32
5.3.2.3 Follow up study 33
5.3.2.4 Questionnaire 33
5.3.2.5 Data analysis 37
5.3.2.6 Non response 38
5.3.2.7 Quality of the data 38
5.4 Secondary data 39
5.5 Research constraints 39
Chapter 6 Current performance 40
6.1 Introduction 40
6.2 Results 40
6.3 Business performance 44
6.4 Conclusion 44
Chapter 7 Current processes 46
7.1 Organisation 46
7.2 Business processes 47
7.3 Customer orientation 49
7.3.1 Internal customer orientation 49
7.3.2 External customer orientation 51
7.3.3 Enablers 53
7.4 Conclusion 55
Chapter 8 Redesign 57
8.1 Goal 57
8.2 Activities 58
8.3 Behaviours 62
8.4 Conclusion 66
Conclusions and recommendations 67
Conclusions 67
Limitations of the research 68
Suggestions for further research 69
References 70
Tables and figures 72
Appendix
Appendix A: Organigram KLM
Appendix B: Organigram Passenger Business Appendix C: Organigram SZ
Appendix D: Bookingprocess Appendix E: Productportfolio Appendix F: Customer interaction Appendix G: Analysis method
Appendix H: Questionnaire phone research Appendix I: Questionnaire webresearch
Appendix J: Questionnaire customer orientation (KLM) Appendix K: Questionnaire customer orientation (Cygnific)
Customers once expected low prices and good service. Today, they demand low prices and outstanding service (Gronroos, 2000 ). This can be owed to the development of new technologies and services. Accompanying the more demanding customer is the emerge of new media and distribution channels. A new channel to reach and satisfy the customer at lower costs is the Internet. KLM started its e-business during the days that e-business became a hype. A company was considered as old fashioned when not offering a website. Today, E-business is on the top priority list of the management of KLM since it serves as a new service channel and generates huge cost efficiencies. The worldwide growth of e- business is incredible and the number of Internet users is also increasing, which imply excellent conditions to make a major shift to the direct e-channel.
Especially in these times of economic recession and the bad circumstances for the airline industry, the e-channel becomes more and more important due to its cost efficiencies. The management of KLM set an online sales target of 40% for the financial year 2007/2008. This demands an excellent service towards the customer. The last few years several projects were started to deliver new and better tools and services. The interaction via the website between KLM and a customer is through technology and not through human interaction. The moment of truth is replaced to the website. This absence of human contact has to result in a very professional website and bookingtool. Though, some customers do prefer a personal contact or have a very delicate problem or contacted KLM as a result of a bad site performance. However, the accompanied e-customer service is neglected by KLM for years, in spite of the facts that the callcenter is in direct contact with the customer and can serve as a valuable source of information. In conclusion KLM can act more customer oriented by means of their e-customer service. To come to a customer oriented approach, the management of KLM e- business decided to implement a dedicated e-service desk. This thesis will examine in what way the current processes have to be redesigned to reach a more customer oriented approach for KLM e-customer service by implementing the e-service desk, which is aimed at the realisation of a sales growth and at delivering an excellent service at lower costs. The research question reads as follows:
In what way KLM e-business has to redesign and implement its internal business processes to attain a more customer oriented approach by means of their e- customer service
This thesis will describe the process to come to a customer-oriented approach.
The structure of this thesis is as follows. Chapter one provides the reader with a short presentation of the KLM organisation. The organisational structure has an impact on the research process and sets some boundaries on the outcomes. Since the research is done in order of the e-business department of KLM and is aimed at redesigning the e-customer service processes, the organisational scope is narrowed by describing this specific department and Cygnific. Chapter two discusses the background of the research. In the next chapter the research design is presented. Chapter four presents the theoretical framework, which contains all relevant concepts and models that suits the problem statement.
Chapter five discusses the research methods, which are used to assess the current performance and the current e-customer service processes. Chapter six presents the current performance of the e-customer service processes in terms of customer satisfaction and financial performance. The results of the quantitative research give a nice indication of the customer satisfaction.
Introduction
Chapter seven provides an assessment of the actual behaviours and the current use of enablers. This provides the reader with an insight in the current level of customer orientation and the current state of enablers. This assessment gives an insight in what internal business processes need to be redesigned to attain a more customer-oriented approach. Chapter eight presents the final redesign of the customer service processes in terms of value, activities and behaviour.
1.1 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with an insight into the build up of the organisational context of this research. Large multinational companies such as KLM, most often have a complex organisational structure. Combined with the fact that the organisational structure can have a great impact on the research process and outcome, this explains the reason for a detailed description in this chapter. Furthermore, describing the e-business department narrows the organisational scope of the research, since this research only concerns a part of the total KLM operation. The chapter starts with a brief presentation of the KLM organisation and the relevant business unit of which e-business is part. Paragraph 1.5 shortly describes the organisational structure of the e-business department of KLM. The chapter finishes with an introduction of the customer service department of KLM, Cygnific.
1.2. KLM
Albert Plesman founded KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on October 7, 1919. It has continued to operate under the same name to this day, making it the oldest scheduled airline in the world with a continuous history. The carrier's first scheduled flight, on May 17, 1920, connected Amsterdam and London. By the end of that year the company had carried 345 passengers, 22 tons of cargo and three tons of mail. The airline operated its first intercontinental flight to Indonesia, then still the Dutch East Indies, in October 1924. Regular scheduled flights to the Far East began in 1929. The route remained the worlds longest until the outbreak of World War II. KLM aircraft continued to fly from England throughout the war, but operations from its homebase, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, had to be reconstructed from scratch in 1945. By the fall of 1945, Far Eastern services had recommenced and in May 1946, KLM was the first continental European airline to open transatlantic services to the USA.
In recent days, KLM enables over 16 million passengers per year to travel all over the world. KLM is a globally operating airline with its home base at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of the world's most modern airports. The airline plays a central role in the KLM Group, which also includes KLM Cityhopper, KLM UK and Transavia Airlines. Through its strong alliance with Northwest Airlines and close co-operation with European and intercontinental network and route partners, KLM offers passengers and airfreight shippers more than 113,000 city-pair connections throughout the world via one or more hubs. KLM and its partner airlines operate a route network connecting more than 360 cities in 78 countries on 6 continents.
The KLM Group operates a modern fleet of 188 aircraft; KLM has a fleet of 131 planes. In the fiscal year 2001/02 KLM carried 15,949,000 million passengers and 490,000 tons of cargo and mail. KLM ranks seventh among the more than 260 IATA member-airlines in terms of international revenue ton-kilometres flown.
Due to its global field of operations and the crucial part it plays in transport, KLM provides an important boost to the Dutch economy. One of KLM's main objectives is creating an absolutely preferential position with its passengers and commercial clients. For that reason, the airline values qualities like reliability, punctuality and efficiency. All qualities it also looks for in its employees. KLM currently employs around 30,381 people worldwide, 26,728 employed in the Netherlands, and 3,653 are stationed abroad.
1. Organisation
In its core activities of passenger and cargo transport, KLM has established itself as one of the markets’ leading carriers. Besides its core business of passenger and cargo transport, KLM has also achieved an important market position in the field of airplane maintenance to both KLM and third parties. The KLM Group is working to expand its market share in the increasingly popular low-cost segment with Basiq Air.
Financial year 2002/3 turnover was EUR 6,5 million. Approximately 11 percent of this total was earned from work for third parties. This mainly comprises aircraft and engine overhaul and maintenance for other airlines. Operating loss for fiscal year 2002/03 was EUR 133 million, compared to an operating loss of EUR 94 million in last year. Net loss excluding extraordinary items, for the year amounted to EUR 186 million. The extraordinary items refer to 69 million of the retirement of KLM’s boeing 747-300 fleet earlier than previously anticipated and the Alitalia arbitrary award of after tax 181 million as well as an one-off restructuring provision of 48 million after tax. Including these items , net loss amounted to EUR 416 million, or EUR 9.26 per common share. Last year, KLM Group reported a net loss of EUR 156 million, or EUR 3.37 per common share.
1.3. KLM Strategy
Through its strong alliance with Northwest Airlines and in close co-operation with European and intercontinental network and route partners, KLM’s vision is:
‘To excel in offering quality connections to passengers and shippers on a global scale’
KLM’s ambition is to be an independent and financially sound European partner in a leading global airline alliance. KLM seeks to be the preferred supplier for passengers, shippers, and customers for overhaul and maintenance; to provide a stimulating and dynamic working environment for its employees; to achieve a structural increase in shareholder value; and to build a reciprocally profitable relationship with its partners. KLM’s strategy focuses on achieving sustainable operations and an optimum balance between financial targets, social aspects and care for the human environment.
Their mission-statement reads as follows:
KLM intends to generate value for its customers, employees and shareholders by striving to attain excellence as an airline and by participating in the world's most successful airline alliance.
KLM is committed to generating customer preference by striving for the following overall goals:
• Offering a high-quality product at a competitive price
• Strengthening market presence, in part through alliances with other carriers
• Achieving internationally competitive cost levels, on a sound financial basis.
1.4 Organisation
KLM has established a decentralised organisation since two years. A simplified organisational chart is provided in Appendix A. At the head of the organisation there is the board of directors who bears responsibility for agreeing priorities and allocating resources, setting overall corporate targets, agreeing and monitoring business groups strategies and plans, identifying and exploiting opportunities and managing external relations at corporate level.
The different business units handle all other issues, including responsibility for turnover and profit. KLM consists of a number of business units, each with its own function and culture. KLM makes a distinction between three areas of core business: Passenger Business, KLM Cargo and KLM Engineering & Maintenance.
However, the KLM Group is larger. The fourth division apart from these three is the Charter/Low-Cost division with Transavia and Basiq Air operations and several support services. KLM’s subsidiaries also form a part of the group.
This research was conducted for the e-business department of KLM. E-business is a part of the business unit Passenger Business. This unit is divided in several subunits, as shown below.
• Commercial Organisation is responsible for development, marketing, communications and sales.
• Network is responsible for the global network and for optimising the KLM Group returns.
• Cabin Crew is responsible for the safety and service on board of the flights.
The stewards/stewardesses and (assistant) pursers largely determine the KLM public image.
• Flight Operations is responsible for the state of affairs in the cockpit. The safety and quality of the flights is the top priority at all times.
• Ground Services is responsible for handling flights operated by KLM and its airline partners on the ground. This business unit manages the complete process from check-in to departure, including baggage handling and loading and cleaning the planes.
• Operations Control & Fleet Services monitors the quality of the flight operation.
• KLM cityhopper and KLM UK are also part of Passenger Business.
1.5 E-business KLM (SZ)
At the time that Internet became more and more important as a means of communication channel and trade channel, KLM decided to found a special e- business department within the sub unit commercial organisation. During these days the department employed only 6 persons and budgets were kept low. The main motive for conducting e-business was the fact that all other airlines created a website. The last few years e-business at KLM has been growing rapidly and SZ became one of the vital parts of the organisation and currently employs over 60 employees. At this moment KLM has 70 websites worldwide, translated into 14 languages and containing 7700 URLs. KLM.Com has 1.000.000 unique visitors a month and there are 800.000 listserver members. Nowadays the motives for e- business are increasing customer satisfaction (Where, when and how the customer wants it) and creating business opportunities and cost efficiencies. SZ has to deal with a various group of customers since they deal with Business to consumer, Business to trade and Business to business. Within these areas a distinction can be made as well. In B2B, there is a difference between small medium enterprises and the multinationals, which both require different services.
In the B2T area, SZ has to deal with e-tailers like Opodo and de Vliegwinkel and
with retailers, which refers to the regular travel agencies. In the area of B2C it is more difficult to categorise the customer. Here, SZ has to deal with all kind of people, from a Flying Dutchman member, to a business traveller, to complete families. SZ is only in direct contact with the customer by means of the website.
This interaction is through technology and not through human action. This means SZ has to monitor the website and their processes continuously. The webcustomer can be in direct KLM by contacting the KLM service center via the 0900boekklm telephone number . SZ outsourced these activities to Cygnific.
1.5.1 Structure
SZ belongs to the subunit commercial organisation in the business unit passenger business. As stated before, E-business encloses three areas; Business to consumer (B2C), Business to business (B2B) for corporate clients and Business to trade for the traditional retail agent and the e-agent (B2T). In the future Business to Employee (B2E) might be added. The different areas offer various services and apply unique bookingmethods. Appendix D shows the complete product portfolio of KLM e-business.
Currently, Mr. Bart Vos is vice president of the e-business department. The department is functionally organised into four different sub units; E-product development, E-Marketing, E-Sales and E-services. An organisational chart is provided in Appendix B. Initially the management tried to fit the e-business processes into the organisational KLM structure by copying the processes that were in place. Here they experienced a major difficulty since e-business deals with almost all areas and all the individual establishments. The website consists of 60% worldwide content and 40% country specific content. The worldwide content consists of all kinds of information, which is provided by several subunits within KLM. The establishements manage the country specific content by themselves, yet have to deal with SZ. In fact, e-business is organised straight across the formal structure of KLM.
1.5.2 Strategy
The vision of SZ is to derive 40% of the total of net 3 million turnover in 2007/08 from online channels. This is the equivalent of total turnover of NL, the UK and Germany to be shifted in their distribution policies. Subsequently the mission of SZ is to increase online business by servicing all their customers with e- propositions to realise 40% sales online in order to improve KLM Margin. The target of 40% equates to the single biggest strategic shift this company has ever made and demands a culture change. At this moment 10% of total net turnover is generated by online business.
1.5.3. Culture
Culture can be defined as the common understanding of the members of the organisation with respect to how things are done in the organisation. In other words these are the written and unwritten rules that regulate the social interactions between members, as well as between members and outside parties (Sanders and Neuijen, 1987). A culture manifests itself by different features. One of these features is a symbol. The most evident symbol at SZ is the airline- and KLM jargon, which consists of abbreviations and codes. Moreover, e-business is a very technical area, which involves another jargon. And the prime language at SZ is English due to the fact that the airline business is very internationally oriented and SZ deals with a website that is published in 70 countries. Subsequently SZ employs a lot of nationalities.
At the core of the organisational culture are the shared norms and values introduced by the management of SZ. The main objectives of these shared values are; a deal is a deal, have fun, act with respect and result driven.
SZ employs an enthusiastic and relatively young group of people and attains a very open culture. This expresses itself primarily by the set up of the department.
SZ is organised as a so-called ‘open-plan’ office. This enables information dissemination. Information dissemination plays a vital role since all areas and sub-units are very dependent on each other in their daily operations and in the several projects. They all have to deal with the maintenance and development of the same website. And as stated above it is of vital importance to deliver an excellent website since it is the only way for SZ to communicate with the customer. Second, the open culture expresses itself by the weekly and monthly meetings. Every week each manager discusses the figures, the running projects, the operational issues and the current situation of KLM with his team. Every month, an SZ meeting is organised by the director. During this meeting the current situation of KLM is discussed and employees are invited to present their projects. The current situation has changed a lot at KLM. For the fact that SZ deals with e-business, which is an enabler for cost savings, minor organisational changes will follow for SZ.
1.6. Customer service KLM (Cygnific)
KLM outsourced its pre-flight customer service activities to Cygnific two years ago. Cygnific is a 100% daughter company of KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline group.
The company was established in 1998, with the remit to create independently managed outsourced services within the Customer Care sector. Cygnific is based in Norwich, Amsterdam and Enschede and operates a 7-day per week extended hours service from their state of the art contact centers. Cygnific is currently handling over 2 million transactions within a structured Service Level Agreement environment. Cygnific supplies a range of services ranging from routine information provision through auctioning complex financial transactions. They deliver customer contact via inbound or outbound telephone calls, e-mail handling and web support or formal written correspondence.
2.1 Introduction
In this paragraph the background and context of the research will be discussed.
First a brief overview of the airline industry will be outlined to give the reader an insight in the complex environment KLM is in at the moment. This paragraph discusses the rise of the Internet, a very important development for KLM and for the context of this research. The third paragraph describes the strategy of KLM to cope with the current problems, which provides the reader with an insight in the problem area of this research.
2.2 The airline industry
The airline industry is currently in a turbulent business environment. The entire industry remains vulnerable to external factors that are beyond its control. The misery started with the shocking events of September 11th, 2001. Passenger volumes decreased immediately, mainly because of fright. This tragedy was followed by a worldwide economic recession. The combination of these two facts had a huge impact on the airline industry. In 2003 new problems came up caused by the Iraqi war and the SARS virus. Sales went down and the misery still continuous to go on. The global airline industry body IATA has estimated that the industry stands to lose $8 bn this year as passengers take fright at disease, terrorism and economic uncertainty. Airline executives acknowledged the need to embrace change, and to rebuild customer satisfaction. But the immediate focus has to be on cost reductions.
One of the most efficient enablers to reach cost efficiency is to make use of the Internet due to more efficient and low-cost operations. E-business is coming up rapidly and the Internet penetration in Western Europe is expected to increase by about two times in the period 2003-2005. It has grown to be a popular sales channel during the last five years, in particular for the travel industry, since travel turned out to be the best selling product on the Internet. The first examples of digital usage by airlines in the early 90’s was simply offering travellers some details about the airlines services, fares and some inactive timetables, which was already provided by travel agents. More recently, airlines’ web applications have been aimed at developing a new distribution channel for bookings and sales. The customer has the opportunity to purchase their ticket directly from the airline via an advanced booking tool. This created a considerable positive impact on containing carriers' costs by smoothing their dependence on computer reservation system (CRS) interfaces and on travel agents’ commercial practices. Websales are up to 4 times cheaper than through travelagencies and CRS’s. Another great effort of the web is its huge cross-selling effects. The Internet provides a new set of enhanced tools to enable airlines to develop special relationship with their customers. Clear examples are the direct communication with customers by WAP enabled services and to generate web enabled sales of non-air products like cars, hotels and insurances. E-applications bring together processes that were once separate entities. Traditional business boundaries are fading and processes are being integrated, both internally and externally. The Internet simply creates a way of producing more efficiently, reducing transaction costs and matching the customer with their preferred choice and the Internet enables doing new things that in the absence of the Internet would not happen.
2. Context of the research
Now the Internet provides the low cost form for both indirect and direct channels.
Nevertheless, the Internet brought up another threat for the airline industries.
Mature airlines such as KLM, BA and Lufthansa are threatened by new entrants such as Easy jet and Ryan air. These low cost carriers created a new kind of competition. They make use of the Internet as a low cost sales channel and they offer little service during the flights. By these means they are able to offer the customer flights for very attractive prices. For a huge airline such as KLM it is very hard to compete with these airlines because of the complexity of its product.
2.3 Strategy KLM
As a result of the new entrants, the current market conditions the external threats and the economic recession, KLM experiences major difficulties. KLM is in negotiation with several airlines to achieve collaboration and alliances. They blew off the deal with Alitalia, which led to a huge fine for KLM. Nowadays, they are still negotiation with British Airways and Air France. At this moment times are even worse, flights are cancelled, plains leave with only 50 percent of the passengers and KLM has to discharge huge amounts of employees in all areas.
The only possible and remaining strategy is to generate huge cost savings, which means delivering a better product at lower costs. One of the ways to generate savings and though satisfy the customer is developing the e-channel. Conducting business by the e-channel creates value on the demand side by allowing KLM to customise in order to suit specific customer needs and on the supply side by reducing costs. Due to e-business an extra push towards the direct channel can be created. KLM tries to push the customer to the direct channel for years, to avoid agent commissions. Nowadays, KLM e-business generates an extra cost saving in the direct channel (B2C and B2B) through the web by simplifying the current processes and by avoiding CRS costs. The e-bookingprocess contains more self-service elements,which is both beneficial for the customer in that he can control the process by itself and for KLM for cost efficiencies in that the customer co-operates in the service production process.
At this moment, E-development is one of the major focuspoints of the commercial organisation. KLM only sells 4% of the tickets via the Internet. The aim is to increase this percentage tenfold within the next four years. (In the time of writing the percentage increased to 5,6% already). To reach this target, the percentage online sales have to double each year. Consequently, SZ has set some overall priorities for the next few years; develop E-Sales & E- Services, increase customer satisfaction, lower distribution & servicing costs and improve their internal processes.
2.4. Multi-channel strategy
This results in a multi-channel strategy for KLM. The advances in technology have revolutionised service delivery in recent years, which result in many different alternatives for customers in which they can interact with a company. On the one hand, companies are offered a much broader range of service delivery options;
while on the other hand, the degree of interaction has considerably increased.
(Dabholkar, 2000). The customer can book a flight directly by the callcenter and by making use of the website and indirectly through travelagencies and e-tailers.
For additional support KLM make use of a multi-channel strategy as well. KLM can reach cost efficiencies by pushing the customer into a cheaper service channel. At this moment KLM offers the customer three channels. The cheapest channel is the website, which is available for everyone. The website is aimed at providing the customer with general information on KLM products, services and policies. A customer or a potential customer can seek for information on the website. The
website contains a lot of static information, including a frequently asked question list (FAQ). The website also serves as a sales channel in that it offers an online bookingtool. To guide the customer in its booking process, KLM offers a
demonstration of the booking tool. The somewhat more expensive channel is e- mail. On the website the customer can surf to the contact page, from this point the customer is invited to send out an e-mail in the proper category. The most expensive channel is phone. The dedicated telephone number for web-support is solely displayed in the bookingtool to exert a pull on no more than ‘the paying customer.’ Phone is the most expensive channel in that it demands a fulltime human occupancy during the day to reach the contracted service levels. Hardly anything can be standardised since most problems are very case specific ones. E- mail demands human action as well, yet e-mail handling can be planned and partly standardised. In the future it will be interesting to develop alternate service channels. The last few years the deployment and use of customer support and callcenter applications integrated with a company’s website is an ongoing trend (Price Waterhouse Coopers, 2000). By such applications KLM is able to offer self- service solutions and real time customer assistance like chat and co-browsing.
Independent on what kind of customer, the users can interact with KLM through different channels on many different devices. Channel management enables an enterprise to provide the customer with a consistency and satisfactory
experience. The e-service desk project is aimed at reaching consistency and satisfaction. Although it is not the main goal for this research, channel selection will be discussed in this thesis as well since it can contribute to customer
satisfaction and cost savings regarding KLM’s e-customer service processes.
2.5 The e-service desk project
The 40% sales target that KLM is dealing with, demands an extra service towards the customer. Delivering an excellent service is the key word for service organisations and KLM is a 100% service organisation. The last few years the service industry has grown rapidly and customers become more and more demanding. Especially, new technologies created assertive and critical customers, they prefer to manage their own information need, they expect excellent service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they expect comfort and personal attention and they are very result-minded in their communication. This demands a more customer-oriented strategy and a focus on managing the service processes carefully.
Each separate element of the service delivery process contributes to the overall evaluation of the service. KLM has a variety of customer contact points, including frontline personnel, callcenters and websites. Appendix F presents al possible customer contact points. It is advisable to aim for customer satisfaction in every service encounter. KLM makes a difference in in-flight service and pre-flight service. In-flight service responds to Ground services and the cabin service during the flight. Pre-flight at KLM is more complex to manage since KLM differentiates direct and indirect sales and they have no direct control on the attended indirect service processes. Service processes are crucial for KLM, because an excellent customer service can have a huge impact on customer satisfaction. Therefore the website has to be very customer friendly and the customer has to obtain a professional service in the callcenter. Here, two problems occur. First, the website is not always that customer friendly since it can contain temporary errors and flaws and the customer does experience a lot of problems with the website. The second problem has to deal with the service in the callcenter. The service portfolio can roughly be divided into two areas, offline service and online service.
The offline channel is not the main issue for Cygnific since the accompanying procedures are known for years and the agents attain an extended training on all Reservations issues of KLM the Netherlands. Nevertheless, there is no adequate knowledge on Internet and klm.com to deliver the required website support.
These problems can be considered as major problems due to the brand position of KLM, which is customer-focused and service driven. But more important it can create a restriction for the long-term target of 40% online sales. Thus KLM has to strive for online customer satisfaction by creating a customer friendly website and delivering dedicated additional service. To reach this, the management of SZ decided to implement a dedicated e-service desk. This desk will not only be aimed at reaching customer satisfaction with the service, it can also contribute to customer satisfaction with the website by gathering passenger information to make continuous site- improvements. Contact personnel are the most crucial resource for a service organisation. Contact staff is in a position to recognise the wishes and demands of customers in the moment of truth by watching, asking questions and responding to the customers’ behaviour. Furthermore they are able to instantly follow up on the quality of the service rendered and undertake corrective action as soon as a problem is observed (Gronroos, 2000). KLM routinely gather passenger information at the various customer contact points by which they can tell where, when and how often passengers are travelling, how much they have paid and know exactly what their preferences and their frustrations are. These examples show that gathering customer information is not the main problem. Rather, the problem lies in the airlines’ inability to use this information to better serve their customers. In conclusion, KLM has to act more customer-oriented by means of their e-customer service processes.
3.1. Introduction
In this chapter the set up of the research will be discussed. Within the research process a few basic activities can be discerned. These basic activities are combined by De Leeuw (1996) in what he calls the ‘cock shy’ of the research (de ballentent van het onderzoek). This is a useful instrument in the choices that outline the research approach. The formulation of the problem and the theoretical concepts resemble the heart of the research. The basic of the research is formed by the formulation of the problem, which contains the research goal, the research question and the boundary conditions. The formulation of the problem clarifies what knowledge is sought after and in what way the researcher has to fulfill the demand for knowledge. The applicable concepts form the theoretical basis by which the researcher develops the sought after knowledge. Theoretical concepts have to be chosen with respect to the formulation of the problem and vice versa.
The choice of data and data sources must be made in the light of the research questions. The choice of data sources implies the use of certain measuring and observation methods as well as the right kind of data analysis methods. The problem statement and the set up of the research will be discussed in this chapter. The theoretical framework will be described in chapter 4 and in chapter 5 the used research methods will be discussed. Together the coherent decisions on each of these ‘balls in the cock shy’ form the research approach. (De Leeuw, 1996).
3.2. Problem statement
Following the Leeuw, the problem statement consists out of 3 components: the objective, problem formulation and research constraints. The objective determines for whom the research is done, what kind of research product is expected and why this product has an importance. The problem formulation states the main question that follow the research objective, but formulate in such a way that is accessible to research. Part of the problem formulation is the division of the main question into several sub-questions. The link between objective, problem formulation and sub-questions will be explained by using a conceptual model. The last part of the problem statement describes the constraints and limitations of the research.
3.2.1. Objective of the research
As described in the previous chapter, E-business deals with a sales target of 40%
online bookings in the financial year 2007/2008. In the current financial year the online channels generated a sales of 133 million Euro, aim is to increase this to 2000 million in the financial year 2007/2008. To reach this target, they have to deliver an excellent service and deliver products that comply with the wishes of the customer. The sales target of 40% is an overall target for all e-business of KLM, which include B2C, B2B and B2T and e-services. Especially B2T is expected to generate a huge growth by including not only the retailers, yet also e-tailers.
This thesis focuses on the B2C area. To get to the 40% online KLM has to deliver products and services to the customer needs. Thus, KLM has to strive for a more customer-oriented strategy. B2T and B2B are still in development and are growing fast, yet to generate more sales in the B2C area a customer-oriented approach is required. This can be done in various ways, which can not all be taken into consideration in this research. This thesis examines in what way KLM e-business can reach customer orientation by means of their e-customer service
3. Research design
in their callcenter. At his moment a dedicated e-service is lacking, although it can be a very valuable source of customer information on the subject of the website.
The management decided to develop a dedicated e-service desk at Cygnific. The desk will deal with all customers’ questions, problems and comments on the site.
Before the implementation of the e-service desk, no explicit knowledge on the Internet and KLM.Com was present at Cygnific. The callagents used their general Internet- and KLM Reservations knowledge to serve the e-customer. This resulted in lengthy telephone calls and in the end the booking was made by the callagent instead of by the customer, which was no good for customer satisfaction and - loyalty. The e-service desk is intended to deliver an excellent service at low costs.
The most important motive for conducting e-business remains the generation of cost- efficiencies. Thus the e-service desk is partly aimed at the lowering service costs by pushing the customer to self-servicing and to cheaper service channels.
Another vital aspect of the desk is to collect passenger information on their e- experiences, wishes and problems to make continuous site improvements to the wishes of the customer. This can involve long term- and short-term changes like detecting errors and flaws on the website. At this moment Cygnific is barely communicating any customer information towards SZ, aside from the fact that they are in direct contact with the customer and thus able to generate very valuable customer information on the current operations and products.
In general, the overall business goals of this desk have to be:
- Increasing customer satisfaction
- Gather customer information to make continuous site and process improvements
- Deliver a dedicated and consistent service towards the customer - Lowering service costs
The above-mentioned results in the following research objective:
Providing KLM with an approach to implement a more customer-oriented e- customer service process, aimed at the realisation of a sales growth and at delivering an accurate service at lower costs.
In order to realise a customer oriented e-service desk, the current processes need to be redesigned. This requires a behavioural change for SZ. This will be discussed and operationalised in the problem formulation of the research.
3.2.2. Problem formulation of the research
To achieve the above stated objective, it is being translated into a researchable problem formulation. This problem formulation focuses on the required redesign of the current processes.
To attain a customer oriented approach the internal business processes need to be redesigned. In the first place, the desk needs to be kept continuously up to date on all KLM.com issues. All changes in upcoming events and issues have to be reported to the callcenter. Second, the desk needs to generate the desired customer intelligence and report this to KLM. The acquired information needs to be disseminated towards and within KLM and the responsible persons need to respond on the acquired information. Finally the new processes have to lead to a more customer-oriented approach, which enables SZ to become a self-learning organisation. This leads to the following problem formulation:
In what way does KLM e-business have to redesign and implement its internal business processes to attain a more customer-oriented approach by means of their e-customer service.
By answering the problem formulation, the objective of this research will be met.
The relation of the elements of the problem formulation and the research objective become more apparent in a conceptual model.
3.2.3. Conceptual model
The framework of De Leeuw is being used to compose a conceptual model for the purpose of this research. The conceptual model is shown in figure….. Beside showing how the final product of this research will be achieved, the conceptual model also shows which steps should be taken in order to reach this point. These steps can be translated into different sub-questions.
Figure 3.1 Conceptual framework
As stated before, KLM e-business has to attain a more customer-oriented approach to boost online sales and reach overall customer satisfaction with the site and the accompanied services. To achieve these goals, both external and internal customer orientation have to be in place. External customer orientation can be achieved by listening to the external customer and delivering products in line with their needs and wants. Internal customers, in this case Cygnific, are in direct contact with the customer and thus are able to influence the perceived service and are capable of generating valuable customer information. Therefore, it is important to act internally customer oriented and provide them with the required information and resources. An enabler to come to this external and internal customer orientation is the implementation of an e-service desk at Cygnific. This desk will handle all customer issues on the Internet and klm.com.
The current degree of customer orientation can be improved through the redesign of the present business processes. In Business Process Reengineering literature, three approaches are discussed; cultural, structural and process. The process approach is considered to be the most effective and efficient approach, since a structural approach is fast, but limited in effect, while a change in culture can be very effective, but time-consuming. For this research elements of the business
Objective
Activities
Behaviour Customer
orientation
E-service desk
Generate Disseminate Responsiveness Internal External
Evaluation
Business Process Redesign
process redesign are used with a limited focus on the required cultural changes.
Business Process Redesign is focused on the generation of customer value and customer satisfaction, thus very appropriate for this research. In this thesis, the so-called ‘4 spades model’, which is developed by the University of Groningen is being used. This approach is founded on the notion that business process redesign efforts need to be directed by a customer value statement, which functions as an unique selling point but also a directive for the internal business processes. In the preliminary research the current level of performance of the current websupport was examined by conducting a research on the customer satisfaction. The desired objective could be determined on the basis of the results of the quantitative research and the customer value statement set by KLM.
The next step is to determine how specific processes within KLM contribute to delivering customer value and how these processes are best organised. For this, an assessment of the current processes took place and the required activities were defined by redesigning the processes. These processes are examined by means of observations and semi-structured interviews and are discussed on the basis of the market-oriented literature; the generating, dissemination and responsiveness of customer intelligence. The last part of ‘4 spades model’ is the behavioural aspect. Since the actors have to behave in a right way to deliver the required value and to fit into the new designed processes. Thus, the actors need to be motivated by various enablers to implement customer orientation. Finally, a self-learning organisation has to come about. A self -learning organisation is out of the scope not realistic for this research. Though, the processes need to be evaluated on a regular base.
In this model the focus on the future is important. The scope of the first phase of the e-service desk will be on all business to consumer issues of the KLM.Com. In the end, the e-service desk will enclose all Internet related issues and it has to expand easily. The processes that need to be redesigned have to be applicable for all countries and functionalities.
3.2.4. Sub-questions
1. What does customer orientation means for implementation?
2. What is the current performance of the e-customer service in terms of customer satisfaction and business performance?
3. What are the areas for improvement for the e-customer service in view of customer satisfaction and business performance?
4. What do the current internal business processes on the subject of e- customer service look like?
5. To what extent does SZ acts customer oriented by means of their e- customer service?
6. What internal business processes need to be redesigned to attain a more customer oriented approach?
7. In what way does KLM have to set their processes in terms of value, activities and behaviour to attain a more customer-orientated approach by means of their e-customer service?
3.2.5. Definitions
Business process is an activity or group of activities that takes an input, ads value to it, and provides an output to an internal or external customer.
Customer orientation refers to developing and producing products and services that meets customer needs. (Stoelhorst, van Raaij 1999)
Customer satisfaction is the gap between the perceived value of the service and the actual value. (Stoelhorst, 1999)
Customer value can be defined as the customer’s evaluation of the mix of benefits, sacrifices, and risks that are attributed to buying, installing, using and disposing of a product/service offering firm (Kemperman, Van Engelen and Derks,1997).
E-business is the integrated process of buying, selling, producing and supplying products and services via digital media, using the Internet as an all- encompassing channel of communication (Turban,2002).
Market orientation is the generation of market intelligence about actual and potential customer needs, competitors and general market developments and use this information for the interfunctional co-ordination of the firms activities (Van Raaij et al, 1997).
3.2.6. Constraints and limitations of the research
De Leeuw (1996) divides research constraints into constraints related to the process of the research and constraints related to the outcome of the research.
Process
• The research process should be finished by the end of March 2003. This timing is of great importance since the e-service desk will start April 1st.
• The research will be conducted for KLM e-business development.
Outcome
• The main purpose of this research is to reach a more customer oriented approach concerning the e-customer service of KLM. All other means to act more customer -oriented will therefore not be taken into account. Radical innovation to reach overall customer orientation on all areas is not the purpose of this research.
• The research will only focus on the e- customer service process at Cygnific.
• All outcomes of the research are only applicable to Business to consumer handling in the Netherlands and the UK. The thesis can serve as a blueprint for the countries and services that will join the e-service desk in the future.
• The research is conducted for KLM e-business, though the e-service desk will be physically implemented at the Cygnific head-office in Amsterdam. The relevant business processes of Cygnific will be described, analysed and taken into the redesign, yet they have to take care of their own problems, business goals and set of enablers.
Assumptions
• A relation between customer orientation and performance exists. As a result of customer orientation it will generate more websales.
• This research assumes that Websales are 4 times cheaper than regular sales.
This figure is provided by KLM and no additional research on this subject is undertaken.
3.3. Set up of the research
In this paragraph a description on the course of the research will be given in order to get an answer on the problem statement is given. In the course of the research, different sources of information will be used to give an appropriate answer to the problem definition. These are discussed in this paragraph as well.
The course is presented in figure 3.2.
Figure 3.2 set-up of the research
What does customer orientation means for implementation?
The research starts with a preliminary research. Extended literature research is executed in search of research concepts and models that suit the problem statement. Since the goal of the research reads: Implement an e-service desk that enables KLM e-business to act more customer oriented aimed at the realisation of a sales growth and at delivering an excellent service at lower costs, customer orientation is the leading theory in this thesis. Within this literature is mainly focused on the implementation of a customer orientation. Subsequently, literature on customer satisfaction, customer value and business process redesign are shortly described since they contribute to provide an answer on the problem statement.
What is the current performance of the e-customer service in terms of customer satisfaction and business performance?
Prior to developing a new service, the current performance of the service needs to be determined to know what aspects the customer values and does or does not like. Thus the next step is conducting a customer research on to attain information on the customers’ satisfaction with the gained websupport.
What are the areas for improvement for the e-customer service in view of customer satisfaction and business performance?
If a company wants to satisfy its customer the first problem it needs to solve is what it is that satisfies customers and equally important, what it is that makes customers dissatisfied with the company and its products and services. The results of the customer research identify the areas for improvement.
What do the current internal business processes on the subject of e-customer service look like?
The next step is to gain an insight in the current processes by continuous observations, semi-structured interviews and secondary data.
Literature
Customer satisfaction
Customer orientation
Current processes
Customer
value Process Enabling
To what extent does SZ acts customer oriented by means of their e-customer service?
The current level of customer orientation and the current state of enablers are examined by means of semi-structured interviews and observations.
What internal business processes need to be redesigned to attain a more customer oriented approach?
The results of the interviews and can suggest what internal business processes need to be redesigned to attain a more customer oriented approach.
In what way does KLM have to set their processes in terms of value, activities and behaviour to attain a more customer-orientated approach by means of their e-customer service?
The conducted customer research and interviews provided an insight in the areas for improvement. From this point of view the processes could be redesigned to attain a more customer-oriented approach. Firstly, a clear customer value statement has to be defined by means of the gathered data and the goals set by KLM. Next, the new activities need to be determined and last but not least enablers to motivate the behaviour need to be determined.
3.4 Stakeholders
For this research several stakeholders can be defined. The most important stakeholder is the e-business department of KLM, SZ. The research is conducted for the e-business development unit of SZ. The interest of this group is that by means of the e-service desk they are able to deliver better service at lower costs and the desk enables them to act more customer-oriented by providing them with valuable customer information. Another group of interest is KLM the Netherlands and KLM UK since they deal with the e-service desk as well. The e-service desk partly substitutes their current processes and the generated customer information is of value to them as well. The desk will adapt new services and countries on the short term. This thesis can serve as a blueprint for new entrants. Another vital stakeholder is Cygnific since the desk will be physically located in their Amsterdam offices and they have to deliver the required service and customer information.
