KLM Airlines: Baggage reclaim experience

For my master’s thesis, a did a service design project with KLM airlines who were seeking to improve the baggage reclaim experience of their passengers. KLM set a goal for themselves to provide “customer intimacy”, a mission in which they aim to provide passengers with a personalized experience. As part of this goal, the airline identified focus areas in need of improvement. One of which was the focus on my project: improving the baggage reclaim experience.
To address this issue, I first worked to understand the current state of KLM baggage reclaim experience. Interviewing ground crew members, I was able gain an understanding of how the baggage handling process actually worked, and where there might be areas for improvement.

In the existing system there are very few points where baggage is scanned, and the scan is sometimes for all of the bags rather than individual pieces. This makes it difficult to provide accurate information about baggage location and arrival time. On average, there is a twenty minute difference between arrival of the first and last bags at the reclaim belt. This leads to large crowds, and many passengers with a long wait. In researching solutions, I found that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) baggage tags can be an affordable alternative to manual scanning as KLM does today. While the cost of RFID tags is slightly more, the scanners are inexpensive and can scan tags from any angle without human intervention. Adding an RFID tag at bag check-in would enable much more accurate estimates on baggage location and arrival time on reclaim belt.

To gain qualitative data about passenger experience, I created workbooks for participants to document their travel experience from arrival at the destination airport to leaving the airport with their luggage. I expanded the scope beyond just time at the reclaim belt to understand the larger context and what factors may be playing into the passenger experience at the moment of baggage reclaim. I involved fifteen participants in two different creative sessions.

One of the goals of the project was to have passengers end their travel with KLM on a high note. Based on the peak-end rule, people’s overall assessment of an experience is biased by the peak and end of the event. Since baggage reclaim is the last point of contact passengers have with KLM, I wanted to make sure it was a high note to end on. When completing the workbooks, participants were asked to describe key moments in their journey and define then as positive, neutral, or negative experiences. The were also asked to describe the best and worst moments on post-its to share in a group discussion. The goal was to identify trends in passenger concerns, expectations, and moments of joy.

Based on the insights from participants, I began generating concepts that aimed to address the needs defined. Presenting the concepts to KLM and evaluating cost, impact, and fit with the company, I decided to move forward with a design for a mobile application that would enable travelers to accurately track their bag based of RFID data, as well as gain access to information about airport amenities and the local area.

I made a clickable prototype which I tested with travelers in Schiphol airport. Participants were given a scenario of traveling alone and wishing to grab a cup of coffee, and sample some local music on the way to reclaim their baggage. Participants explored how the prototype would help them achieve this goal and provided feedback as to what they felt worked well, and what are potential areas for improvement.

Participants found the baggage tracking feature of the application to be very helpful, and also enjoyed having information about the airport facilities to help them understand what options they had for spending their free time before baggage arrived. However, there were mixed responses about the other features that provided nearby attractions, transit data, and information about local culture. Many participants said they already had other trusted means of information to meet these needs, and would likely not rely on KLM for this. I provided these results to KLM, and they are currently considering how to implement RFID baggage tags and integrate this feature into their existing mobile application.