CRM Excellence at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

This teaching case tells the story of the rebirth of CRM at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines since 2002 and its successful liftoff during 2003, for which KLM received Gartner’s 2004 CRM Excellence Award. The Award presents a natural moment of reflection on past CRM achievements and future plans. The case allows us to (1) dissect a CRM success story, that contrasts nicely with many of the CRM horror stories of the 1990s, and identify key success factors; (2) focus attention on the viability of the planned approach KLM uses for implementing CRM; (3) introduce and show the importance of program management as a construct for structurally growing and governing enterprise-wide investment in CRM; and (4) help reinforce lessons around CRM and business-ICT alignment.