In case you missed it, last week, it finally started snowing in the Benelux. Reaching its climax this Wednesday, we were blessed with a solid 15 cm of white powder (no, not the snorting kind). The thing is, the Benelux and snow don’t mix well. In Belgium that usually means tons of traffic jams, with the occasional accident, issues with public transport and all in all, a good excuse to work from home. 😉 But in the Netherlands, this time around, it meant cancelled flights and that’s something that airline carrier KLM won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
No, you can’t control the weather. But what you can control is the way you communicate about the impact that weather has on your business. And when it comes to a crisis, social media is one thing you shouldn’t lose track of.
And this is where KLM should have done better. As of Monday, the airline carrier had to cancel more than 1600 flights. Granted, they did communicate through their website and the press, and I’m pretty sure they did keep their customers up to date through mail as well. Plus, my guess is their customer service will be working overtime ATM.
But on their public social profiles, it was pretty much radio silence except for a few stories. The result? Customers going off in their latest post (ironically, a New Year’s post, probably not the start they had in mind), complaining about the difficulties of getting through to customer service. But also voicing their complaints about their comments being deleted. And on top of that, customers who do get a reply (in this case, on Instagram), get a standardised message that lacks any sense of empathy.
Here’s the thing, social media isn’t just for shits and giggles. You can’t cherry-pick when you show up, posting feel-good content when it suits you, only to basically ghost your audience the moment a crisis strikes. So here’s how I would have handled this crisis specifically on social media:
1. Monitor the crisis through social listening
Before anything, you need to know what people are saying and obviously social listening is essential in this process. Don’t just check your own profiles for comments and replies, check your private and public messages AND check for your name and hashtag. You can do this through social listening platforms like Sprinklr, Sprout or Brandwatch.
2. Draft up a statement and share it on social
Take the insights you gathered in the first step to build your statement on. Draft the statement together with PR and customer service so it encompasses all those areas. And then put out the statement, yes, also through social media. That’s where it goes wrong most of the time. A lot of brands don’t want to bring those types of messages to social media. But the rule of thumb should be: if you’re on a platform (and using it actively), you should also use it for crisis communication. In fact, it’s what your target audience expects of you.
3. Adjust your reply template
First, let’s have a look at KLM’s standard reply: “Regrettably, we do not offer support services via Instagram. Since personal information is required to assist you further, we kindly request that you contact us via WhatsApp, Facebook, or Messenger.”
The good? Yes, KLM is tackling some of the comments. And yes, in essence, their response is correct. As you need personal info, you do need to handle it through a DM.
But what the airline company gets wrong is the complete lack of empathy in their message. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Apologize for the situation, acknowledge their inconvenience. Explain why they need to contact you through a DM and end with the advantage of that for them. Personally, this would be my reply: “We’re very sorry for the inconvenience. We understand how stressful a missing suitcase is, and this is absolutely a priority for us. Could you send us your customer info through DM so we can jump on this immediately and get your case resolved?”
Side note from an experienced community manager: you can adapt those answer templates to fit the specific comment you’re replying to, to make the most of the automation while combining it with personalisation.
4. Monitor and respond to ALL comments and messages
And on top of that, you need to be servicing clients on ALL the platforms you’re active on. You can’t just tell them to contact customer service through another platform. The good news: tools like Sprinklr and Sprout make it easy to set up an efficient workflow so social media managers, community managers and customer service can work together on this. With the help of filters, AI and some minimal human intervention, you can do a first sweep, automatically flagging urgent cases, routing questions to the right team and prioritising which comments need immediate attention. The key here is that routing to customer service should be handled internally. The customer shouldn’t have to take extra steps (well, apart from the DM on that specific platform, that is). Make it seamless for them, not just convenient for you.
Another side note from an experienced community manager: deleting comments is a big no-no. Unless they go against your social media charter (which is a must, btw), you shouldn’t be deleting comments because they get you in a sticky situation. Instead, actively show the community that you’re tackling those issues.
The bigger picture
Unfortunately, KLM is definitely not the only brand to underuse community management. The difference is that a crisis exposes these gaps instantly. Here’s the thing: strong community management separates the good from the great. And you don’t need to wait on a crisis to start. Active engagement isn’t just good for your reputation, it’s also essential for the algorithm. Each time a follower comments on your content, reply back, focussing on the positive of course. And trust me, in 2026, you want to get on the community management train, cause there’s lot’s of growth potential there.
Want more of my insights? Discover how I would use these 6 trends from Pinterest Predicts as a brand.
