3. 1. Company Profile.
2. Analysis: what happened?
3. What are the mistakes that have been committed?
4. What was the official response from Le Massif?
5. Long term consequences.
6. Learning from mistakes.
7. Smart moves.
3Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
4. Le Massif de Charlevoix:
company profile
4Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
5. Le Massif de Charlevoix:
company profile
Le Massif de Charlevoix is a major tourist attraction in
Quebec, Canada. that unfurls over three environments
in the Charlevoix: The Mountain, the Farm and the
Train.
People from all over the province, and the
world, vacation there year-round. They have the
highest mountains East of the Rockies, which makes
their main attraction during the snow months their ski
resort.
5Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
6. Le Massif de Charlevoix:
company profile
Le Massif de Charlevoix: The Montain
6Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
7. Le Massif de Charlevoix:
company profile
Le Massif de Charlevoix: The Train
7Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
8. Le Massif de Charlevoix:
company profile
Le Massif de Charlevoix: Hôtel La ferme
8Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
10. Analysis: what happened?
The winter of 2011 was a slow winter for the hill. Even
though Le Massif usually gets the most snow in the
province of Quebec, 2011 had been particularly light
on snow and therefore poor for skiers.
2011: Slow winter for the hill
Towards the end of the first week in March, the
weather reports were announcing a major storm
brewing that would be arriving that Saturday night.
Storm forecasts
10Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
11. Analysis: what happened?
That Saturday March 5th, although the snow was
falling generously, the weather was mild, and the
forecast was warning that it may change to a minor ice
storm over night.
The performance of the Storm
11Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
12. Analysis: what happened?
From an operational
standpoint, in these
circumstances, the hill usually
keeps the chairlifts running
throughout the night so that they
don’t crust over with
ice, rendering them un-
operational.
Chairlifts should remain running throughout the night
12Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
13. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
13Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
14. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
That evening, the director of
operations, who was new to
the company, decided that the
storm wouldn’t be too big, so
they weren’t going to have
staff work throughout the night
to keep the chairlifts running.
Chairlifts stalled all-night
14Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
15. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
The hill was covered with 50 to 60 cm of perfect
powder snow, the skiers and snowboarders were
arriving, and sure enough, Sunday morning, the
chairlifts were not operational.
Night storm disrupted the lifts
15Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
16. What are the mistakes that have
been committed?
The general manager wasn’t there that day, and even
though the staff had been trained and empowered to
update the website, they had failed to do so.
This meant that for those who were checking the
website before packing their cars and making the long
trip up to the mountain, the website was telling them that
the mountain was in perfect ski condition - 6 chairs
working out of 6, 52 runs open out of 52.
Company website misled the customers
16Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
17. What are the mistakes that have
been committed?
Unprepared for a communications crisis
The many disappointed customers took to Le Massif’s
Facebook wall to voice their discontent with the mountain
and the way they were handling the situation.
As much as Le Massif was prepared on an operational
standpoint to handle a crisis, they unfortunately were
unprepared for a crisis on the communications side of
things.
17Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
18. What are the mistakes that have
been committed?
So as the social media attacks began, they had no
crisis management strategy in place to deal with a
communications crisis of this magnitude
Within a span of just a few hours, Le Massif’s
Facebook wall was flooded with approximately 125
negative comments.
Failure to respond to the social media attack
18Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
19. What are the mistakes that have
been committed?
Under the pressure of the attacks, the community
manager was forced to take a spontaneous
decision.
He decided to write a generic message template
and have the staff use it as a response strategy to
respond to the negative comments flooding in on
their Facebook wall. That is the message:
19Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
Template answer to the negative comments
20. What are the mistakes that have
been committed?
20Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
21. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
Translated, the message went along the lines of:
We have taken into account your comment. So that a
response is provided to you and follow-up done so,
thank you to forward the request directly to
sac@lemassif.com
The Management Team
21Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
22. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
The already angry customers
considered this to be a mechanical
and impersonal response, instantly
branding it as a fail. This did not help
their cause.
22Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
Customer reaction to this response
23. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
Lack of internal communication
Another mistake Le Massif innocently made, was not
choosing to share all of the information they had with
their staff. Because of their lack of internal
communication, the staff misconstrued the
situation, believing that the whole episode happened
because management didn’t care, and was looking to
save money by not keeping the chairlifts going
throughout the night.
23Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
24. What are the mistakes that
have been committed?
More than half way through the day, management
finally posted a comment on their Facebook wall
saying that due to weather conditions, chairlifts were
malfunctioning. This was in part true, but was hiding
some truths as well, not being completely transparent
and honest.
24Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
Not being completely transparent and honest.
25. Official response
25Le Massif and the social media
crisis they faced
“The power of an apology we realized it, and we
also realized that it should have come earlier.”
Frederic Gonzalo
–
26. Official response - better late
than never
It took the mountain until Monday morning to finally
own up to their mistake and release a formal apology
to their Facebook wall.
Management released a formal apology
Once they did this, their customers understood that it
was a simple human error, forgave them and started
flooding their wall with positive messages that drowned
out the remaining negative ones.
Customers understood and forgave
26Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
27. Official response - better late
than never
From the moment they released
this truthful and sincere apology,
that was it, the crisis was gone!
Their fans came to their defense
and forgave them for the
innocent mistake.
From Crisis to Recovery
27Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
28. Le Massif was lucky that they calmed the crisis when they
did, because they managed to not suffer too many long-
term damages to their brand or reputation.
They did receive some emails from customers saying that
they would not be renewing their season passes the
following year, but only a very minimal few.
28Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
No substantial long-term damages to the brand or reputation
30. Mistake 1: Failing to update the website
Mistake 2: A template answer to the negative comments
Mistake 3: Not being open and honest with their staff
Mistake 4: Not being forthcoming or completely honest
Mistake 5: Waiting so long to apologize and come clean
30Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
31. Smart moves
Amongst their mistakes and lack of being prepared,
Le Massif did manage to make some very smart
moves. Let’s take a look.
31Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
32. Smart move 2: They did not delete any of the negative comments
Although there were two or three comments that needed
to be deleted due to their extreme level of profanity, no
other comments or negative remarks were deleted from
their Facebook wall. This was a smart move on Le
Massif’s part.
33Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
33. Smart move 3: They released an official response
Although it may have taken them a little longer to do, they
released an official response that addressed the situation,
admitted to their mistake and sincerely apologized to their
customers. The fact that this small gesture seised the
attacks almost instantly proves how vital this action within
a social media crisis plan truly is.
34Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
34. LESSONS LE MASSIF LEARNED
FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE
Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced 35
35. 36Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
Frederic acted as Vice-President, Marketing at Le Massif
between October 2008 and November 2011, where he
spearheaded Marketing, Sales & Communications. As of
November 2011, he is a freelancer in tourism
marketing, mobile & loyalty fields where he offers services in
strategic planning, branding, sponsorship and social media
expertise.
Let’s find out what lessons Le Massif learned from their
experience, and what advice Frederic Gonzalo has to share
with you.
36. 37Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
Q: What did Le Massif learn from this crisis?
A: They learned that Facebook is a customer service channel.
Following the crisis, in April of last year, Frederic
Gonzalo was able to work on the social media policies
for their employees, and a crisis management plan for
the event that something like this should happen again.
“...That’s what they learned from the situation, and
they’ve, in theory, improved their reaction plan.”
lessons Le Massif learned
from their experience
37. 38Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
Q: What did you personally learn from the situation?
It is imperative to train and empower people for them
to be enabled to handle a social media crisis, and
know what is expected of them. And that’s what we
did after the fact.
That’s why we put the policy in place, and we put the
guidelines for future crises.
A: The need to train staff to handle a social media crisis
lessons Le Massif learned
from their experience
38. 39Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
lessons Le Massif learned
from their experience
Q: What advice would you give to other companies regarding a
social media crisis?
A: “I think the first most important advice is that an online media crisis
is no different than a media crisis - then any crisis basically. It’s a crisis!
So, basically, you should have some kind of plan and
scenarios to look at the different crises that could
happen. Even though it’s hypotheses, make twenty or
thirty different hypotheses about what could happen.
39. 40Le Massif and the social media crisis they faced
lessons Le Massif learned
from their experience
So first of all, you should have a crisis management plan
in place,
and second of all, it should be adapted to the social
media environment, where things spread a lot faster.
After that, I think it’s really just that you have to operate
and provide quality customer service to your clients and
you’ll be less prone to have a crisis.
