Morton’s Steakhouse Shows How Customer Service Is Done On Twitter

Author and angel investor, Peter Shankman, was on his way for 5PM flight to Newark Airport when he figured out that by the time he got home, he wouldn’t have time to stop for dinner anywhere, and certainly didn’t want to grab fast food at either airport. When he got on the plane, his stomach was a rumbling a bit, and he had visions of a steak in his head.

Peter has an affinity for Morton’s Steakhouses, so just as he was about to take off, he jokingly tweeted out the following:

A little over two hours later, Peter landed at EWR. Walking off the plane, he headed towards the area where his driver would be waiting.

Looking for my driver, I saw my name, waved to him, and started walking to the door of EWR, like I’d done hundreds of times before.

“Um, Mr. Shankman,” he said.

I turned around.

“There’s a surprise for you here.”

I turned to see that the driver was standing next to someone else, who I just assumed was another driver he was talking to. Then I noticed the “someone else” was in a tuxedo.

And he was carrying a Morton’s bag.

As you’ve no doubt guessed by now, Morton’s saw Peter’s tweet and met him at the airport with his steak.

The closest Morton’s to EWR is Morton’s Hackensack, which is over 23 miles away according to Google Maps. That meant that in less than three hours, someone at Morton’s Corporate saw Peter’s tweet, got authorization, then got in touch with Morton’s Hackensack, and place the order.

Then Morton’s Hackensack had to cook the order, get it boxed up, and get a server to get in his car, and drive 23 miles to Newark Airport, then track down Peter’s flight, where he was landing, and be there when he walked out of security.

Now, many will say the reason Morton’s did this was because Peter Shankman has over 100,000 Twitter followers. However, I don’t believe that’s the case. Peter is a loyal customer who dines at Morton’s a lot. And Morton’s knows this. They have a really great CRM system that tracks all this stuff. When I call the Morton’s in Vancouver, they know who I am and how many times I’ve dined there because all that information is tagged to my phone number.

Morton’s went out of their way for Peter because he’s a loyal customer and not because of the size of this Twitter followers, though I’m sure that had a bit of influence as well.

I’m sure this will pay off handsomely for Morton’s. They got a lot of publicity from it and they’ve made a loyal customer even more loyal. When I fly home from New York, I think I’m going to send a tweet to Cactus Club Cafe and ask them to meet me at YVR with a BBQ Duck Clubhouse. I won’t be shocked if they do it.