Peter Shankman calls it “The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told.”
These days, I’d call it a miracle.
As Shankman tells the story, he was jumping on a 5 pm flight home from Tampa to Newark a week or so ago. He knew he’d get in late and probably have to grab junk food on the way from the airport to his apartment.
But while still sitting on the runway in Tampa, Peter jokingly tweeted to Morton’s Steakhouse, his favorite eatery…
Hey @Mortons – can you meet me at newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks.
“Let’s understand: I was joking,” Peter writes. “I had absolutely no expectations of anything from that Tweet. … . I never, ever expected anything to come of it other than a few giggles.”
But when Peter arrived at Newark Airport, he was greeted by a fella from Morton’s Hackensack. The guy was holding a bag containing a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, an order of Colossal Shrimp, a side of potatoes, bread, two napkins, and silverware.
“I heard you were hungry,” the Morton’s guy said.
Holy crap!
Explains Peter Shankman: “Morton’s Hackensack is 23.5 miles away from [Newark Airport], according to Google Maps. That meant that in just under three hours, someone at Morton’s Corporate had to see my tweet, get authorization to do this stunt, get 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 to Newark Airport (never an easy task, no matter where you’re coming from) then, (and this is the part the continues to blow me away,) while all this was happening, track down my flight, where I was landing, and be there when I walked out of security!”
Shankman’s been talking, emailing, tweeting, and blogging about this incident for more than a week now.
And now, I’m telling YOU about it.
The Morton’s story is sweeping the internet. And it’ll probably continue making the rounds for a long time to come.
No doubt, it’ll become a part of Morton’s legend.
That’s the power of fantastic customer service.
You make a single customer deliriously happy.
And you also produce the most effective free advertising imaginable.
By the way, didja know that the rhinoceros is the most customer-friendly creature in the jungle? Check it out…
