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Comment by CJefferson | Hacker News Reader

While I don't bemoan this man his steak, this kind of things increasingly bothers me.

On the internet I sometimes get the impression that "everyone" has cute things like this happen to them. When you dig, it often turns out, like this, the person is big in PR or some related field.

It can get easy to forget that 99(.99?)% of the people regularly on the internet aren't getting free stuff, lighting up twitter, hitting the front page of reddit, etc.

From the article:

"I don’t think it’s about my follower numbers. I think it’s about Morton’s knowing I’m a good customer, who frequents their establishments regularly. "

I am 100% convinced this is not true. I'm sure if I (with 15 twitter followers) had posted something similar there would be no chance of something similar happening.

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I think part of it comes for asking for stuff. I've had a few experiences like this.

I was in London Heathrow when the plane crashed on the runway a few years ago - I was literally on the very next BA flight to I think the Czech Republic that was supposed to take off when we get notified that it's going to be a while, and then that things are canceled... nobody knew what was going until we heard the plane crashed, and then we wondering if it was terrorism, and the whole airport was really a mess.

I was really bummed out at that point. It's the middle of winter, and I really really wanted to get the fuck out of London. I can't say why exactly, but like, y'know when you're ready to leave a place and you get to the airport and it's like "ahh, I'm leaving"? Well, I had that feeling, then a fucking plane crashed.

After waiting in these gigantic lines for a really long time (everyone now trying to change tickets), I got to the ticket counter and the rep there was so, so cool. He said nothing could be done, and I could just head into the city.

And I said, "Man, I'm just overwhelmed with shitty foggy London weather. Can you put me on the next plane to anywhere that takes off, and route me somehow? I know this is a ridiculous request, I don't care about hotel or accommodation or plans or anything, can you just put me on the next plane heading eastwards?"

And - he did just that. It wasn't even on their same alliance, he went through some complicated procedure of actually selling my ticket to another airline. My memory is kind of failing me here but I think I wound up in Germany for the night, saw a cathedral in the morning, and then was routed on to Eastern Europe.

The guy went way above and beyond the call of duty in the middle of chaos just because I was obviously bummed out. In retrospect, it was probably even uncool of me to ask for with all of the chaos happening around, but I was just really fed up with London at that point and wanted to get out. And the guy treated me really really well, with no expectation of any favorable review online or anything like that.

So - ask for stuff if you want stuff, and yeah there's some decent people in the world that'll try to accommodate you. Also, when you get a ridiculous request, stop and consider if maybe you can do some variation of it because people remember that stuff forever.

Being able to do well by you probably made his day. That you were so flexible - "next plane anywhere" - also meant he had few constraints and was able problem-solve instead of just picking from set solutions.

And, perhaps most importantly, you treated him like a human being. People in various service positions are often treated like proxies; it's understandable, most people are busy, and they just want some item or information. But you leveled with him and talked to him like an actual person, and he responded in kind. That goes a long way.

This might be more common than you suspect. I was en route to Tokyo from Toronto stopping in Detroit when bad weather meant I missed the flight from Detroit. The Delta staff said I'd have to stay in Detroit, I asked to go somewhere else and they happily sent me on the next flight to Seattle where I could depart for Tokyo the next afternoon. I assume when a lot of flights are cancelled it's not really a problem to send people on under booked flights and get those people out of the way and routed through a less congested location.

I had the same experience during a snowstorm in Seattle. My flight was cancelled, worse weather was moving in, and I just wanted to get to California for a family holiday.

I got a ticket to San Jose---from Portland. Because I was willing to change my airport and take some extra hassle myself, the agent was willing and able to help out. Ask for something nicely, be flexible on how it happens, and people can do good things for you. (Meanwhile, the lady who was screaming to get the exact flight she'd bought in the first place was turned down, because there wasn't a flight like the one she bought available and she wouldn't flex at all.)

To be a bit callous about it: It also makes you someone elses problem tomorrow when they'll be trying to clear the backlogs.

> I think part of it comes for asking for stuff. I've had a few experiences like this.

I have too. I usually get treated well by the places I frequent, though I also make an effort to treat the people at those places well in return.

And it's not just fancy places, even the local Dominoes has been very kind to me. It's all about how you treat the people there.

  So - ask for stuff if you want stuff

And do it in a nice and courteous way.

Literally decades ago I flew into Chicago with a connection to Oakland via Salt Lake City (actually wanting to get into SFO, but that was the cheapest connection) and it was miserably cold and snow stormed throughout the Midwest.

The plane was delayed for a couple hours and - of course - there went my connection.

Now you had some 150 or so angry passengers also having missed their connections yelling at the three ground staff, hurling abuse and insults and giving them a piece of their mind, just about as if the weather is their damn fault.

When it was my turn they informed me that there's no way I can connect to Salt Lake today and they'd put me up in a hotel in Chicago overnight. I informed her that my final destination is actually San Francisco and being nice, polite and understanding that the weather was really not her damn fault she completely went out of her way to rebook my ticket to a non alliance carrier that took me non-stop to SFO a couple hours later. Oh, and that at no additional cost to me.

Until today I'm convinced that just being nice after all those assholes hurling abuse at the poor employee did the trick.

I complained about Virgin Media (the only cable company in the UK) on Twitter and my blog a couple of years back - the next morning I had a call from the PA of the CEO to sort out my grievance. At the time I had perhaps 70 Twitter followers and ~300 readers of my blog.

While I'm sure follower numbers have something to do with it, it's not necessarily everything.

That's why I love the Zappos story at http://consumerist.com/2007/10/zappos-sends-you-flowers.html - customer service for a "normal" like me, not the person that runs HARO & has a huge following.

You know what would be funny? If you did tweet Mortons for a steak and see if they actually deliver :P

He's also an author of a book on social media customer service. Perhaps the social media team at Mortons has a copy of his book and figured he would certainly be the kind of person who would share a story like this - whether it be as a tweet, blog post, or anecdote in a future book.

If so, I'm blown away at the quality of morton's social media team. Who'd think they could attract someone with that nuanced judgment? Let's hire them into a startup!-

"I am 100% convinced this is not true. I'm sure if I (with 15 twitter followers) had posted something similar there would be no chance of something similar happening."

Well is one of your followers Morton's? Do you eat there all the time?

Morten's invested in some 'free' PR here. Basically they know this guy is legit because he has a history with them, further they can estimate is future business 'stream' since they know how often he eats there. A simple affinity card where you get 'stars' for each visit and a free meal on your tenth or whatever, works exactly this way.

There are three HUGE things to learn from this story:

1) In order to know whose important you have to know who your customers are, it helps if you can tie a customer identity to a social network identity.

2) Keeping frequent customers happy brings in business because whenever they are in the conversation 'Where should we [consume/use/buy] [service/product]?' they recommend your product or service.

3) It might cost $100,000 for a 'small' advertising run or PR stunt, something like this probably costs less than $100. In terms of customer acquisition costs its hugely efficient relative to broader and necessicarily more dilute activities.

So I don't doubt for a minute that Mortens got their money's worth here. And I don't think it mattered at all that the guy has 100K followers. I think they looked at him as a great customer and this as a low cost opportunity for PR. They seized it, and hit one out of the park.

The moral of the story is that it pays to be famous.

indeed, from his about page: "An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, and customer service."

I disagree with you. Like with Jonathan's Card there should have been someone there at the airport to take the steak from him, and fly it to a more needy country.

No, they would have to sell the steak on Ebay and then donate the proceeds to a charity that feeds children.

I also find this story disturbing. It seems to be about burning fossil fuels and eating dead animals, all for the amusement of a social media baron who reminds me of Jabba the Hutt for some reason.

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