by tz4rgp | Sep 27, 2012 | Blog |
We recently read Peter Shankman’s raving experience report about Morton’s Steak Houses where essentially the management of the restaurant chain went out of their way to provide a loyal, valuable (and influential on the web) customer with a surprise meal after he jokingly tweeted that he is hungry and would really enjoy a porterhouse steak on the airport. Morton’s made this happen and excited a customer who created a buzz on the web in terms of tweets and re-tweets, an intensely discussed blog post, numerous mentions in other blogs (including this one here). The consequences of this not so simple action are obvious: [unordered_list style=”green-dot”] An influential and already loyal and happy customer turns (even more) into an advocate. He talks about his amazing experience – and justifiably so A customer originated marketing message is sent that promotes the brand Morton’s brand perception increased even more (I didn’t even know of them before, but then I am a German who lives in New Zealand…) [/unordered_list] I really would not be surprised if the incremental revenue that is directly attributable to this smart move of a company that is consequently and consistently active on the social web outweighs its cost by orders of magnitude. This episode clearly shows the potential for businesses that lies in actively using the social web. Unluckily it is still an outlier. Reality looks different. Let me bring three examples of very different businesses in Germany that could use Morton’s as a guiding light. The businesses are A major railway operator A leading mobile carrier An online bank Three very different businesses – yet they share...
