Your support inbox is worth millions 📦
The $20 customer service hack (for generating buzz)
Hi👋 Tom here (Head of Growth @ Wiz, Forbes 30 Under 30, MBA). I share 1 powerful marketing idea every week. Join 31,500+ marketing leaders by subscribing here:
A customer’s dog died. She reached out to Chewy to return an unopened bag of dog food. In response, Chewy’s support agent:
Gave her a full refund
Asked her to donate the food to a local shelter
Sent flowers with a handwritten note (!!!) 🌸
She tweeted about the experience and got over 650,000 likes. Wow!
This isn’t a one-off story.
💡 The Marketing Idea
When a customer shares something personal in support tickets → seize the opportunity to make their day. Send an unexpected gift, a handwritten note, or anything that shows you really listened.
While only 1% of customers will share it, that 1% can create MASSIVE brand love.
🏆 Billion-dollar moments from support tickets
Here are my favorite examples:
Ritz-Carlton: When a family left their son's stuffed giraffe, staff created a photo story of it living the luxury life — spa days, poolside cocktails, even security badge access. Cost: $20. Marketing value: Infinite. The story exploded online.
LEGO: A 7-year-old lost his favorite figure. Support didn't just replace it — they sent a personal letter from "Sensei Wu" with secret bonus ninjas. It went viral.
Sainsbury’s: 3-year-old Lily wrote: “Tiger Bread looks more like giraffe spots”. They renamed it to “Giraffe Bread”. The story hit national news. Marketing spend: $0. Press coverage: Priceless
🛠️ Your “support-driven marketing” playbook
💰 Give your team resources: Give them a dedicated “surprise budget” and remove approval barriers for small gestures. Create a #moments-that-matter Slack channel to share cool opportunities.
🧨 Look for triggers:
Life events (birthdays, anniversaries)
Personal milestones (graduations, new jobs)
Sad moments (loss of pets, family members)
Kid-related stories
Long-time customer revelations
🎁 Make it personal: Choose gifts that connect to what the customers told you. Hand-write notes when possible (or use Handwrytten) and always include the support agent’s name in the box.
📈 Scale it: Document successful moments, create internal playbooks for common scenarios, share wins to inspire the teams, and measure social sharing & sentiment
🤯 Be unexpected:
❌ Don’t just solve their problem…
✅ Engineer a shareable surprise that could go viral!
⚠️ Important: NEVER ask customers to share. The magic happens when it’s real and unexpected.
See you next week ✌️
Tom
If you enjoyed this marketing idea, please tap the Like button below ♥️ Thank you!
I simply love this idea so much. Not because of the chance of going viral but because of real lasting connections that might make a difference for a person. I'm doing this already but I love the idea of the surprise budget. So good, thank you dear Tom!
I don't know if you've read "Unreasonable Hospitality", but something similar to this was a part of the unique experience that they were giving the restaurant customers. Basically there were dedicated people working on preparing a personalized gift for the guest, based on the information that the rest of the staff was able to gather throughout the dining experience.