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:

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A customer’s dog died. She reached out to Chewy to return an unopened bag of dog food. In response, Chewy’s support agent:

1. Gave her a full refund

2. Asked her to donate the food to a local shelter

3. 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.

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💡 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.

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🏆 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

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🛠️ Your “support-driven marketing” playbook

1. 💰 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.

2. 🧨 Look for triggers:

   1. Life events (birthdays, anniversaries)

   2. Personal milestones (graduations, new jobs)

   3. Sad moments (loss of pets, family members)

   4. Kid-related stories

   5. Long-time customer revelations

3. 🎁 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.

4. 📈 Scale it: Document successful moments, create internal playbooks for common scenarios, share wins to inspire the teams, and measure social sharing & sentiment

5. 🤯 Be unexpected:

   1. ❌ Don’t just solve their problem…

   2. ✅ Engineer a shareable surprise that could go viral!

⚠️ Important: NEVER ask customers to share. The magic happens when it’s real and unexpected.

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See you next week ✌️

Tom

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