♖ Unexpected Delight

Hi Moaters,

I was at Shake Shack with my family recently.

It's a burger joint for my international readers.

We're sitting in a booth, and at the table right in front of us is an elderly couple.

The husband—gray hair, red polo shirt, definitely looks like a "Bill"— is halfway through his burger when a teenage Shake Shack employee walks over.

The employee walks off with the cup. Bill turns to his wife, and I catch him mouthing the word "Wow”.

I'm a sucker for these “unexpected delights”. It inspired this issue.

Just imagine when Bill sits down at a Burger King and he finishes his drink, he's going to think about Shake Shack. He may even share that story with others at the table.

Today I'll share my favorite unexpected delight story, a few others from my top-shelf collection, and 10 ideas your team can steal this week.

The Screwdriver That Built a Billion-Dollar Brand

Tony Fadell knows how to design products people love. He's the guy behind the iPhone and iPod.

So when his Nest thermostat was taking customers 45+ minutes to install instead of the promised 15, he did what great designers do: he watched people actually use the product.

The actual thermostat installation was quick and smooth. But customers kept getting stuck hunting around for the right screwdriver and making sure it had the proper bit.

Some people spent 20+ minutes just looking for the right tool.

Most thermostat companies would shrug this off. That’s outside of our control. Of course, people need to have basic tools to install thermostats.

Tony had a different take: "Screw that. This is 100% our problem."

His solution was simple but expensive: he just invented a new screwdriver and put it in every box.

So every box shipped with this new screwdriver. High quality with the Nest logo engraved right on it.

Here's what happened:

Installation time? Cut in half.
Support calls? Way down.

But here's the unexpected delight. People kept that screwdriver. For years. It became their go-to tool for everything. Hanging pictures. Fixing cabinet doors. Random household stuff.

A walking billboard with the Nest logo that lived in their junk drawer.

That piece of plastic is probably more recognizable in customers' homes than the actual thermostat itself.

People literally created a Reddit appreciation thread about the screwdriver.

Think about that. Customers are online raving about a tool that had nothing to do with the core product itself.

When's the last time anyone created a fan page about loving your onboarding, packaging, or check-in process?

My Other Top-Shelf Unexpected Delights

Here are my other favorites:

CD Baby turned order confirmations into entertainment. Back in the early 2000s, when Derek Sivers ran this online music distribution company for independent artists, customers got shipping emails like this:

A boring shipping confirmation became viral marketing that customers forwarded to friends.

Chewy sends hand-painted pet portraits when your dog dies. Turn a cancellation into a viral moment? Genius.

Tesla gave Florida drivers extra battery range during Hurricane Irma. For free. No announcement. Just "we got you."

Ritz-Carlton once sent back a kid's forgotten stuffed giraffe with vacation photos. "Joshie" getting spa treatments and lounging by the pool. The family probably tells that story at every dinner party.

These aren't marketing stunts. They're companies that figured out something important:

The "boring" moments are where you actually win customers for life.

SPONSOR

Find Your Unexpected Delight

Want to create your own version? Here's my simple process:

Step 1: Hunt for the hidden suck
Walk through your customer journey step by step. Where do people waste time? Get frustrated? Just "deal with it"? That's your gold mine.

Step 2: Find the mundane or pain
Look for spots where customers expect the bare minimum. That gap between what they expect and what you could deliver? That's where "holy shit" moments live.

Step 3: Think small, act big
The best gestures aren't expensive. They're thoughtful.

Here are a few ideas I came up with to help inspire your team:

Your action this week: Share this with your team and offer a cash prize to the first person who takes action on one of these ideas and gets a customer to post about it on social media.

Pick a prize amount that makes you feel uncomfortable. That's when you know it's big enough to drive action. Trust me, it'll be the highest ROI marketing spend this year.

Why This Actually Matters

Look, everyone's competing on AI features and automation these days. Your inbox is probably flooded like mine with "AI-powered this" and "agentic that."

But Shake Shack didn't win with better algorithms or smarter chatbots. They won by making Bill feel genuinely cared for through simple human thoughtfulness.

In 20 seconds.

Basically free.

While your competitors are busy building AI agents and automated workflows, being unexpectedly human might be the highest ROI investment your team can make.

So here's my challenge: What's the one mundane moment in your business that you could transform into a "wow"?

Til next week (have a big update to share soon).

-Ali

About Me: I'm Ali, a former tech exec who helps growth-stage B2B companies with strategy and GTM execution. Secret dream: getting my family on Family Feud someday.

Learn more about my story on LinkedIn.