Why I Did It

I was sitting in my office enjoying a quiet day. Then, my friend Melissa came by and handed me a mug. It was a Google Partners mug. It made me smile. I felt affection for Google due to the gift.

Then I thought, “What if I could get free stuff from all my favorite companies?” So, I set out to see if it was possible.

How I Did It

Rules

First, I made a list of companies that I wanted to get free stuff from. But, I imposed a few rules on myself:

I will only contact companies of which I am a frequent, paying user of their products.

I will use any gear sent to me. I don’t want them to waste their stuff on someone who won’t use it.

I won’t ask for free stuff. I will ask how to buy merchandise. Then, we will see what happens!

So, with my rules in hand, I made my list.

The List

After brainstorming, I came up with the following list. Most of these companies are Apps or web-based services. I have linked to the home page of each company. These are all products and services that I personally use and have paid for. I highly recommend all of them.

Once I made my list, it was time to write to the companies!

The Message

It was important to structure the email properly. I had to follow my rules. So, I sent several variations of this:

Subject: Weird Question… Hey there, I love [product]! I use it all the time! [Some sentence about how the product has impacted my life]. I can’t imagine not having it! Do you have any merchandise that I can purchase? I love your [company/logo/brand] and would love to rock it on a t-shirt or notebook or something. Jesse Nichols

So, I never asked for merchandise. I simply asked where I could purchase merchandise.

Also, I told no lies. It was important to me that I only tell the truth. I accurately communicated things that I love about their products and how they impacted my life.

What I Got

Here are the results of my experiment:

1Password - TWO Free t-shirts, keychain, stickers

Affinity Designer - No merchandise for sale

Bitly - Free t-shirt, stickers

Buffer - Free t-shirt, stickers

Clear - No merchandise for sale

Cloudflare - Free t-shirt

Dropbox - No merchandise for sale

Kor - Free t-shirt, stickers

Namecheap - Has a merchandise store

Pixelmator - No merchadise for sale

Robinhood - Free stuff (hasn’t arrived yet)

Simple - Free tote bag, stickers, cardboard wallet

Sketch - No merchadise at the moment, promised to send me some stickers when they become available again…

Spotify - No merchandise for sale

Things - No merchandise for sale

Thumbtack - No merchandise for sale

Not a bad haul! Here’s everything that I got together!

What It Means

So what was the point of all this? Am I just trying to score free stuff?

Actually… No. Part of this experiment was a desire to find out how much my favorite companies valued me, their customer. It became clear by their responses which companies really care about the way that they treat their customers.

Some of the companies with nothing to give found a way to make the interactions light-hearted and fun. Check out the response from Spotify!

Hey Jesse, How’s it going? Thanks for your interested in the big green dot :-) I’m afraid we don’t have anything in the office to give awawy / sell to our awesome fans at the moment. I do have a Spotify mug, but it has my coffee in it and I’m not giving that up I’m afraid; plus it has my name on it as well

:-p If we do start merchandising, I’m sure we’ll be telling customers through the usual outlets. If there is anything else I can help with Jesse, please let me know Regards Alex

This is an example of superior customer service. You don’t have to give your customers something tangible in order to deepen the relationship. Sometimes, just giving some time and care (and perhaps a little wit) can go a long way.