Customer loyalty is often built in the moments when a company could take your money—but chooses to take care of you instead.
I was reminded of that recently thanks to an unexpected customer experience involving a trash can, a warranty I didn’t know existed, and a little help from AI.
But first, Snoopy.
I’m writing this before dawn, sitting in my car outside my local Starbucks, waiting for the store to open at 5 AM. I’m not a morning person (or even a coffee person), but today marks the release of a Starbucks x Peanuts collaboration, and I want to be certain I get one of the adorable glass Snoopy cups debuting this morning.
I’m a sucker for a Snoopy product. When all else is equal, a licensed Peanuts item is going to win every time.
There are Peanuts items throughout my house, but they’re most obvious in the kitchen. What’s the right number of Peanuts tea towels for one family to own, and why is the answer “all of them”?
Our kitchen is small, so each item is intentional and has earned its spot. One item I thought very carefully about choosing was our Simplehuman trash can.
Because it isn’t hidden under a counter, it’s on full display. I’m not sure exactly when I bought it, but it was post-baby and pre-COVID, so let’s call it seven years ago. I saw it at Bed Bath & Beyond and knew it would look great in our kitchen.
I joked that it was my first “grown-up garbage can” and figured its style justified the $120 price tag, which was probably triple what I’d ever paid for a trash can before.
It immediately became one of my favorite appliances. And calling it an appliance feels fair—not only because of the step to open it, but because of that slick slow-close action.
Friends and guests have complimented it. My son once mused that if Oscar from Sesame Street lived in a trash can as nice as ours, he probably wouldn’t be grouchy.
A Masterclass in Customer Loyalty
Last week, after seven-ish years and probably tens of thousands of opens and closes, a plastic piece snapped near the rim.
My first reaction was, “I bet I can 3D print a replacement to fix this!” (That’s often my first reaction.)
My husband was quick to point out that “that isn’t how physics works” (often his first reaction), and I could not, in fact, 3D-print my way to a solution.
After the kids went to bed, I went to Simplehuman’s website to buy a new trash can. As I often do these days, I asked ChatGPT to find a relevant coupon code.
ChatGPT offered up a couple of options, then pointed out something I hadn’t considered: Many Simplehuman trash cans come with a 10-year warranty. Before buying another one, it suggested checking whether mine might still be covered.
So I clicked over to the warranty page and filled out the information.
Since the receipt from my in-store purchase was long gone, I figured my chances of a replacement were somewhere between 0 and 10%—especially when a customer support agent named Arriane emailed me asking for my receipt.
I explained that I definitely didn’t have it. I didn’t even know the exact month or year I’d bought the can. But I included a screenshot of several can liner purchases from my Amazon history as evidence that, yes, I had been faithfully feeding this trash can for years.
Arriane wrote back right away.
They could tell from the serial number that the can was manufactured in August 2019, placing it well within the warranty period. She sent me a link to order a brand-new replacement.
For FREE.
No hoops to jump through. No complicated forms. No catch.
Just like that, a beautiful new trash can showed up at our house two days later—complete with liners and a sample of an odor-absorbing pod product I didn’t even know they offered.
The Moment That Earned My Customer Loyalty
Here’s the part I can’t stop thinking about:
I was ready to spend $120.
Simplehuman could have taken the money from my outstretched hand. Instead, the company stepped up and honored a warranty I didn’t even know existed.
Talk about a SUPER experience!
From now on, every trash can I buy will be from Simplehuman. Not just because they’re pretty sexy for a trash can (which they are) or because they work great (which they do), but because now I have an appreciation for the company, not just the product.
That distinction matters.
The Simplehuman website says, “We design high-performance tools that bring beauty and satisfaction to essential daily tasks.”
Check and check. I can 100% confirm both beauty and satisfaction.
Another section of its site reads, “Day to day life has room for improvement.”
Amen to that!
Let’s all find ways to improve our customers’ day-to-day lives. Look closely, and I bet you’ll find the answers are both simple and human.
In fact, this experience left me thinking about three lessons every business can use to create stronger customer loyalty.
1. AI Is Now Part of the Customer Journey
While the “Will AI save humanity or end it?” debate rages on (spoiler: the answer is likely neither), one thing is clear: AI is changing customer behavior right now.
Customers are using AI to:
- Ask for product and service recommendations
- Compare and vet their top choices
- Search for coupon and discount codes
- Troubleshoot products
- Understand policies and warranties
- Decide what to buy
As I wrote about earlier this year, they’re even taking pictures of products in stores and asking AI, “Which one should I buy?”
Customer purchasing habits will never be the same.
In my case, AI didn’t simply help me shop for a product. It completely redirected my customer journey. I went from ready to purchase to filing a warranty claim because an AI tool surfaced information I didn’t know existed.
That means the policies you create, the promises you make, and the information you put online need to be clear enough to be discovered and understood not only by your customers, but also by the AI tools helping them make decisions.
Understanding how AI is changing your customer journey needs to be a priority now.
2. Sometimes It’s Worth Losing a Sale to Keep a Customer
A sale and a customer aren’t always mutually exclusive, of course. But when they are, choose the customer.
I’ve written often that companies show their true colors when something goes wrong. In this instance, nothing even went wrong.
I wasn’t an angry customer threatening to leave. I wasn’t demanding a refund. I wasn’t even asking Simplehuman to fix anything. I would’ve happily forked over the cash for a replacement trash can.
Instead, the company put a human before a transaction. Simplehuman lost a $120 sale that night. But it strengthened a customer relationship that could be worth far more over time.
That’s the difference between optimizing for a transaction and optimizing for customer loyalty.
Ask yourself: Where might you be protecting short-term revenue at the expense of long-term loyalty?
3. Every Customer Is an Influencer
I’m not sure what Simplehuman’s cost is on a replacement trash can plus shipping. Let’s call it $60.
This newsletter gets read by about 15,000 people most weeks. (THANK YOU, by the way!)
That’s a pretty good ROI.
And of course Simplehuman didn’t replace my trash can thinking, “Maybe she’s a customer experience author with a newsletter!” They did it because that’s what their company stands for. But when you do the right thing, good things happen. #karma
Every customer is an influencer.
Your customers talk to their friends. They text their families. They post in neighborhood Facebook groups. They leave reviews. They share recommendations with coworkers. And, sometimes, they write newsletters about trash cans.
Don’t just think about your customers’ money.
Their megaphones are far more powerful.
Customer Loyalty Is Built When You Don’t Expect Anything in Return
The best part of this experience is that Simplehuman had no reason to believe anyone other than me would ever hear about it.
There was no audience watching. No social media complaint gaining traction. No PR team swooping in to save the day.
It was simply a company honoring its promise to a customer. And that’s exactly why I’m telling you about it.
Treat customers exceptionally well when you could have taken their money, and they’ll remember who they want to give it to next time.
That’s customer loyalty.
And speaking of “take my money,” I have great news! I got my Starbucks Snoopy cup!!
I’m happy to report that, as the first person in line, I got the molded Snoopy and an adorable metal cup with Lucy and Snoopy.
Big thanks to my friend and Starbucks superfan James Shaw for also coming through for me with a Snoopy cup this morning! He’s at his Florida Starbucks early every day—in part because he hosts a can’t-miss call every morning that thousands of real estate agents start their day with—so I asked him to keep his eyes open for one in case my store didn’t have them.
I got his text just as I was walking into my store.
To paraphrase Peanuts, Happiness is having friends who look out for you! ♥️
And to wrap things up, here’s my brand-new Simplehuman trash can with Bear, the one dog in the world I love more than Snoopy!
(Please don’t tell his brother, Bandit, I said that!)
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