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Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

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Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#111

Post by themaninthedark »

bombcar wrote: post #59
Kon-Peki wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does “half-written” mean, in this context?

I assume that meant hand written. “Dearest Kon-Peki, thank you for purchasing the hydraulic wall crusher 9000. I think you will find this one will last slightly longer than the 8000, but as always, I am ready to sell you the newest model of this one were to suffer the ignominy so many do.” (It’s probably jewelry but it often amuses me that small businesses will spend millions on equipment with a phone call and some g…

Equipment and tools are productivity multipliers and good ones can be resold for same value - wear.

Think of it like dual monitors, do tech companies often balk at getting someone a second monitor or is it a no brainer?

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#112

Post by dundarious »

samwillis wrote: post #5

There was a brilliant Twitter thread last year showing a project to "hand write" with cnc robots thousands of personalised letters for a mailout. They initially started off with off the shelf hand writing robots, but ended up building their own massive ones to increase speed and efficiency. https://mobile.twitter.com/aarondfrancis/status/143888821947...

I've received seemingly hand-written "thank you/please buy more" notes from Soylent. Given the source, I have always suspected that they are an automated "forgery" in some sense. I wouldn't be surprised if they are truly hand-written, but it is interesting that I just can't accept them the same way as I do a hand-written note from, let's say, a local shop or a charity.

(I don't recommend Soylent, I just use it sometimes when I'm feeling mildly self-destructive and not feeling like eating healthy food, so it's my occasional "harm reduction" alternative to getting fast-food or trash processed food)

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#113

Post by bluGill »

Silverback_VII wrote: post #48
waselighis wrote: post #34

Fucking marketers just want to destroy all sincerity in the world.

Another interpretation would be that they are just uncovering the fact that behind many nice and kind behaviours lie some very selfish interests. In every human interaction you can perceive the battle over power, social status and personal interests. It's just the way it is. Some people can see it, others not or just don't want to.

Most social interaction is best when it is a win-win for both parties, not manipulation for status.

However there is a visible minority that is about exploitation.

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#114

Post by iambateman »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #85
iambateman wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year I built an entire service [1] around the idea that scaling handwritten cards was a good business… Before ultimately concluding that you’re right, it’s pretty dystopian. So I called it quits. [1] fountaincards.com

Was it working / were you making money? Automated handwritten notes companies seem like they render text using a handwritten font and then potentially pass it off (via API) to a “print anything and ship it” company — is that an accurate statement? Is there a clear advantage to building and maintaining the hardware / plotting pen portion? i.e. isn’t that something you could do by randomizing font parameters? Also, it…

I was about three years behind wallawe’s reply.

The technical parts are fun…the core thing for us was that it was actually written by a real pen. The difference between a print and real writing is obvious to most people, so we wanted it to be believable.

Our system used a set of handwritten fonts, along with a bunch of “fuzzing” of line height, line direction, and character swap outs. This created an SVG path that a robot used to trace with a pen.

The hardware and margins were what killed us. As wallawe noted, there’s still a lot of manual labor that goes into a system like this, even if the writing is automated. Envelope stuffing and card-envelope matching are big problems.

Its not a super competitive market yet, but the margins on what could be charged per card were pretty low, especially factoring in paper costs and labor costs.

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#116

Post by gchamonlive »

nicbou wrote: post #80
gchamonlive wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a matter of semiotics. At one point you need to scale, and you realise you can just manipulate symbols easier. They might at one point have come from sincerity, but industrial scale trumples all.

> At one point you need to scale Do you? Is growth so imperative that any end justifies it?

Sure not, but when was it the case in capitalism? It is an illusion to think this kind of thing is reserved to marketing

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#117

Post by the_af »

I like handwritten thank you notes. Especially when they are from a small shop, include some message like "enjoy!", often from one of the owners, and they don't offer me anything else. No promo, no discount, just a thank you.

It feels human. I like it.

So of course there's now some kind of marketing scheme trying to deprive it of its soul and see if it can be automated and optimized for.

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#118

Post by iambateman »

wallawe wrote: post #89
iambateman wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last year I built an entire service [1] around the idea that scaling handwritten cards was a good business… Before ultimately concluding that you’re right, it’s pretty dystopian. So I called it quits. [1] fountaincards.com

We built and sold a similar business (handwrite.io) and it was a pretty rough experience. We scaled to 40k MRR within several months (bootstrapped) but the margins were terrible and hardware is not fun, especially not being a hardware guy so I had to rely on someone else to make sure we had an efficient/quality product.

I looked at handwrite.io when I was getting started…impressive!

Sounds like y’all made it further than we did, so congratulations. :)

Totally agree on margins. I vowed to skip physical products on my next effort (moneyhabitshq.com).

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#119

Post by gchamonlive »

kingkawn wrote: post #69
gchamonlive wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a matter of semiotics. At one point you need to scale, and you realise you can just manipulate symbols easier. They might at one point have come from sincerity, but industrial scale trumples all.

Only when empowered by the minds of the unimaginative

Which is...the entire industry? I think this is a very simplistic view. Scale is pervasive in capitalism and not restricted to marketing. It is not being unimaginative, it is just a byproduct of the industry (isonomy and reproducibility over personalisation and personality).

Re: Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

#120

Post by the_af »

sweetheart wrote: post #10

Being kind is fine and all, but my one gripe with it is that it doesn’t make me any money. Glad to see the dark days of being nice without any ROI are ending.

It seems your comment is being taken at face value.

What was the name of the pertinent internet rule? Poe's Law?

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