Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- If you want to start a company, now is the time.
- Have confidence that you’ll be able to figure things out.
- Don’t give up right away. In the game of entrepreneurship, you only lose when you leave the field.
Nurturing Customer Relationships
- With all the digital noise in the world (emails, texts, online messengers, and more), handwritten notes stand out as personal and unique.
- Handwritten notes allow you to communicate at a personal level with your clients.
- Decide which card you want to use. Figure out what you want to do with the card, what you want to write, and how you’re going to send it
- How to use cards to nurture customer relationships:
- Tune in to hear more ideas!
- Thank you notes to new customers for choosing you over another business
- Welcome notes inside your product box or sent separately
- Anniversary of purchase notes (i.e., 6 months or a year after purchase)
- Suggest additional "you might like" products
- Win back customers after mistakes with a free gift and handwritten note
- Seasonal cards
- Listen to the full conversation for all the tips!
Resources Mentioned
David Contact Links
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedinJoin Our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
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Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 326.
Speaker:When somebody would take the time to send you a handwritten
Speaker:note. Not only did you read it,
Speaker:but you kept it and you put it on display Attentive,
Speaker:gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:Welcome to Midsummer Edition of the podcast.
Speaker:Hopefully you're taking the time to enjoy this weather.
Speaker:And I know for many,
Speaker:it's been a season to get back out to farmer's markets
Speaker:and craft shows.
Speaker:Yay. These shows offer great opportunities for social media content.
Speaker:We talked about this in one of our tips and talk
Speaker:episodes in the podcast just a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker:And I bring this up because you've told me you're discouraged.
Speaker:When you don't see any of the time and effort you
Speaker:put into social media,
Speaker:moving the needle on your sales.
Speaker:So given the time we're in right now,
Speaker:take this as a changing point to do something different,
Speaker:putting in more time posting in the same way isn't going
Speaker:to magically bring you results.
Speaker:You need to change the way you're posting and what you're
Speaker:posting. You don't need to put in more work.
Speaker:You need to put in the right work.
Speaker:That's when things will change.
Speaker:If you need some help with this,
Speaker:I've got you covered with the content for maker's program.
Speaker:Content for makers will enlighten you as to why your social
Speaker:media activities aren't converting into sales.
Speaker:It will also show you how to put less time in
Speaker:and start seeing activity that will increase your sales.
Speaker:Just imagine a day where you know exactly what to post
Speaker:and to get it done in five minutes or less,
Speaker:then you can spend your time interacting with potential customers,
Speaker:deepening relationships with those you already know too.
Speaker:And it builds upon itself naturally.
Speaker:Yes, this is possible.
Speaker:Content for makers includes a step-by-step strategy to formulating your unique
Speaker:plan based on your business and your products.
Speaker:Then you'll have 375 social media prompts over a full year
Speaker:of ideas.
Speaker:Along with the 375 prompts come 375 image suggestions.
Speaker:So you're not left hanging on the creative.
Speaker:These prompts and image suggestions can be used for all platforms
Speaker:and all types of posting images.
Speaker:Live streaming reels,
Speaker:even email direction,
Speaker:but that's not all posts aren't to work.
Speaker:If the right people aren't seeing them.
Speaker:So you'll also receive a video in a worksheet on how
Speaker:to choose and use hashtags.
Speaker:This is a way to attract the right people who will
Speaker:become your customers.
Speaker:Most people are doing this wrong.
Speaker:There's more to content for makers too.
Speaker:To see all the details,
Speaker:just jump over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash content for makers.
Speaker:But honestly at only $27,
Speaker:it's a no brainer.
Speaker:Why carry on posting as you've been doing all along expecting
Speaker:different results.
Speaker:Sign up for content for makers now and see the transformation
Speaker:of your posting to experience change before your very eyes gift
Speaker:biz on rap.com
Speaker:forward slash content for makers ready and waiting for your immediate
Speaker:access. Right now,
Speaker:I'm also excited because just a couple of weeks from now,
Speaker:I will be back on the road for conferences and trade
Speaker:shows. First up the gift designers conference in Phoenix,
Speaker:it's going to be super hot there.
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:110, 115,
Speaker:but I will be doing a meetup while I'm there.
Speaker:So if you're in the area and are interested DME over
Speaker:in Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and I'll give you all the details,
Speaker:you don't have to be attending this conference to come to
Speaker:the meetup.
Speaker:I'm actually taking some time on either side of the conference
Speaker:to do some other things while I'm there.
Speaker:The meetup being one of them,
Speaker:getting together in person to me is absolutely the best.
Speaker:And honestly,
Speaker:this is totally a coincidence,
Speaker:but our guest today is right in the area as well.
Speaker:I always find it so crazy when things work out like
Speaker:that, David's going to share with us a way that you
Speaker:can stand out from the crowd.
Speaker:It's almost like putting a blinking arrow directly pointing at you,
Speaker:instead of all of the other businesses that compete for attention.
Speaker:The truth is you don't get a chance to make a
Speaker:sale unless you've got your customer's attention and made a positive
Speaker:impression, interested in hearing more.
Speaker:Let's do this today.
Speaker:I am so excited to introduce you to David wax of
Speaker:handwritten handwritten provides scalable robotic solutions that write your notes in
Speaker:pen and changes the way brands and people connect prior to
Speaker:handwritten. David founded sell it a leading mobile marketing platform,
Speaker:servicing customers such as Abercrombie and Fitch and Walmart,
Speaker:both handwritten and sell it.
Speaker:We're on Inc.
Speaker:Magazine's 500 list of fastest growing companies.
Speaker:Today. David speaks on marketing technology has been featured in the
Speaker:Washington post and wall street journal and is a contributor to
Speaker:Inc magazine.
Speaker:David, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you for having me Sue.
Speaker:This is super Cool.
Speaker:I know I'm really excited to get into this handwritten product.
Speaker:I have lots of questions for you,
Speaker:but before we do that,
Speaker:I have a traditional question that I ask everybody.
Speaker:So you're going to have to go with me here.
Speaker:And that is to have you describe yourself by way of
Speaker:a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to envision a candle that really resonates
Speaker:with you,
Speaker:what would it look like by color?
Speaker:And some type of a quote that would be on the
Speaker:candle? So it would be a tall,
Speaker:almost like one of those large Catholic,
Speaker:those tall candles.
Speaker:It would be an orange.
Speaker:So let's just say it's pumpkin scented and the quote would
Speaker:be always get in over your head.
Speaker:And the reason for this is 20 gosh,
Speaker:almost 30 years ago,
Speaker:25 years ago,
Speaker:when I was in college,
Speaker:I had the opportunity to meet Conan O'Brien.
Speaker:He came to my school and gave a talk in private.
Speaker:He told the little group of us that brought him to
Speaker:campus. If he had any words of advice for us,
Speaker:it would be always get in over your head.
Speaker:You get a lot of advice over the years,
Speaker:but that advice has really stuck with me and resonated.
Speaker:So the tall orange candle to symbolize Conan O'Brien,
Speaker:but really just always get in there.
Speaker:Oh, I love it.
Speaker:And I obviously have never heard that before.
Speaker:So how many times would you say you've gotten in over
Speaker:your head in your life?
Speaker:Since you've heard that My first company definitely was sell it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's a whole backstory,
Speaker:maybe told best over beers and stuff like that.
Speaker:When I come to Phoenix,
Speaker:we'll do that.
Speaker:When you come to Phoenix.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:in the end I was working for a crazy man in
Speaker:San Diego.
Speaker:I got fired from that job without cause and was kind
Speaker:of out on my rump.
Speaker:Didn't know what to do.
Speaker:So I moved home to Arizona and I thought about Conan
Speaker:O'Brien and I started this text messaging company that grew rather
Speaker:quickly, much faster than handwritten during that entire time.
Speaker:You always doubt yourself and you think,
Speaker:gee, can I do this?
Speaker:Can I create something out of nothing?
Speaker:Like you've done with your label,
Speaker:printers, your ribbon printer in your businesses.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:when you create something out of nothing you are getting in
Speaker:over your head or most people are.
Speaker:And when you get in over your head,
Speaker:that forces you to grow,
Speaker:you're out of your comfort zone,
Speaker:you're doing things you didn't think were possible.
Speaker:And that's really the only way to grow and achieve anything
Speaker:bigger than who you are.
Speaker:I think there was years of self doubt is selling,
Speaker:gonna make it,
Speaker:am I going to be able to pay my bills?
Speaker:Can I move back to Chicago to be with my girlfriend,
Speaker:all those things.
Speaker:And then the business does eventually take off and I was
Speaker:able to do that.
Speaker:And then pretty much the next day after finalizing the sale
Speaker:of sell it to this marketing company,
Speaker:I'd worked for them for two years,
Speaker:which was miserable.
Speaker:But after that was over the next day,
Speaker:I started handwritten and I'm getting in over my head technically
Speaker:and operationally much more than with sell it.
Speaker:But financially I'm not,
Speaker:thankfully from the first company I made a little money.
Speaker:So wasn't basically destitute.
Speaker:Like I was the first go round,
Speaker:but just running this new company,
Speaker:we've got robots we build and I can get into all
Speaker:that. And then stationary and all this other stuff it's operationally
Speaker:and technically definitely getting in over my Head.
Speaker:Well, we're going to get into some of that.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:Depending on where the conversation takes us,
Speaker:as you're speaking,
Speaker:I'm just thinking,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we're in great company because people who are listening,
Speaker:even if they're at a point where they really know a
Speaker:lot about the product that they're making,
Speaker:it's that jump over to turning it into a business that,
Speaker:and I'll use your words where they're feeling like they're going
Speaker:to get over their head.
Speaker:And the fact is,
Speaker:yeah, you probably are,
Speaker:but that's exciting too.
Speaker:It might be uncomfortable,
Speaker:but this is how you grow and you learn and you
Speaker:figure it out along the way.
Speaker:And the really cool thing is that so many people won't
Speaker:do that.
Speaker:That the further you go,
Speaker:it's like people fall off on the side,
Speaker:right? And you just keep going forward.
Speaker:So the longer you stay in it,
Speaker:the more things you figure out,
Speaker:the more you create and refine,
Speaker:whatever it is you're doing,
Speaker:I'll say the less noise you have with other people on
Speaker:the sides,
Speaker:because there are so many people who will just say,
Speaker:can't do it.
Speaker:Yeah. There's So many people and finding those people,
Speaker:even if they're not going to start their own company,
Speaker:but to get them on your team,
Speaker:there's this thing called the figure it out.
Speaker:Gene, I don't know where it is in the gene sequencing,
Speaker:but there's some people that haven't and some people that just
Speaker:don't, and it's not that they're not capable of it.
Speaker:They just throw up their hands and walk away.
Speaker:And people like Youssou.
Speaker:That's done it a few times.
Speaker:You clearly have the figure it out gene.
Speaker:And it's so important to have that and to have the
Speaker:confidence in yourself,
Speaker:they'll be able to figure it out and get through it
Speaker:all. I mean,
Speaker:that's huge.
Speaker:And then also kind of just the grit and the sticktuitiveness.
Speaker:I hate that term,
Speaker:but just not giving up right away.
Speaker:And in the game of entrepreneurship,
Speaker:you only lose when you leave the field,
Speaker:when you call it a day until then,
Speaker:if you can figure out how to stick it out.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's nobody keeping Time.
Speaker:Right? And the other thing I'd say is this whole entrepreneurial
Speaker:thing isn't for everybody.
Speaker:And that's okay.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you just,
Speaker:if it just doesn't feel,
Speaker:I'm not saying uncomfortable,
Speaker:but if it doesn't feel good to you and you're not
Speaker:energized by figuring it out,
Speaker:Marie Forleo is everything is figureoutable right.
Speaker:If it doesn't energize and excite you and you have the
Speaker:vision of what could be,
Speaker:but you're doing this because someone told you,
Speaker:you should,
Speaker:or you're just doing it for the money.
Speaker:It's probably not the right thing for you to be doing.
Speaker:And I only say that because there's nothing wrong with people
Speaker:who want to work for other people,
Speaker:shoot, come work for us.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:like you and me David,
Speaker:because I'm sure you're like me with the people who are
Speaker:working for you.
Speaker:You want them to learn and do things also without taking
Speaker:as much of the risk,
Speaker:like innovating,
Speaker:creating new ideas,
Speaker:figuring things out.
Speaker:We've been talking about this whole time.
Speaker:So there are a lot of different ways to do it.
Speaker:You don't always have to be the one who's starting.
Speaker:It. There's a place for everybody.
Speaker:Let's go with that.
Speaker:And sometimes I've been asked before on other podcasts,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what's advice where you go.
Speaker:I say,
Speaker:well, if you're going to start a company started today because
Speaker:tomorrow you're going to have even more obligations usually,
Speaker:unless maybe you've already had your family.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:your family is off at college or whatever else.
Speaker:But you know,
Speaker:with me,
Speaker:I've got young kids now.
Speaker:And I don't know if I was just starting as an
Speaker:entrepreneur today and I have three mouths to feed my wife
Speaker:and my two kids.
Speaker:I don't know if I could do it right now.
Speaker:So I would be that,
Speaker:figuring it out employee for somebody else.
Speaker:And I've learned from that experience,
Speaker:nothing makes me happier than developing employees.
Speaker:And when they eventually leave working with me and they say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I've learned so much in this job.
Speaker:And it's really defined who I am as a person.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:nothing is greater than that.
Speaker:So there is absolutely something to be said for being a
Speaker:COO of a company or a CFO of a company or
Speaker:a great account manager,
Speaker:Cod I've,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in my past two jobs,
Speaker:I'm thrilled by the account managers I've built,
Speaker:they have these technical skills.
Speaker:They never thought they'd have.
Speaker:And all of that is just very gratifying for them.
Speaker:And it's incredibly gratifying for me.
Speaker:Absolutely. And people who start something as a sideline are still
Speaker:learning from their employer.
Speaker:They're serving their employer,
Speaker:doing what they're supposed to be doing,
Speaker:but they're also learning things that they can then apply later.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:It can benefit in a number of ways.
Speaker:I want to move on to handwritten cause I can't wait
Speaker:any longer.
Speaker:I've been in suspense about this.
Speaker:That was a pretty quick jump from when you sold sell
Speaker:it to all of a sudden then automatically going into handwritten,
Speaker:where did you come up with the idea Sell?
Speaker:It was one of the larger text messaging providers.
Speaker:And I want to be very clear.
Speaker:We didn't spam.
Speaker:Everything we did was opt in and people would join and
Speaker:they get texts from Abercrombie and Fitch.
Speaker:And we do like millions of them a day.
Speaker:But what I realized,
Speaker:and I knew this kind of going in that texting was
Speaker:kind of a stop gap technology and there'd be other technologies
Speaker:out there.
Speaker:I didn't know what they would be,
Speaker:but I knew there'd be other things instead of texting and
Speaker:for info on houses because it was real estate.
Speaker:Yeah. I initially started with real estate and then we got
Speaker:into kind of full CRM systems for Abercrombie and Marie Claire
Speaker:and all these other systems.
Speaker:So I kind of thought it was a stopgap technology and
Speaker:I built it to sell it.
Speaker:Hence the name,
Speaker:sell it.
Speaker:When it came time to sell,
Speaker:I realized that I was kind of part of the problem
Speaker:because back in 2014,
Speaker:when I left the company,
Speaker:the average office workers getting 140 emails a day,
Speaker:they spend 25% of their time just managing their inbox.
Speaker:And then you add the Facebook messages,
Speaker:the Twitter tweets back then we didn't really have slack and
Speaker:teams, but you add Telegraph and slack and teams and all
Speaker:these other electronic forms of communication.
Speaker:What year are we talking right now?
Speaker:2014. But we did have texting,
Speaker:which was the average person would get like a thousand texts
Speaker:a month.
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:Everybody's overwhelmed and overloaded by electronic communication,
Speaker:right? At the same time,
Speaker:print communication turned to junk mail.
Speaker:It was all just flimsy.
Speaker:Slick pieces sent to you.
Speaker:Nothing really had a personal impact to it.
Speaker:But what I noticed was when I went by my employee's
Speaker:desks and my own desk and my own house,
Speaker:what really stood out,
Speaker:were handwritten notes.
Speaker:When somebody would take the time to send you a handwritten
Speaker:note, not only did you read it,
Speaker:but you kept it and you put it on display or
Speaker:at least I did.
Speaker:So when I left sell it,
Speaker:I wanted to send all my employees handwritten notes.
Speaker:I wanted to send handwritten notes to all my great clients
Speaker:for sticking with me over the years.
Speaker:And I sat down and I started doing it and sure
Speaker:enough, my hand cramped and I ran out of stamps and
Speaker:I ran out of paper and I'd screw up the page
Speaker:and I'd have to start over.
Speaker:And it was very frustrating to me.
Speaker:And I thought there had to be a better way.
Speaker:I thought if I could create a system that made sending
Speaker:handwritten notes,
Speaker:as easy as sending an email,
Speaker:and automateable where you could just plug it into your system.
Speaker:Like we did with text messaging,
Speaker:there would be something there to allow businesses to really communicate
Speaker:on a very perceived personal level.
Speaker:And that's what we've been doing for the last seven years.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:It's really targeted for businesses,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:When we first started,
Speaker:we had a much more of a consumer,
Speaker:not a focus.
Speaker:We always wanted to go after businesses,
Speaker:but we'd focus more on consumers than we do now that
Speaker:consumer can still go on our website and send their mom
Speaker:a mother's day card or a birthday card and include a
Speaker:gift card to Amazon or whatever with it.
Speaker:But our target is really businesses ranging from a lot of
Speaker:realtors. We do have several gift basket companies and I can
Speaker:talk about that luxury brands,
Speaker:online mattress companies,
Speaker:perfume brands,
Speaker:they really just runs the gamut.
Speaker:I think this would be a good thing for us to
Speaker:talk about.
Speaker:At some point is the different purposes of why people would
Speaker:send a handmade card.
Speaker:But I think it applies to every single person who's listening,
Speaker:who has a business,
Speaker:because even if you're doing cards that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:depending on your price point,
Speaker:probably so that you make sure that it works properly for
Speaker:however you onboard a new customer or get them acquainted and
Speaker:potential for additional sales,
Speaker:like all of that type of things.
Speaker:It all goes back to the numbers at some point.
Speaker:But I think it could be for anybody like a brand
Speaker:new client,
Speaker:anybody really,
Speaker:I was thinking,
Speaker:as you were talking through the story of I'll do handmade
Speaker:cards for certain people who like joined certain classes and such,
Speaker:and I have the cards printed up and then I write
Speaker:on them in the back with their name.
Speaker:And I do customize the message a little bit for each
Speaker:person, but dang it.
Speaker:If I don't spell something wrong or skip a word or
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:And then I have to throw away the whole card because
Speaker:I'm not going to scratch it out.
Speaker:That doesn't look good.
Speaker:And when I do that,
Speaker:I get so,
Speaker:so I already see the advantage in that way for what
Speaker:you're doing here.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:I'd love to hear before we get into a little more
Speaker:about how we could apply the technology,
Speaker:share just a little bit about how this evolved.
Speaker:So you had the idea,
Speaker:but then how do you get to the point where you
Speaker:have robots and how does the system work if someone's using
Speaker:it and share all that angle of handwritten for us To
Speaker:get really kind of geeky.
Speaker:When I started the company,
Speaker:I always wanted to be a platform,
Speaker:not a website.
Speaker:What I mean by that is I wanted people to be
Speaker:able to integrate us in every system they have and not
Speaker:just have to visit a website.
Speaker:So I had the system,
Speaker:I started with an iPhone app and not a website.
Speaker:The reason being is it created what's called a separation of
Speaker:concerns and it allowed me to then create a website using
Speaker:the same technology as the app.
Speaker:And then I created all these platform integrations,
Speaker:like we integrate with Shopify and all these other systems.
Speaker:Now, Zapier,
Speaker:I saw exactly Zapier and Integra that integrate with like all
Speaker:these systems HubSpot.
Speaker:That was all very intentional.
Speaker:So that was how the software side,
Speaker:we started with this kind of very consumery app,
Speaker:just to kind of help us architect ourselves appropriately and on
Speaker:the, how do we actually write the notes?
Speaker:We started with these off the shelf,
Speaker:writing machines called auto pens,
Speaker:which you can buy from this company in Virginia.
Speaker:And they were good enough to get us started,
Speaker:but their product was very frustrating to use and the machines
Speaker:would write on themselves and run out of ink and keep
Speaker:writing and they'd jam.
Speaker:And like it was just a disaster.
Speaker:And also they were very expensive and the company was very
Speaker:difficult to work with the company that made those.
Speaker:And so I said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:there has to be a better way.
Speaker:And we spent years developing these robots,
Speaker:which I'm very proud of.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they're not perfect.
Speaker:They still jam and do all that stuff too.
Speaker:But the writing quality is a level above the ease of
Speaker:using these is easier and they cost us much less than
Speaker:buying from a third party.
Speaker:And we can build as many of them as we want
Speaker:because we build them all.
Speaker:In-house using all this crazy 3d printing and laser cutting and
Speaker:oh, wow.
Speaker:Yeah, it's all.
Speaker:I love giving tours.
Speaker:So when you're in town or your listeners want to see
Speaker:how we do it,
Speaker:come to the handwritten office and we give tours all the
Speaker:time because it's like modern day manufacturing.
Speaker:It's crazy.
Speaker:So we started on this path that took us like three
Speaker:years, two to three years to get our first version of
Speaker:the robot done.
Speaker:I actually programmed the robot to make it right.
Speaker:And all that.
Speaker:I ended up bringing in two rounds of mechanical engineers to
Speaker:build the first one.
Speaker:And now we're on revision like four or five of this
Speaker:thing. And we have 115 robots currently.
Speaker:And we're planning on adding 85 more to get to 200
Speaker:by the end,
Speaker:the year.
Speaker:So David,
Speaker:this is my vision.
Speaker:So I envision a room where the hands,
Speaker:cause it's not a full person,
Speaker:obviously it's a hand or however the robot is at its
Speaker:little workstation,
Speaker:whatever that looks like.
Speaker:And then it's just robot,
Speaker:almost like a classroom robot after robot after robot.
Speaker:Is that what it looks like pretty Much,
Speaker:except they're racked up too high.
Speaker:Oh, we have like a,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just to maximize space,
Speaker:Like a bunk bed,
Speaker:robots, Bunk bed robots.
Speaker:Yeah. And then we have people that run around,
Speaker:filling the robots,
Speaker:replacing pens and replacing paper.
Speaker:And then we have other robots doing the envelopes,
Speaker:the same type of thing.
Speaker:And then all notes and envelopes.
Speaker:If the notes,
Speaker:if the notes are mailed,
Speaker:go through,
Speaker:and then we also operate our own digital press.
Speaker:This business has gotten so complicated.
Speaker:So we have a full digital press to print the stationary.
Speaker:The stationary goes into the robots and then we quality check
Speaker:everything using artificial intelligence technology,
Speaker:all sorts of craziness.
Speaker:And then it gets put in a real envelope with a
Speaker:real stamp and send out the door within one business day.
Speaker:So that's kind of the system overall.
Speaker:And we do about 5,000
Speaker:to 10,000
Speaker:pieces a day right now.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I already told you I'm going to be in Phoenix the
Speaker:first week of August.
Speaker:So come on over.
Speaker:I got to figure out a way to come on over.
Speaker:And I know some of the people who are listening right
Speaker:now are also going to be in Phoenix with me.
Speaker:So you just never know.
Speaker:Yeah, please.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:our office isn't in the best part of town,
Speaker:but there's some good restaurants nearby.
Speaker:Happy to take you.
Speaker:Y'all out to lunch too.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:show you the whole thing.
Speaker:It's amazing to me.
Speaker:I never thought I'd be doing this.
Speaker:I never thought I'd have a company with machinery and lasers
Speaker:and you know,
Speaker:it's cool stuff,
Speaker:but what's crazy is it's like robots building robots.
Speaker:These laser cutters are building these handwriting robots.
Speaker:And then the end result of the handwriting robot is a
Speaker:very personal note that it's a piece of art kind of,
Speaker:and it's cherished.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we have a piano tuner in Pennsylvania,
Speaker:the only needed tune a piano once a year,
Speaker:I've learned.
Speaker:And after tuning a piano,
Speaker:he sends you a handwritten note a year later when he
Speaker:returns to your house to tune your piano.
Speaker:Again, that handwritten note is still sitting on the piano,
Speaker:standing up on the piano.
Speaker:You're not going to do that with an email.
Speaker:You're not going to take a screenshot of a text message
Speaker:and print it out.
Speaker:And then not only is it kept for a year,
Speaker:but it's kept on your family's most prized possession,
Speaker:your piano.
Speaker:So it just blows me away.
Speaker:The impact is no tab there.
Speaker:It's just completely different than an email or anything else.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I Mean,
Speaker:talk about standing out from a crowd,
Speaker:right? Because,
Speaker:and again,
Speaker:like, I always like to relate this back to everyone who's
Speaker:listening, but we have people who are candlemakers or they make
Speaker:pottery, or they are knitters all of that.
Speaker:There are a lot of artisans out there who do the
Speaker:same craft and by how everything comes together and adding personality
Speaker:and all of that,
Speaker:the are different.
Speaker:But adding something on top of this is another way of
Speaker:making yourself stand out versus everybody else,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:who's doing a similar craft as you.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's talk about more,
Speaker:the different ways we could use this for business.
Speaker:So we were just talking about visibility for thanking someone for
Speaker:the business,
Speaker:right? So that would be one way that would be one
Speaker:way is thinking.
Speaker:And what does that do?
Speaker:It makes you memorable.
Speaker:It also,
Speaker:like, I honestly think with your piano example,
Speaker:David is when it's time to retune or maintain the piano,
Speaker:it's almost like a classier business card because the contact information
Speaker:is probably there,
Speaker:or at least the guy's name,
Speaker:whoever was the piano tuner.
Speaker:I don't know why I'm making an assumption.
Speaker:It's a guy,
Speaker:but we'll just go with it.
Speaker:There it is in this case.
Speaker:So it's also a useful resource for the future.
Speaker:Yeah. And I mean 99% of our,
Speaker:or whatever,
Speaker:not 99 because we have the holidays,
Speaker:but 90% of our business is really thinking people.
Speaker:And a lot of people say,
Speaker:well, what's the ROI on that?
Speaker:And I say,
Speaker:well, if you're asking that question,
Speaker:you're kind of missing the point because to your point,
Speaker:none of us are unique.
Speaker:There's other handwriting companies,
Speaker:there's other knitting companies,
Speaker:there's other,
Speaker:whatever. Do dad gadget companies out there,
Speaker:none of us are unique.
Speaker:Snowflakes hate to break it to you.
Speaker:So when somebody chooses you over the multitude of other businesses,
Speaker:they can just Google or find on Alibaba or Etsy or
Speaker:whatever else,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's worth thinking that person for that full stop,
Speaker:not looking for an ROI that said most of our clients
Speaker:do get a tremendous ROI from this.
Speaker:And I can give examples of all that.
Speaker:But a lot of our business is thinking and thinking comes
Speaker:in a lot of ways.
Speaker:It could be an inbox.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So we work with a online mattress brand.
Speaker:And when you open up that mattress box,
Speaker:you get one of 12 different,
Speaker:thank you notes with doodles.
Speaker:So when your inbox,
Speaker:it creates some logistical differences than if we send the note
Speaker:after the fact via the mail.
Speaker:When we send the note,
Speaker:after the fact via the mail,
Speaker:we can personalize it with your name,
Speaker:with what products you've purchased,
Speaker:all that.
Speaker:But if we're in the box,
Speaker:it just logistically hard to get the right box with the
Speaker:right notes.
Speaker:So instead we pre-print these,
Speaker:but what we do is because it's not converting text to
Speaker:handwriting because we know exactly how all these 12 notes are
Speaker:going to look,
Speaker:we duplicate doodles.
Speaker:Exactly. So to give you an idea for the mattress company,
Speaker:their notes say,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:We hope you enjoy your first night on your new mattress.
Speaker:And then below that there's a picture of somebody sleeping in
Speaker:a mattress hand,
Speaker:drawn dreaming of a cat,
Speaker:or there's a picture of the moon and the stars.
Speaker:And so it's kind of like this little gift you get
Speaker:in your mattress box that could easily be done in a
Speaker:gift box to the hard thing with what we do is
Speaker:getting a very unique handwritten note in that gift box.
Speaker:We do it for a company called vinyl NYL they do
Speaker:a record subscription.
Speaker:And every day we write out our vinyl notes,
Speaker:we overnight them to vinyl.
Speaker:Each note has a order ID on it and they get
Speaker:inserted, but that's logistically harder than doing kind of a cutesy
Speaker:doodle note that also gets people's attention.
Speaker:Right? We do those,
Speaker:the inbox notes.
Speaker:We do the thank you followup notes.
Speaker:We do anniversary of purchase notes,
Speaker:which are kind of another touch point.
Speaker:So maybe six months or a year after getting a gift
Speaker:basket or what have you,
Speaker:we'll send a follow-up saying,
Speaker:thank you so much again for your purchase last year.
Speaker:We hope your recipient loved the basket of whatever that is.
Speaker:And that's a great way to kind of keep the customer
Speaker:engaged. And then we do some winbacks and you'll like this
Speaker:example, we have a,
Speaker:it's not a gift basket,
Speaker:but it's a snack box that it's for offices.
Speaker:So we actually have it here.
Speaker:And I don't know what's going on with the company.
Speaker:They keep sending us more and more snacks.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:we're swimming in it.
Speaker:I hope it's good.
Speaker:It's good.
Speaker:It's a lot of the stuff called cracklin comet,
Speaker:which is some sort of grain.
Speaker:And we're eating a lot of Kimo around here now,
Speaker:but anyway,
Speaker:the gift box or the snack box has all these different
Speaker:snacks in it.
Speaker:And I guess every once in a while,
Speaker:they'll screw up a client's box.
Speaker:And I don't know if that means they don't send it
Speaker:to them or they include the wrong items and what have
Speaker:you. But when they do that,
Speaker:what they find is if they send another box to them
Speaker:with a handwritten note,
Speaker:included, apologizing for the mistake and saying,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're so valuable to us.
Speaker:Here's another box on us.
Speaker:Those customers actually have a higher lifetime value than if they
Speaker:never had a screw up in the wind back experience at
Speaker:all. So then what this snack box has been doing,
Speaker:I'm not joking is they're actually going out,
Speaker:screwing up on purpose and then sending that wind back to
Speaker:res all customers experiences so that everybody goes through that win-back
Speaker:experience. And everybody has a higher lifetime value.
Speaker:So that is kind of a unique case,
Speaker:but win-back is big for us.
Speaker:And then we're also doing a little bit of intro,
Speaker:like, Hey,
Speaker:we're opening a store in your neighborhood,
Speaker:but that can get very expensive.
Speaker:And we typically don't recommend it.
Speaker:Two things that come up for me with this.
Speaker:I actually like the card being a separate thing than the
Speaker:actual product being delivered,
Speaker:because then you get another touch point there.
Speaker:Exactly. And so I think that the value of the experience
Speaker:is enhanced further versus whatever the package is with the product
Speaker:in it,
Speaker:including the card,
Speaker:but the package with the product in it obviously wrapped very
Speaker:beautifully with whatever branding there is,
Speaker:whatever messaging it normally comes with it.
Speaker:And then for special,
Speaker:maybe higher tiered product,
Speaker:a separate card that comes saying,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:Or maybe even includes a tip of how to take care
Speaker:of the item or,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like whatever it would be just enhances the whole experience.
Speaker:And then what does that,
Speaker:do you talk about it?
Speaker:And when you talk about it,
Speaker:that could be a referral sale.
Speaker:Absolutely. So I could see totally that.
Speaker:And then,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like when you were saying that 99% of the reason why
Speaker:people are sending cards is the category of thinking versus seasonal,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:but the thinking,
Speaker:I could see that being able to be tracked through what
Speaker:the average lifetime value of a customer is over time.
Speaker:Like if a company already knows that their average lifetime customer
Speaker:value is X and they started doing some of these types
Speaker:of cards and they saw their lifetime value increase and the
Speaker:cards was the only variable.
Speaker:Then there you go.
Speaker:That's how you could track the success of a program like
Speaker:this. Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. We have an other snack box for,
Speaker:I guess this wasn't at the time for offices,
Speaker:it was just a snack you could order online.
Speaker:And what they would do is they would use this as
Speaker:a followup and they would do product recommendations based off what
Speaker:you purchase.
Speaker:So, Hey,
Speaker:Sue, thanks so much for ordering the dried pineapple rings.
Speaker:We really think you'll love sweet chili pistachios.
Speaker:They would do a lot of that to kind of create
Speaker:a personalized face to the brand.
Speaker:What's funny is online brands and catalog brands really in some
Speaker:ways can do a better job of being personable than in
Speaker:store brands.
Speaker:I'll give you an example.
Speaker:We work with a very,
Speaker:very high-end perfume or guests in this case earlier cologne,
Speaker:but the perfume cologne brand is in high-end department stores.
Speaker:And I was walking through a mall before the pandemic with
Speaker:my wife and kids.
Speaker:And we saw at the Neiman Marcus or whatever,
Speaker:they had this perfume and I walked up to it and
Speaker:I was showing my wife and the perfume rep came over
Speaker:and was talking to me.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:oh no,
Speaker:I'm not interested.
Speaker:I couldn't afford this perfume,
Speaker:but we work with you guys.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:no, you don't.
Speaker:I have to write my own notes.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:oh, well,
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:We only do the notes for the online purchases.
Speaker:And what happens is in that case,
Speaker:the in-store notes never get written because that clerk is too
Speaker:busy. Merchandising is too busy,
Speaker:cleaning up the area is too busy,
Speaker:dealing with the cash register,
Speaker:all that stuff.
Speaker:They never get around to the fact that they're actually supposed
Speaker:to send these people handwritten notes versus on the online brand,
Speaker:it's fully automateable through a company like us.
Speaker:And it creates a much better relationship with the customer than
Speaker:the in store.
Speaker:Does we work with this high-end luxury leather company?
Speaker:And there we do both in store and online.
Speaker:And when we do in store,
Speaker:we actually insert the name of the store clerk,
Speaker:their phone number,
Speaker:what store they were at.
Speaker:So it's personal and it looks like that specific person sent
Speaker:the note to you.
Speaker:So it's very interesting how brands like your listeners kind of
Speaker:have the leg up than a traditional brick and mortar.
Speaker:And I will tell you,
Speaker:I know for a fact that a lot of people who
Speaker:make handmade products include a personalized note that they're writing in
Speaker:with their boxing,
Speaker:with the packaging as it goes out.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Where do we fit into the whole scheme?
Speaker:Like if there was,
Speaker:let me pick a product,
Speaker:let's just say jewelry.
Speaker:Okay. So the boxes are kind of small and let's say
Speaker:we're doing something that's separate from the box.
Speaker:Okay. So whoever's making the jewelry is going to put it
Speaker:out as they normally do,
Speaker:but they wanted to do handwritten notes that they were no
Speaker:longer writing for themselves.
Speaker:First off,
Speaker:what type of volume do you need to be running to
Speaker:be able to use your business?
Speaker:We're going to get more of the details on handwritten right
Speaker:after a quick break to hear from our sponsor.
Speaker:Yes. It's possible increase your sales without adding a single customer.
Speaker:How you ask by offering personalization with your products,
Speaker:wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,
Speaker:Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or
Speaker:party favors for an extra meaningful touch.
Speaker:Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name
Speaker:or find packaging?
Speaker:That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select
Speaker:to not only our customers willing to pay for these special
Speaker:touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your
Speaker:company and products.
Speaker:You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds,
Speaker:make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to
Speaker:spend money to order yards and yards print words in any
Speaker:language or font,
Speaker:add logos,
Speaker:images, even photos,
Speaker:perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels.
Speaker:To for more information,
Speaker:go to the ribbon print company.com.
Speaker:Honestly, you have to kind of look at the product to
Speaker:determine if you're worried about ROI.
Speaker:You have to look at the product to see is this
Speaker:really worth it,
Speaker:but you can start with us sending one card.
Speaker:I'll say one card a year,
Speaker:but one card period for $3 and 25 cents plus postage.
Speaker:So three 80 out the door.
Speaker:Okay. But if you plan on doing a lot of these,
Speaker:we offer,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I don't want to make this a sales pitch,
Speaker:but, but we offer discounts.
Speaker:Whether you subscribe for discount,
Speaker:where you get certain credits every month,
Speaker:or you prepay for a discount or you just place a
Speaker:big bulk order,
Speaker:it can go down to like two bucks.
Speaker:And that could be completely custom.
Speaker:That card could be custom.
Speaker:The handwriting is if you want to use one of our
Speaker:25 pre-dawn handwriting styles,
Speaker:any of those and yeah,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's just $2 plus postage.
Speaker:Gotcha. Okay.
Speaker:So there is no minimum then if someone was interested and
Speaker:honestly, someone who sells a product that is $300 to a
Speaker:thousand dollars,
Speaker:I'm thinking some of our artists or garment creators,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:where the product is more expensive,
Speaker:a $3 card would make sense.
Speaker:$3 card probably wouldn't make sense if someone's buying one candle.
Speaker:So you look at it and figure out how it would
Speaker:work for your business,
Speaker:but let's go with I'm back to my jewelry.
Speaker:So let's say we have a jeweler.
Speaker:And she has decided that when she sells pieces that are
Speaker:$250 or greater,
Speaker:she wants to do something additional and send a card.
Speaker:And her purpose in doing that is obviously it's an additional
Speaker:enhancement to the experience overall.
Speaker:She could be thinking that,
Speaker:well, this person who is enjoying the necklace,
Speaker:either for theirself as a gift,
Speaker:I have a whole price range.
Speaker:So as long as she's liking working with me,
Speaker:she may also be interested in less expensive earrings as gifts
Speaker:or additional beautiful pieces that she's going to add to a
Speaker:collection or for a gift.
Speaker:So lots of just the thinking that would go on in
Speaker:someone's head and at a piece that tells it $250,
Speaker:even a $3,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:Note would make a whole lot of sense.
Speaker:So if I were to do that,
Speaker:I have this business,
Speaker:it's a jewelry business and I've decided that that's my cut
Speaker:point. Like anyone who's purchasing at a $250 level or greater,
Speaker:I would send a card.
Speaker:So now I'm going to put it back over to you.
Speaker:What are the steps to being able to do something like
Speaker:that with you?
Speaker:So The first step is you'd want to determine what type
Speaker:of car do you want to use?
Speaker:One of our off the shelf non-custom cards.
Speaker:That's just like a nice thank you note card.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:sometimes you might want to do that.
Speaker:If you feel like if I use something branded with my
Speaker:logo, that's going to look a little bit too.
Speaker:Corporate-y that's really up to you.
Speaker:I think for any of your brands,
Speaker:you could probably easily get away with a custom card.
Speaker:If you'd say,
Speaker:okay, I want to do the custom card.
Speaker:There's two ways to do it.
Speaker:If you prepay for a bunch of them,
Speaker:if you prepay for 500 cards or more with us,
Speaker:which are good for a year,
Speaker:there's no cost to a full custom,
Speaker:full bleed,
Speaker:folded card.
Speaker:If you don't want to commit to that,
Speaker:you can still go on our website and use what's called
Speaker:the card customizer and put your logo on a five by
Speaker:seven flat card.
Speaker:And it comes out looking very nice.
Speaker:It's just cost $3 and 75 cents because it's a little
Speaker:bit more work on our end.
Speaker:Versus if you want to do it in bulk,
Speaker:then you're printing in bulk too.
Speaker:So your costs go down also.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah,
Speaker:yeah. If you're a client and maybe I'll use it,
Speaker:maybe I won't,
Speaker:but I want to send my first card to give it
Speaker:a shot.
Speaker:And I want to have my logo on one side and
Speaker:a picture of my product on the other $3 75 cents
Speaker:is what that would cost.
Speaker:So step one,
Speaker:figure out what you want to do on the card.
Speaker:And then step two,
Speaker:figure out what you want to write,
Speaker:obviously. And then step three is how are you going to
Speaker:send this card?
Speaker:Are you going to just go onto our website and upload
Speaker:a whole bunch of orders?
Speaker:You can absolutely do that.
Speaker:Or if you're using Shopify or an Etsy store or WooCommerce
Speaker:or whatever else,
Speaker:we can easily integrate and set up that rule of orders
Speaker:over $500 or total lifetime client threshold is now over $500.
Speaker:You could set up those rules and then automatically send out
Speaker:the note directly without even thinking about it.
Speaker:That's what I would say.
Speaker:There's no additional cost on our end.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you might have to pay for Zapier depending on the Zapier
Speaker:plan. You're on,
Speaker:we are actually coming out with a direct integration for Shopify,
Speaker:but there's been some goofy setbacks with that.
Speaker:That'll be so worth it when it happens though,
Speaker:I'm a Huge Shopify fan as everybody who listens.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:And that plugin will basically do the same thing you could
Speaker:do through Zapier.
Speaker:It'll just make it more transient.
Speaker:Right. And do you help with setup with any of that
Speaker:or are we on our own?
Speaker:No. You help.
Speaker:You Have account managers that can assist you with that.
Speaker:No problem.
Speaker:You just set that up in Zapier or set it up
Speaker:with our Shopify app,
Speaker:whatever. And then those nodes just go out and set it
Speaker:and forget it you'd have One message.
Speaker:The note would be one message because it would trigger based
Speaker:on, let's say what you were saying,
Speaker:a $500 or greater sale.
Speaker:Let's just do one sale,
Speaker:not cumulative sales,
Speaker:but one sale.
Speaker:And so there would be a single message that would go
Speaker:out to anybody who had that sale.
Speaker:Yeah. That's typically how it works.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you can get really creative with Zapier.
Speaker:You could have it randomized messages,
Speaker:you could do dynamic insertion.
Speaker:So instead of saying,
Speaker:thank you for your purchase,
Speaker:it could say,
Speaker:thank you for your purchase of the golden earrings or whatever.
Speaker:That's easy to do if you want it even more control.
Speaker:And you're a little nervous about the automation and how that
Speaker:would all end up.
Speaker:You could certainly just dump your orders on a monthly basis
Speaker:to an Excel file,
Speaker:go through it,
Speaker:clean it up and upload it into our system.
Speaker:We have other clients that do that,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:every note could be different.
Speaker:It's really up to you as far as what you want
Speaker:to write in it.
Speaker:After we get that stationary figured out,
Speaker:that's kind of the next step is what are you going
Speaker:to write and how are you going to automate it if
Speaker:you want to?
Speaker:And is it customized deer and whatever the person's name is?
Speaker:Yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's kind of the brass tacks of customization is personalization of
Speaker:the name.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:that's easy to do whether through Zapier Shopify or just bulk
Speaker:Up and the name can be in the salutation,
Speaker:could it also be in the message?
Speaker:Yeah. So you could do,
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:we hope you enjoyed your,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:this is,
Speaker:thank you so much for your purchase as you've purchased three
Speaker:times from us in the past.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you could do whatever you want.
Speaker:Just depends how creative and how savvy you are with Zapier
Speaker:or yeah,
Speaker:we're Going to start super easy and that's the best way
Speaker:to start,
Speaker:but knowing the opportunity and the potential,
Speaker:especially for people who have larger businesses who are listening,
Speaker:it's just good to know that the capabilities are there.
Speaker:Yeah. You're In good company.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we work with most of our clients.
Speaker:There's a few that we can mention,
Speaker:like vinyl,
Speaker:the company I mentioned,
Speaker:or there's a large solar panel installer called pro companies.
Speaker:There's some companies that allow us to mention them most do
Speaker:not. And we would never mention you without your permission,
Speaker:but there's luxury handbag companies,
Speaker:largest meal box companies.
Speaker:The largest online mattress brands are all handwritten clients.
Speaker:And you can just visit handwritten.com,
Speaker:click the business tab at the top and order some samples
Speaker:to see for yourself how it looks if you're worried about
Speaker:that. Got it.
Speaker:I'm kind of thinking to myself,
Speaker:like if I was making a handmade product and who knows,
Speaker:maybe I'll want to do this with the ribbon print company.
Speaker:So all you guys who are customers,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:maybe you'll see something,
Speaker:but I'm just thinking like,
Speaker:even for the holidays yeah.
Speaker:To upload,
Speaker:and maybe it's not every single customer or it's people who
Speaker:have purchased product in the last two years or three years,
Speaker:or like you,
Speaker:there's ways that you can segment your customer lists to determine
Speaker:who would be the right fit for this and what fits
Speaker:your budget,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:But I'm thinking for holidays,
Speaker:this could be a no-brainer,
Speaker:especially for our industries,
Speaker:David, because the holidays,
Speaker:obviously in retail,
Speaker:it's the biggest time of the year.
Speaker:But also when you make a handmade product,
Speaker:all that you sell,
Speaker:you're making more work for yourself because you're actually making the
Speaker:product. You're not just buying it from someone else and then
Speaker:selling it forward.
Speaker:So holidays can be super crazy for us.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:For us as well.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker:But so this could be something that could really be helpful
Speaker:in a time-saver during the time of year,
Speaker:when we want to be out,
Speaker:promote selling our product.
Speaker:And then also of course making the product of the orders
Speaker:that we've taken.
Speaker:But this could be a way of handling that holiday list
Speaker:for your customers versus not doing it at all.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:To your point about the cologne counter person.
Speaker:Yeah. Maybe you segment your list,
Speaker:your top 10% clients,
Speaker:you actually do sit down and write those notes in actual
Speaker:pen from you.
Speaker:And then the bottom,
Speaker:the next 50% of your list,
Speaker:you have us do it for you or another company that
Speaker:does what we do do it for you.
Speaker:That type of thing,
Speaker:where you kind of say,
Speaker:okay, well these are our most price clients.
Speaker:We're going to actually sit down and do this.
Speaker:But then we have more of a templated approach for the
Speaker:next tier.
Speaker:We have a client they're an online furniture brand and they
Speaker:send out handwritten notes.
Speaker:I think they do it to thank customers,
Speaker:but I was on the phone with them and I said,
Speaker:how's it going?
Speaker:And this is all during COVID.
Speaker:So there's definitely a COVID impact here,
Speaker:but they said,
Speaker:oh, it's going great.
Speaker:We just had somebody call into customer support yesterday crying because
Speaker:they got a handwritten note from us.
Speaker:I think a lot of that is the COVID impact.
Speaker:People right now are so lonely and so isolated that anything
Speaker:you can do to say,
Speaker:Hey, you know,
Speaker:I was thinking about you.
Speaker:I took the time to send you a handwritten note or
Speaker:call you or a video chat or whatever that is.
Speaker:That means just more than ever before.
Speaker:Luckily we're getting out of COVID amen to that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:but I'm also thinking that there are companies,
Speaker:some people are going back to just the way they were
Speaker:before, but some have rethought.
Speaker:And whether they really want all their employees coming in all
Speaker:the time,
Speaker:or if home-based seems to be just as productive,
Speaker:but you lose that personal touch.
Speaker:Right. And so I know a lot of businesses also are
Speaker:not having their annual meetings.
Speaker:They're still going to go online because that's such a huge
Speaker:expense, you know,
Speaker:flying everybody in potentially for a meeting last year.
Speaker:What they've been doing is sending out boxes to people that
Speaker:they'll open up during these meetings,
Speaker:but you could even send out hand written notes in preparation
Speaker:for a meeting,
Speaker:or just to thank people in your company who are remote
Speaker:that you.ca
Speaker:and all the time,
Speaker:that goes a long way for employee retention to now I
Speaker:get that,
Speaker:that doesn't have anything to do with the handmade products we're
Speaker:talking about.
Speaker:But I wanted to bring up that idea because as we
Speaker:were talking about before,
Speaker:a lot of our listeners also still work for other companies.
Speaker:This could be a way that they could bring an idea
Speaker:to a company that they're working for and saying,
Speaker:Hey, I know about this idea.
Speaker:Yeah. That's cool.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Riding back to making people feel valued,
Speaker:appreciated thanked.
Speaker:Yeah. People say,
Speaker:well, is this kind of underhanded because it's not actually handwritten.
Speaker:Well, how many people do you know that get a Christmas
Speaker:card from the president of the United States?
Speaker:And then they put that Christmas card on their refrigerator.
Speaker:Now every single one of them knows that the president did
Speaker:not actually take the time to sign that note.
Speaker:He didn't,
Speaker:they had a robot do it,
Speaker:or they had a laser printer,
Speaker:but it still meant something to them.
Speaker:Right. Even if they know,
Speaker:well, geez,
Speaker:this company.
Speaker:And I think most people wouldn't know,
Speaker:but even if they do know that the note you sent
Speaker:them, wasn't really written by a person.
Speaker:They do know,
Speaker:at least you took the time to do something,
Speaker:to reach out and thank them for their business or follow
Speaker:up with them or whatever it is.
Speaker:Right. I often joke our solution is when it's almost good
Speaker:enough for the very best kind of like the next tier
Speaker:down, but it still makes a tremendous impact.
Speaker:And to your point,
Speaker:yeah. I mean,
Speaker:a lot of people kind of come to us to send
Speaker:a note to their mom and then they realize,
Speaker:gee, I can use this for my business.
Speaker:And that's how we get them in the door.
Speaker:Yeah. And if you actually plan what you're doing,
Speaker:watch the reactions that you get,
Speaker:and then you see the value of it moving forward.
Speaker:And I think you're exactly right.
Speaker:Yeah. It might not be exactly handwritten,
Speaker:but you already said there are what,
Speaker:24, 25 different scripts.
Speaker:So you can do something that's pretty close.
Speaker:And I think it goes back to,
Speaker:what's your message.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if your message is very rote and sterile,
Speaker:right then yeah.
Speaker:Maybe the card will come across just that same way.
Speaker:But if message is queued and aligns with the wording that
Speaker:you use for your brand,
Speaker:it comes at the right time based on a purchase that
Speaker:you had or totally applies to your situation.
Speaker:I think it can be totally meaningful.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:get people talking forward about your company,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:not only did I buy this great,
Speaker:beautiful necklace,
Speaker:or let's say you're wearing the necklace and someone says,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:that's beautiful.
Speaker:And you could say,
Speaker:yeah, I got it at so-and-so and you know what they
Speaker:did a week afterwards,
Speaker:I got this really nice card in the mail.
Speaker:That's a story connected with your company.
Speaker:And that goes so far in terms of repetitive sales and
Speaker:spreading the word about your brand.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:these things go viral.
Speaker:That vinyl company,
Speaker:I mentioned the record,
Speaker:a lot of people take photos of those cards and post
Speaker:them to Instagram,
Speaker:like, cool.
Speaker:I got a card from vinyl and we have another client.
Speaker:They are a pet chew toy type company.
Speaker:And when it's your pet's birthday,
Speaker:we send a handwritten note to your dog.
Speaker:And we include a little birthday hat,
Speaker:like a little paper hat.
Speaker:It's creating this whole viral thing because then people take pictures
Speaker:of their dogs wearing the birthday hats,
Speaker:holding the notes.
Speaker:And it's just like,
Speaker:people get really cute with this type of stuff.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Yeah. You can be so creative.
Speaker:Yeah. So obviously then you can do multiple versions of cards.
Speaker:We just have to feed you then the list of the
Speaker:people that need,
Speaker:which version every month,
Speaker:or this apps are set up properly.
Speaker:However, that would work.
Speaker:Exactly. We don't have to go into the big tech end
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:I just want people to know the capability.
Speaker:So start brainstorming because this is a great idea.
Speaker:Do you have future plans for handwritten that you can secretly
Speaker:fill us in on?
Speaker:Well, There's a lot.
Speaker:This is a very complicated business.
Speaker:We're doing some things to improve the handwriting even better.
Speaker:We think it's best of like right now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:no two T's look the same two L's look different than
Speaker:individual L's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and that's at the beginning of the word is different than
Speaker:us at the end.
Speaker:Like we randomize all the characters,
Speaker:we do all that and we vary the line spacing and
Speaker:the left margin so that every line doesn't start on the
Speaker:same spot.
Speaker:And two lines are a little closer together than another two
Speaker:lines. We do all that type of stuff,
Speaker:but we don't bend the text or make the words at
Speaker:the beginning of the sentence,
Speaker:larger than the characters at the end of the sentence,
Speaker:we're starting to get into all of that type of stuff.
Speaker:We're also potentially getting into kind of doodles pre-canned doodles.
Speaker:You can add to envelopes and notes.
Speaker:So we already offer emojis if you want to include like
Speaker:hearts and all that stuff,
Speaker:we do that.
Speaker:But if you want to actually put like a little open
Speaker:me picture on the envelope,
Speaker:we're going to be offering that capability too.
Speaker:Just little stuff like that.
Speaker:Then there's a lot going on with just operational efficiencies and
Speaker:QA happening here.
Speaker:And then finally we are getting into more fulfillment.
Speaker:So typically it's non-perishable fulfillment.
Speaker:So we do a lot of books.
Speaker:So if you're an author trying to get your word out
Speaker:on your next book and you want to send 500 books
Speaker:to influencers,
Speaker:we would do that shipment for you.
Speaker:And we'd include a handwritten note to each influencer,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:We're coming out with a new version of our website,
Speaker:but nothing too revolutionary there.
Speaker:Okay. But creativity,
Speaker:abounds, and it sounds like you're expanding on the different things
Speaker:that you'd be able to do on the notes.
Speaker:And that's the most important for us right now.
Speaker:So I love all that.
Speaker:A heart would be on my notes for sure.
Speaker:So I'm glad you brought that up as an example.
Speaker:Yeah. You can absolutely do hearts and smileys and all that
Speaker:because what happened was when we released the iPhone app,
Speaker:people would use their emoji keyboard and just include all of
Speaker:that. Or they would include the sideways,
Speaker:the colon parenthesis face.
Speaker:And then this would translate to a colon parenthesis written on
Speaker:a note,
Speaker:which nobody does.
Speaker:So then we started doing all those little hearts and less
Speaker:than threes and all that stuff.
Speaker:We'd convert those appropriately.
Speaker:And now you can include all those with your notes.
Speaker:Nope. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:That is amazing.
Speaker:I'm guessing you would want people to go and look at
Speaker:the website.
Speaker:Is that the best place online you'd want people to go
Speaker:Handwritten.com and it's H a N D w R Y T
Speaker:T E n.com.
Speaker:So handwritten with a Y.
Speaker:And then if you go there and you click the business
Speaker:tab, you can request a full sample kit sent to you
Speaker:free. You will get a followup from a sales person.
Speaker:So I'm warning you about that,
Speaker:but tell them to buzz off.
Speaker:If you don't want any more conversation with them.
Speaker:And then you can also sign up and use discount code
Speaker:podcast when you sign up.
Speaker:So you can't sign up with Facebook or Google,
Speaker:you have to actually create an account to get that discount
Speaker:code. But when you do that is discount code podcasts,
Speaker:get five bucks in credit,
Speaker:which is enough to send one card to somebody.
Speaker:That sounds amazing.
Speaker:And I think everybody should send one card because you're going
Speaker:to see what this can do for you.
Speaker:You're going to see the reaction that's on your customers' faces,
Speaker:hopefully well faces,
Speaker:or they're going to call you.
Speaker:And thank you.
Speaker:And I loved when you were talking about the social proof
Speaker:people posting on social.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:So just help spread the word because that's what we're always
Speaker:looking for over here is how to get more people knowing
Speaker:about our products,
Speaker:our brand,
Speaker:and handwritten sounds to me like a wonderful way to do
Speaker:it. So,
Speaker:David, thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate you spending time with me today,
Speaker:telling me all the fun stories about handwritten,
Speaker:how it all works.
Speaker:And I am really excited.
Speaker:I'm going to be checking this out for myself for sure.
Speaker:Well, Thank you so much.
Speaker:So it's been a absolute pleasure being on your show.
Speaker:I want to thank David again for giving us an opportunity
Speaker:to send out a card and try handwritten for free.
Speaker:Go to the website,
Speaker:sign up for an account,
Speaker:select a card and message,
Speaker:and then use the discount word podcast.
Speaker:And I'm going to request of you that you use this
Speaker:for business so you can see the true value that it
Speaker:can provide.
Speaker:Take your latest customer or someone who's placed a significant order
Speaker:and send them a thank you.
Speaker:Then watch what happens.
Speaker:I need to tell you right now that you don't want
Speaker:to miss next week's show.
Speaker:It's a maker's story that is as heartwarming as it is
Speaker:informative. Shelly is definitely a role model in the maker industry
Speaker:who takes us into her world and the growth of her
Speaker:very interesting business,
Speaker:who is Shelly.
Speaker:You ask,
Speaker:ah, come back Monday and find out.
Speaker:And finally,
Speaker:if you've enjoyed the show and are feeling generous today,
Speaker:a review over on apple podcasts would be amazing doing that
Speaker:helps the show get seen by more makers.
Speaker:It's a nice way to pay it forward.
Speaker:Did you see the new layout in the apple podcast app?
Speaker:The subscribe button is gone and now to follow a show,
Speaker:you tap on the plus sign in the upper right-hand corner.
Speaker:Just something new to get used to when you follow,
Speaker:you have the benefit of having access to the show before
Speaker:others. So it's definitely worth it follow now.
Speaker:So you're one of the first to find out who Shelly
Speaker:is and now be safe and well.
Speaker:And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz
Speaker:unwrap podcast.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and are a community
Speaker:to support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite post every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
