The art of automating business communication extends to maximizing attendance with a robotic labor force to repurpose handwritten letters to customers and produce correspondence.
The Handwrytten app is part of an automated CRM tool that lets businesses – and individuals with an entrepreneurial passion – integrate computerized automation with personalized handwritten notes to customers. The result is a new approach to updating one of marketing’s most well-known strategies – the personal letter.
Retailers today have destroyed the effectiveness of thank you notes and personal business letters. Delivered electronically in plain vanilla-typed emails and SMS messages, people have learned to reach for the delete button or send-to-spam response for most retail-related correspondence arriving in their inbox.
The Handwritten Web-based service uses robots to manipulate marketing messages into handwritten polished prose. It helps marketing teams to automate and automate what was once a fine art of letter writing. The Handwrytten app and computer interface let you create professionally designed handwritten notes that are delivered to customers and customers’ postal mailboxes.
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Consumers expect to receive emails, text messages and bulk mailers from companies. They rarely read or pay attention to them regularly. Handwrytten is an effective way for businesses to help their sales and marketing teams to better connect with potential and existing customers.
“People understand the power of a personal note, but no one has the time to sit down and actually take a pen and write. That is why we have created a platform to automate the process from end to end,” says Handwriten. Founder and CEO David Wach said.
Taking advantage of state-of-the-art robotic technology to automate what appears to be impossible to automate. These notes have been proven to deliver incredible and lasting results for our customers, he added.
Fine Arts Revisited
Founded in 2014, Wachs had a vision to bring back handwritten communication in business. He wanted to address an unmet need: to make it easier to send handwritten notes as emails.
To solve this problem, he invested heavily in robotics to build a machine unmatched in handwriting quality and scalability. Their 175+ patented Handwrite robots each autonomously write about 500 notes a day.
image credit: handwritten
The company now makes its own handwriting robots to create more realistic Kalamkari. Each robotic machine monitors its ink level and communicates with tenders via Slack if it jams or runs out of ink.
On a larger scale, the company continues to manufacture more machines to meet the demand. Watch plans to double the machine’s capacity this year.
This 2016 video shows how the company first used off-the-shelf, third-party machines to fulfill orders.
machine maintains human behavior
Handwriting is indistinguishable from actual human handwriting. Robotic hands can produce 23 handwriting styles.
Alternatively, users can upload their own handwriting and signature for a truly personalized style. That option comes with a one-time fee.
Either way, users can choose from over 100 card designs or design their own online. Delivery can include business cards or gift cards from more than 20 popular brands, including Starbucks, Home Depot, Amazon and Visa, which can further foster relationships with customers.
For bulk letter orders, each copy is copied in original, not photocopied from a robot-printed initial letter. (image credit: handwritten)
“Handwriten is the largest and longest running service of its kind. We allow people to visit our website, or use our app integration, and choose a card or design their own. They Also choose a handwriting style and type a message. We then convert the message to handwriting style,” Watches told CRM Buyer.
keeping it real
The company is making several improvements to the robot’s hands to make writing more realistic. The new version of the web app will provide better usability and more features.
Some of the “tricks” built into robotic mechanisms to defy creation by mechanical hands include:
- Randomly use up to 10 copies of each letter in both uppercase and lowercase forms in a note to ensure sufficient variation;
- Capturing unique ligature combinations of handwriting styles (or fonts), such as adding two O’s next to each other, two T’s, or T and H, or O and F;
- Varying the spacing between lines and subtly randomizing this interline spacing, as well as separating the left margin and ensuring that each line starts at a different space, creates more organic-looking writing.
The company is working on fixing its main remaining complaint: straightening out the words. Its updated handwriting engine now twists each line of text to create an even more organic effect.
behind the scenes
When I first discovered the Handwrytten service, I planned to investigate it more as a potential commercial product review. That approach paved the way for more detailed discussions with the company’s driving force, David Wax.
The product reviewer part of me wanted to know more about how the robotic handwriting process allows the customer’s initial typed correspondence to “is this real?” finished product.
Wach declined to reveal specifics about the transformation process. He admitted that he builds, programs and maintains his own robotic machinery for writing notes and mailing them in a large facility in Phoenix.
Primarily a tool for businesses, Handwrytten’s customer base ranges from Fortune 500 corporations to small retailers and consumers. According to Watch, there are currently over 85,000 customers using the platform.
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The company has options for any budget. Pricing starts at $3.25 for sending a handwritten note, with discounts for bulk orders and subscriptions.
All of its cards are available without any contract. The company also offers subscription plans, bulk discounts and prepay options.
Watch also revealed that there are some limitations with the Handwrite app (available for Android and iOS). Apps do not allow user to upload list of contacts. Nor do they currently support signing. But those features are to come.
“Apps also don’t allow for the new prospecting tool, which allows the user to target a demographic or geographic area and blanket the area with handwritten notes,” he said. “The rest of the functionality is the same, though.”
Orders are stamped by first class mail and mailed from the factory. The US Postal Service delivers all mail to the continental US in three to four days. The company also delivers in Canada, the UK and 190 other countries.
marketing tool benefits
As a marketing tool, Handwrytten Notes offers advantages over using in-office CRM software and in-house or commercial printing services. Perhaps most importantly, according to Watches, handwritten notes have a 300% higher open rate than print pieces.
Additionally, handwritten notes have a much higher chance of being considered surprising, while less risk of being considered annoying, he said.
When consumers do not feel appreciated by a brand, handwritten notes have statistically significant potential to improve brand perception and keep consumers coming back and buying more, Wach concluded.