Handwritten thank you notes increase sales

Give a note thanking customers for their purchase. They must be handwritten, but photocopies work just as well as originals. In experiments, they increased future customers spending 2x.

Topics: Ecommerce | Customer Experience
For: B2C, B2B Friendly
Research date: July 2022
Universities: Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland & School of Business, Yonsei University

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šŸ“ Intro

When people buy from you online, human contact is minimal.

But weā€™ve seen before that there are many benefits to humanizing your business, such as higher sales and customer satisfaction.

Today we look at a new way to do that.

And itā€™s incredibly easy and effective.

šŸ“ˆ Recommendation

Give customers a high-quality copy of a handwritten note to thank them for their purchase.

They will be more likely to buy from you again.

Donā€™t combine it with a discount or other promotions, or the positive effect disappears.

šŸŽ“ Findings

  • A handwritten thank you note - or a photocopy of one - increases future customer spending.

  • This study focused on notes in ecommerce deliveries, but previous research suggests the effect extends to service context too (e.g. hotels, restaurants).

  • The positive effect:

    • Only works on customers with some feeling of loyalty towards the brand

    • Reduces or disappears if given at the same time as a free gift (e.g. a free product sample) or a discount coupon for future purchases

  • An experiment with a South Korean online beauty retailer tested different types of notes on 1,232 customers, then analyzed their future spending. People that received:

    • No note, spent $25.97

    • A photocopy of a handwritten note, spent $52.07 - double the amount

    • An original handwritten note, spent similar to those that received a photocopy

    • A machine-written note (in Malgun Gothic font, similar to Calibri), spent similar to those that did not receive one

Customers that received a photocopy of a handwritten note spent 100.5% more than those that received no note

šŸ§  Why it works

  • Handwritten notes are a human touch that make us feel that the company is warm, caring, and sincere. So we are more likely to buy from it again.

  • A discount offer or a free sample are obvious incentives to get us to buy again. These contrast with the warmth of a handwritten note, so they reduce the effect.

  • When we feel closer (and loyal) to a brand, we appreciate warmth from them more, so a handwritten note has a much stronger effect.

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āœ‹ Limitations

  • Notes in this study were not personalized (they used ā€œDear customerā€). Personalizing notes with the customerā€™s name could increase the effectiveness of handwritten notes.

  • Itā€™s unclear whether and how the effect changes once customers expect a handwritten note. For example, because they received one in a previous order or they know the company always sends one to customers.

  • The study only tested beauty products, which are highly hedonic and emotion-related. The effect may be different for utilitarian products (e.g. a screwdriver).

  • The experiments used short notes (3-5 lines). Itā€™s unclear if more detailed notes (e.g. describing the productā€™s origins) would add to the effect or detract from it because they become too long.

  • Does a picture of a handwritten note shared digitally (such as the one I wrote below) have a similar effect? What about a thank you message on a website that is written in a handwritten-like font? We donā€™t have direct answers to these questions from this study, but they may be worth testing.

šŸ¢ Companies using this

  • The vast majority of companies donā€™t use handwritten notes.

  • There are a few exceptions, mainly in the luxury and fashion world.

Audrey Leighton includes a note with a handwritten-like font when sending orders. Itā€™s unclear if it has the same effect as a purely handwritten note. They also scent their packaging, which as weā€™ve seen before is a smart technique.

āš” Steps to implement

  • Personally write a note or find someone with a nice and readable handwriting to write it.

  • Thank the customer for buying from you and wish them well with using your product.

  • Photocopy the note in high quality so that it looks and feels as if itā€™s an original.

  • If your customers regularly repeat buy from you, consider writing different versions of the note and rotating them to keep things fresh.

  • Remember that you can also use handwritten-like fonts on your packaging, website, or ads to increase sales - if your product is hedonic.

My personal thank you note to you (pardon my handwriting)

šŸ” Study type

Online experiment and field experiment (on 1,232 customers of a South Korean online retailer between February 21 and February 28, 2017)

šŸ“– Research

Do Handwritten Notes Benefit Online Retailers? A Field Experiment. Journal of Interactive Marketing (July 2022).

šŸ« Researchers

  • Sanghwa Kim. Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.

  • Jeonghye Choi. School of Business, Yonsei University.

  • Seung Hyun Kim. School of Business, Yonsei University.

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (thatā€™s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If itā€™s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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