CES 2024: This Letter-Writing Robot Can Help You Handle
Delicate Customer Outreach. Handwrytten's founder says that his robotically penned letters have a 300 percent greater chance of being opened when compared to traditional print cards.
BY BEN SHERRY, STAFF REPORTER@BENLUCASSHERRY
It's easier than ever to impress your clients by sending hand-written notes at scale, all without ever having to pick up a pen.
According to David Wachs, founder and CEO of Arizona-based company Handwrytten, which uses a fleet of robotic arms to "hand-write" personalized letters en masse, handwritten notes have a 300 percent greater open rate compared to traditional print cards, and recipients are 27 times more likely to send a response. The problem, of course, is that writing letters can be a dull, tedious process, especially when writing letters in bulk.
Wachs founded Handwrytten in 2014 with a suspicion that if he could "make it as easy to send a handwritten note as it is to send an email," he could tap into a huge market of people looking to add a personal touch to their correspondence without actually doing the work themselves, and his success in the decade since has proved out that theory: The company has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list three times, in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Here's how it works: Users choose a card, write their message, and choose from a selection of around 40 handwriting styles, which were created by collecting writing samples from the company's employees. And, if you don't have a way with words, the company recently introduced a ChatGPT-powered copywriting assistant, so you can type in a prompt like "write a note to Aunt Betsy thanking her for my new sweater" and get an unlimited number of options.
Handwrytten usually generates around 10,000 customized cards per-day, but over the 2023 Christmas season, Wachs says that number doubled to 20,000. Surprisingly, Wachs claims that some of his biggest clients are veterinary clinics, which often send "hand-written" condolence cards when a pet passes on. "We send 20,000 to 30,000 notes a month just for dead pets," says Wachs.
As for what's next, Wachs says that the company is working on an A.I.-powered system that will allow its robots to mimic anyone's handwriting style. If you're alright with paying $1,000, the Handwrytten team can manually digitize your handwriting, but Wachs says that's a feature mainly used by celebrities.
Photo: Courtesy Company.
