Thank You Cards

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Last year I had the idea of sending hand written thank you notes to every first time customer in order to add some humanity to the on-line order process. I started with just the USA and then expanded to international customers a few months ago. Hopefully many of you have received them. My first order of cards was from an on-line digital postcard company. I just ran out, so that means 2,000 cards have gone out so far!

Volume has increased dramatically due to the 3D Edition, and it is tempting to further automate or scale back the thank you card production. But then I thought, more volume should equal more thankfulness... Why not do the opposite?

To make the cards even more special to receive, the next 4,000 cards we are going to be hand printed cards with a Gocco printer. A few weeks ago I received three Gocco printers that I ordered from Japan. I've commissioned a very exciting artist from Istanbul / Turkey named Engin Korkmaz to design the postcards and I'm building a network of crafty friends and family members to help with the printing process.

One big challenge was finding a good paper that would have a high quality feel, work with an offset printer (for the return address), work with my laser printer (for the "to" address), work with the Gocco printer, and also with my fountain pen. After several frustrating failures, I found Kelly Paper who's great sales people were able to help me find some options that met all the criteria.

With any luck, everything will come together and the new cards should start going out next week. By the way, I love this kind of stuff and am very grateful for everyone who has supported Bee Documents over the past few years and made it possible for me to have the kind of business where I can pursue all my crazy ideas.

If you are interested in Gocco printing, be sure to search Google, YouTube, and Flickr for more information. Here is a video I found on YouTube of the Gocco in action: