David Wachs, the founder and CEO of Handwrytten

Handwritten notes are becoming less common, but they still have a personal touch. Handwritten, a company founded by David Wax, uses AI to automate the process of writing personalized notes. Handwritten notes are more likely to be opened and read compared to printed or digital communication. Nonprofits are starting to use Handwritten to improve donor retention. AI is also used to improve the quality and appearance of the handwritten notes. Overall, AI technology enhances the personalization and efficiency of handwritten communication. To learn more, visit the Handwritten website and watch their YouTube videos. Handwritten notes used to be a common practice back in the day, but now it's usually reserved for holidays or birthdays And and even then we sometimes just sign our name to a card and don't write anything else You know, thank you notes, unfortunately, which are such a nice personal thing have really become extinct for many people So we're kind of out of practice for doing this and we've been talking a lot about the impact that AI and artificial intelligence Have in so many different aspects of our lives here my guest who's joining me here at the RNJ morning program CEO and founder of a company called handwritten and It's a nice way to kind of bring back that personal touch while at the same time using the latest in AI Technology and we have David Wax who is the founder and CEO joining me here at the RNJ morning program, David Good morning. It's Burt Baron WRNJ radio in New Jersey. How you doing? Great Bert. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me I love so much what you're doing because it's cutting-edge technology It gives people the latest tools in the toolbox if you will for communication purposes but at the same time it has a very intimate and a very personal feel because it's it's sort of bridging a gap and and Getting away from very intimate one-to-one communications which I think as a people we're getting further and further away from David and I like to be able to connect with people on a one-to-one level. I started handwritten back in 2014 so I've been doing this for nine years now We are the largest and oldest provider of robotic handwritten notes, which is a very small niche but the reason I started the company is prior to 2014 I had another company that did text messages and we did text messages for you know some big brands like Abercrombie & Fitch and Toys R Us and some big retailers and Chicago Tribune and what I realized with that was that I was actually becoming part of the noise you know, there's Everybody gets over a hundred emails a day and they spend the average office worker spends about 25% of their day just managing their email inbox and then when you add in the text including the text we did and The tweets and the slack and the Facebook and everything else It's really as I'm sure you might you probably feel too it's it's overwhelming but what really stands out is when you receive a handwritten note and I'd have them on my desk in my last job and I'd keep them and then I'd walk around to my employees and they'd Have handwritten notes on their bookshelves behind them or whatever So not only were they opened and read but they were put on display So I thought you know being an engineer that's too lazy to do it himself there has to be a way to automate this and that's kind of what we've been doing for the last nine years and You know to your point on AI and robotics Yeah, I mean we I'm happy to get into details but there's a lot of AI that goes into this to make the notes look real and then also to ensure the Quality assurance that we put the right note in the right envelope and goes to the right person Yeah, this is really a great idea and around the office around here David. It's the same thing I'll get people that will send me cards, you know, thank you cards They want a prize for me at some point and they just want to take a moment and send me a quick little thank-you note Or something. I do the same thing. I display it by my desk I show people like look at this letter that I got from somebody It's really a special thing and and what you're doing I think it really you keep the human element involved in this which I think is so important and Maybe the technology that comes in maybe helps you kind of guide and formulate where you want to go I do a lot of writing when I'm not on the air and doing other things I write for a lot of different sources and things but what you're doing You keep the intimacy there, but it's like having someone like like right there with you giving some ideas Giving you some suggestions and just kind of keeping the dialogue going and for anybody listening, you know Maybe you do work in the in the nonprofit world and you rely on donations and contributions from people When you get back to them something that's personal from you that goes such a long way and you probably also hear David from people that are in the do thank-you notes Maybe for people that do fundraising and whatnot when you send a personal. Thank you back to somebody They are so more likely to give money again in the future. So it works out real well that way, too You nailed it. Our big thing is working with Organizations businesses and nonprofits and in the nonprofit space 1000% to your point the biggest one of the biggest challenges organizations are facing is Redonation, which is often well below 50% so for every person that donates once, you know, good luck getting them to donate again, right? The reason when these donors are asked why they didn't give again The number one reason is they don't feel thanked and that could be for a lot of reasons that could be Simply you didn't thank them, you know, which is the worst of all But then it could also be that you sent them an email that they disregarded as spam They didn't open or they just totally discounted and it didn't feel you know Authentic enough to feel appreciated or you sent them a print piece and they threw that away because again, they didn't open it They thought it was a another request for donation But handwritten notes get opened 300% more likely or three times more likely than printed envelopes and then they get read so you have a much higher likelihood of Having your donor or your customer? Open and read the note than a print piece or an email and for those reasons Nonprofits are really starting to get on board and use us and it's a it's we have people dedicated just to serving Nonprofits because it's such an important vertical. Oh, that's great to hear My guest this morning here at the RNJ morning program is the founder and CEO of handwritten And we're talking about some things that he's doing with his company here How AI is playing a role in some personal handwritten communication and it really just goes a long way David if somebody's going to get some boilerplate. Thank you versus something that has a rather personal feel to it It really just goes so much further I talked to a lot of people on this program here David from various walks of life. I talked to people that are dentists We have people who are foot doctors that will come in and do special segments with me now and then and they all tell me How AI makes their job not easier, but it makes it better. It makes their level of service to their customers better They can look at x-rays and things are detected that maybe they their human eye might not detect and maybe even things that Early development of things like cancers and things like that and it's saving lives AI is doing that and all you hear about is how well AI is that they're taking over AI is going to eliminate the need for people to do things I think as long as if people in AI not to borrow a phrase here just stay in their lane I think it's going to be great for everybody and that was probably your intention when you launch this company yeah, well when we launched we didn't even really use AI but Recently we've we've incorporated it and it's only made everything better. So let me give you some examples When we started we always wanted to provide a way for people to have starting points for writing their notes You know, like I don't know what to write in a thank-you card Give me some ideas and we have a list of pre-templated five or six Templates they can use they don't start from scratch on what to write in the card Now as of I think just six or eight months ago We incorporated chat GPT. So now they can say, you know Thank Aunt Dora for sending me the flowers or whatever and then it will write a beautiful note you know from you to aunt Dora thanking her for the flowers and It's much more personalized than just starting with the template So we went from five or six templates to really infinite template and then you know We have a lot of programmers around here and one of my programmers put it best because he's now using AI to do his coding and I We use a tool called Github copilot and I said, what do you think after he played with it for a few days? He said, you know, it's like moving from a screwdriver to a power drill Because he still has to do the programming but it allows him to do it that much faster with that You know many fewer mistakes. It's really helped him in his job. So, you know, it's it's one of these things. That's You know, the only thing worse than then Fearing changes is you know getting ready for obsolescence, right? like you have to you have to you have to deal with the change because it's coming no matter what and Yeah, I mean those are those are just two examples Then we also use AI to actually make our notes look better and the letters look different and all that but those are really nuances but but the big changes I would say are kind of the the content generation on its own, which is just baffling and then You know, and I don't take credit for that. That's chat GPT But then using that also internally to help us develop our system Really amazing the differences that are being made right now as we speak Thanks to the work of handwritten anyone that may be in the in the nonprofit world or maybe just wants to be better and the written communication arena David how did they get some more information and see what handwritten is all about? Yeah, please visit handwritten comm h and the WR y Ttn comm so handwritten with a why there is a if you click the business tab at the top You can request all sorts of free samples And and see for yourself if this passes muster and and if you think would be a good thing to do And then at the bottom of that page, there's a link to our YouTube and you can watch videos specifically for Nonprofits or Realtors another large group that uses us, etc So, you know It's it's the one interesting part is our service is kind of universal and anybody can kind of benefit from a handwritten note And we've worked with a lot of different types of verticals. So please give us a call Send us an email and we'd be happy to talk about your use. All right Well, we'll be sure to check that out. Definitely and I'll give you a personal on-the-air. Thank you for your time today, David That certainly means a lot to join us here We have been trying to get this segment together literally since the end of March So I'm glad that we were able to kind of come together today and and get the word out about handwritten So thank you again so much for you're doing. It's really revolutionary stuff that you're you're making happen here, and it's greatly appreciated So thank you again for the time and have a terrific weekend you as well and thanks so much for being on your show This is this is awesome