How one SaaS start-up is doing great work, post sign-up.
aka “How personable can one email receipt be?”
For those who haven’t read my last Medium post, How SaaS start-ups are going wrong with growth and on-boarding, here’s a quick recap.
As the founder of a start-up, I’m fascinated at how other start-ups deal with their customers. In my last article, I made the point that most start-ups do a terrible job once they have your money. I want to make sure what we do at 6Q, we keep the relationship going, and ensure a better lifetime value per customer.
So, in this article, let’s examine one start-up that is doing an amazing job of relationship building, post sign-up.
One of the products we use is the awesome social media tool, Buffer. They are doing great things with transparency (like seriously, very transparent) and they have a great tone and voice with everything they do.
I received the below email receipt today, and for someone who doesn’t enjoy spending money, it was the most exciting receipt I have ever received.
Go ahead, check it out for yourself;
How exciting can a receipt get?
I mean, really. It’s just a transactional email on a boring topic, right? Let’s break this email down a little.
This subject line sums everything up, nicely. “Thanks for your payment. You are making Buffer possible! :-)”
Even before opening it, the subject line has made me feel good about myself. So good, in fact, that I opened the email, instead of just letting accounts handle it.
Sure, it’s only $50 we paid, but that’s not the point; all those $50 add up to the funding that allows Buffer to do great stuff.
They go on to include a link to the ‘official (boring) receipt’ and they even include a smiley face. :)
A smiley face in a receipt — what?
Below is the best part; they included a team picture of the team at their recent Sydney team retreat. I don’t know if one of them said ‘Hey, let’s take this photo to make our receipts the most awesome ever, and perhaps someone will write a Medium post about it!” but they may as well have. The picture is introduced with this great line;
“Here is a picture from our last work-retreat in Sydney, where we all gathered from around the world”.
Now, whilst I believe they should really have at least visited Perth (we regularly have international visitors to our office; if you plan on stopping past the other side of Australia, let me know!) I loved the fact they visit faraway lands, including ‘down under’ for their team retreats, twice a year.
In fact, I am proud that my $50 went towards helping Buffer get their remote team together in one location. They are providing us with a great product, and we’re happy to pay for it, and now I am happier than ever to pay, given we know we are supporting good people doing good things.
Their copy tone is so spot on, so much better than the standard “robotic copywriter machine” regurgitated receipt. Here’s another example of personality, coupled with the subtle suggestion they do great things…
“Ok, we’ll get back to building great things for you now! If you have any questions or suggestions at all, just hit reply to this email and say hello, we love hearing from you!”
How approachable do they sound? Even more approachable is below that line, the founder, Joel, has a pic of himself, and then they throw in a PS — into a receipt…
“P.S. We’re always around and love hearing from you. Please get in touch if you want to ask something or even just to say hello :)”
Yep, I very nearly did just reply to this email, to just say hello.
That’s one hot looking receipt.
When was the last time you saw a receipt this good looking and personable? It was so incredibly good, I spent this time writing this Medium post about it.
Take note, fellow start-ups, here’s the new receipt copywriting and design benchmark to aim for.
Want more articles like this? It’d be awesome if you pressed the old ‘Recommend’ button below, and maybe share it with your colleagues on social media, or print it out for your grandma.
If you want my eternal gratitude, maybe check out my humble start-up, (go ahead, sign-up and judge our emails! :)).
