Classic Thanks – Building Connections Through Handwriting

13 thoughts on “Classic Thanks – Building Connections Through Handwriting”

1. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?
   The conceptualization is novel and the site looks attractive.
   What’s your favorite page and why?

   My favorite page is the ‘samples’ page. It exudes simplicity. It shows exactly what a customer is looking for.  I like the high resolution pictures and writing styles.

   What’s your least favorite page and why?

   The ‘log in’ page. The page is too plain and empty form me. It could have included more relevant information about the site Or this could be incorporated on the ‘send cards’ . this page currently looks unfinished according to me. 

   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?

   This depends on the kind of business a person is running. For me , i’d love to be an yearly subscriber. I have to keep up my correspondence with my  customers. This would be a wonderful way to do it.

   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?

   Yes. These tell me exactly how they would end up looking. They are very easy and fun to work with. I also liked the variety of styles. 

   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

   I can’t think of any negative points about the site as such. The most difficult part was going through the home page. The page has a lot of information and looks cluttered. The layout could also be worked on a little more. Otherwise i would like to use this site very much. good job

2. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?

   What a great website to have handwritten letters done.

   How would you use this service?

   Yes, I would I have terrible handwriting, such a service would be invaluable to individuals such as myself.

   What’s your favorite page and why?

   The samples page, because its shows you type of different services that are provided.  You also get to look at the type of samples of the work that is done.

   What’s your least favorite page and why?

   I think my least favorite is wanting to go to a page such as anytime notes, and being told that you have to login to go any further.  Yes, this maybe a member area, but it would of been nice to have a general introduction to this area that anyone can access.

   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?\

   If I were to sign up for the service, I might consider a yearly subscription, because your prices are so economical.  However, this would also factor into how often I would use this service, if its occasionally, then maybe just paying the one time fee for an individual note would be more practical.

   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?

   The templates are good examples of what type of service that will be provided, and yes I did find them to be helpful.

   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

   Since I didn’t actually sign up I couldn’t judge all the perimeters of the website, but from what I was able to determine the website if pretty easy to navigate and use.

3. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?
   Your site assist companies in thanking their loyal customers with handwritten personalized notes.

   I must say that I was a little thrown off by your companies purpose. Meaning on one hand you talk about customer appreciation but at at the bottom of your page your mention sending cards to  customers, clients, and friends. I think that you need to reword the description secition to make it more of a universal appeal. I was under the impression that this was just from business to customers. That can be a little confusing.
   How would you use this service?
   If I was a small company with not to many customers I would probably not use this service. On the other hand if I had alot of interaction with customers on a wide range basis then this service might appeal to one. Especially because it has so a personal touch being that the notes are handwritten.
   What’s your favorite page and why?
   My favorite page was the sample page because I was able to see exactly what your company could. Everyone like to see what they are paying for before they but it.
   What’s your least favorite page and why?
   My least favorite was unfortunately the homepage. It really lacked luster and appeal. I would have liked to see some testimonials, bigger font and just an overall smaller homepage. I would have to see some pictures of happy people, nice colors like reds, blues and green. Your homepage could have  had one of your card borders and looked overall like on of your notes. You could have added an engaging video  where some is receiving a card. Your page is white washed it really lacks the personal touch that your is supposed to give.
   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?
   I am a little confused as to why I have to pay $9.99 for a year and still have to pay $4.99 per card send. What exactly is the 9.99 going towards to make the prices of cards reduced by 2 dollars. Again if I was a frquent card giver this might appeal to me. Does your site offer bulk prices for someone who is not a member? Meaning if I wanted to send 100 cards to my recent wedding guest would the cards still be 6.99 each. Someone may not find it necessary to sign up for a year service for a one time bulk order.

   Even though I find your service very thoughtfull and different some might think it’s a little pricey. One can pay a company a really nice price to have nice notes sent with a really pretty font. In saying this your company needs to push hard and really motivate me to see why I should by one of your cards.
   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?
   Yes the templates were fine.

   Nothing the site seems pretty straigt forward.

   What is the reason for having to types of address entries. It seems that is overall faster for someone to just type everything out without having to tabs to differnt fields. I would consider just having one way to type everything in.
   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

4. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?
   

   This site appears to be about sending a letter or some sort of thank you message originating electronically and translating into an actual thank you note.

   How would you use this service?
   

   I think it is a novel idea, but I personally would not pay 4.99 to have someone else handwrite a note for me. I can do that myself and save the money. But should I use the service, I would use it as you described – come up with a message and employ you to send it for me. The question is either too vague or I don’t understand what you are looking for here.

   What’s your favorite page and why?
   

   I’ll answer this in other suggestions section.

   What’s your least favorite page and why?
   

   I’ll answer this in other suggestions section.

   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?
   

   No I would not be a subscriber because I don’t have money in my budget for this type of service.

   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?
   

   Yes, templates are always good.

   What was the most difficult part about using the site?
   

   No difficulty in using your site.

   Other suggestions:
   1. When I get on your site, it seems to be 5 pages that would be included in your website, but I do not see a true homepage. The landing page I start on answers questions, and describes your service, but it seems too much like an “About our service” page. Plus, as a matter of usability, businesses rarely list prices on the homepage. The homepage is reserved for selling and should tell me how great your service is. Then, once I am built up by all of the positive things you offer, the prices should be on a pricing page. You have the prices on the “Send a Card” page, which is ok.

   2. Earlier questions ask me what is my least favorite page and most favorite page. These questions seem irrelevant because from a usability point of view, all pages you publish on your website should have a purpose and meaning. If they are meaningless, they should not be there. That being said, I cannot judge which page I like the most or least because they all seem comparatively the same, other than they are each serving their own purpose.

   3. I do not understand the placing of a “Log in” page 4 back on the navigation pane. Log in would seem more natural on the true homepage and you are then logged in for all of the pages. Or there should be no log in needed, and allow the user to just pay when they are done writing the message.

   4. Typically a contact us form would have its own page or be on an about us page. Did not expect to see it on the FAQ page. But I did see the contact us link at the bottom of the homepage.

5. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?

   While Im not a fan of the red logo that appears conceptually the homepage is good, however it does seem like its missing something
   
   How would you use this service?
   Appreciation is hard to come by these days. A handwritten card has a warmer feel than an e-card or a thank you on twitter. This service could be used to show customers, employees, family and friends how much you truely care and how valuable they really are to you. Also a handwritten card for someones graduation to tell them how proud you are or a card to a long distance relative saying you miss them is a nice gesture.
   

   What’s your favorite page and why?
   The samples page is my favorite because it shows you what the service does. Providing a description of your services is great but showing pictures of actual cards and the handwriting was a good touch.
   

   What’s your least favorite page and why?

   The homepage is my least favorite page because it seems to be missing something. The cost of the services should be reserved for the Send a Card page. You should think about putting customer feedback, comments or testimonials on this page since this is the first thing people see when visiting your site. The font should also be a little bigger on some of the descriptions about your service.
   
   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?
   I could see large business owners being yearly subscribers because it would take to much time, effort and money to send out personal cards, however other then that I don’t see a point in being a yearly subscriber. The average person wouldn’t send out enough cards to make a yearly subscription necessary.

   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?
   The address template was no more than an excel spreadsheet with numbers. I would rather use my own then key info into that. The message template would not pull up so I’m not sure what that template looks like. Providing a template for your customers is a good idea however.

   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

   There was nothing difficult about this site at all.

6. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?

   In one sentence, i think you are providing handwritten thanks cards,notes.

   How would you use this service?
   signup for a yearly membership and then 5$ for each thank card.This is what i got when i read the rest of the site and then price 9.99$ is for the year 2011-12. And again, a non member can also get a thanks card for a lil higher price.

   What’s your favorite page and why?

   The samples page, unfortunately there are not much samples.We’d like to see more samples so that we can choose from them.

   What’s your least favorite page and why?

   The home page, coz its little clumsy.

   >there are a lot of informations on the home page.

   >signup is in the bottom, that may be placed on somewhre on the top.

   >the samples shown on the home page is not clear,you may use more clear pictures.

   >send CT, a new user may not be much familiar with your abbrevation.

   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?

   Probably be a yearly subsriber because i need to send more notes,but i guess if you lower the individual note charge a lil,people may be interested in that.

   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?

   Yes, but there are no much options i guess.

   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

   Actually the signup,number one, its not seen on the top, number two, its like a two stage signup,we go to membership page and then subscribe.Its better if you can make this in a single page.

7. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?
   It provides handwritten thank-you cards to business customers.
    
   How would you use this service?
   Personally, I wouldn’t.. If I was going to send handwritten thank-you notes to customers, I could do it myself for a lot less money. But I understand that the purpose of the service is to keep in touch with and express appreciation for customers with a personal touch.
    
   What’s your favorite page and why?
   I like the “Samples” page best because I actually get to view the notes. The large photos are attractive and look professional. However, I would suggest that you add forward and backward arrow buttons so that users can more easily move through the slideshow instead of clicking individually on each picture.
    
   What’s your least favorite page and why?
   Probably the “Send A Card” page because there’s not very much to it. Then I have to click “Online Form – Send a Card,” which is another step. Why not just put the form right on the page below the pricing? (Note: The second time I went back and looked at it, the form actually did load beneath the pricing. Not sure why this didn’t happen the first time.)
    
   Another page I’m not that fond of is your home page. I’ll get into more detail about that below.
    
   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?
   As I understand it, subscribers pay $9.99 a year to get notes sent out for $4.99 a note. Non-subscribers pay $6.99 a note. Unless I was going to send out just one or two notes a year, the subscription plan is really the only thing that makes sense. I’d very quickly recoup the additional money spent on the subscription.
    
   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?
   There are? I didn’t see these. I saw eight boxes with various fields to complete. The fields didn’t look difficult to fill out, and I like that you can preview the various handwriting and stationary styles.
    
   What was the most difficult part about using the site?
   There wasn’t anything difficult about it. Everything was easy to understand.
    
   You didn’t ask for additional feedback, but I thought I’d go ahead and give you some general comments on the site.
   Let’s start with the home page. Now here’s a real problem. The goal of your site is to help people personalize communication with their customers. But your home page looks anything but personal. More to the point, it looks like a generic template. The header looks like something you downloaded, and right below it is a series of screenshots that make it look like this is some kind of software app. What you need to do, I think, is get an actual designer to set up a site that has a charming, personal, maybe somewhat antiquated feel. I could see a home page with wallpaper that looks like parchment or stationary or something like that and a little quill pen logo. Maybe a graphic of a mailbox, open and holding envelopes or something similarly cute. Replace the screenshots with one or more images of your beautiful handwritten notes, maybe even as a slideshow. Why are you making visitors click the “Samples” page before they even get a taste of what you offer? You could also stand to rearrange your navbar. The current arrangement isn’t that intuitive. Eyes read left to right. Why would someone want to send a card before viewing samples? I’d suggest the following order: “Home,” “Samples,” “FAQ,” “Send a Card,” “Log in.” If you add the pages I hope you’ll add (more on that below), then the order should be: “Home,” “Why Classic Thanks?,” “Samples,” “FAQ,” “Pricing,” “Send a Card,” “Subscribe/Log in,” “Contact.”
    
   Regarding the home page copy, right now there’s just too much of it. Your intro paragraph is ok, though it would be even better if you broke it up into bulleted points. (That’s just easier on the eyes.) However, your next section should really be on a page of its own, maybe titled “Why Classic Thanks?” or something similar. Alternately, if you can condense all that info into just a few short points, you could leave it on the home page under a header such as “Why Thank-you Notes?” (Note that the current header is really too long.) Your next section, “Here’s why you should use Classic Thanks,” is blank. What’s up with that? You should add some copy and also move this to a “Why Classic Thanks?” page. Finally, you have pricing info. Not so great for the home page. Keep this under “Send a Card,” or if you feel that page is getting too long, create a separate pricing page for this stuff.
    
   Already commented on “Send a Card” and “Samples.”
    
   “FAQ” looks good. The only problem I see with this page is a minor spacing issue under “How does this service work?” Notice the extra double space between paragraphs. Also, I’d like to see some info about payment methods you accept and whether you have any kind of money-back policy for yearly subscribers who wish to cancel before the year is up. And do you autorenew?
    
   Your “Subscribe” page is available only as a tiny link from the bottom of the home page. That makes it way too easy to miss. It should really be up top. When I click on it, it takes me to the “Log in” page, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to subscribe as a new user.
    
   Your “Contact Us” page is also hidden via a tiny link at the bottom of the home page. Again, this should be up in the navbar. When I click on it, it redirects to “FAQ.” There is indeed a contact form here, but I have to scroll down to find it. If I clicked “Contact Us” in hopes of finding a contact form, I might assume I had landed on this page by mistake. I’d suggest creating a separate “Contact Us” page.
    
   Overall impression? This might be a nice idea for a very busy professional or small business with 50 or more cards to send per year. It could also work well for a bride faced with a year of shower, rehearsal dinner, bachelorette, and wedding thank-you cards ahead of her. However, I don’t think this would be worth it for someone who wanted to send less than 50 cards a year. Your cards look attractive but not like anything I couldn’t do myself for the cost of a note card and a stamp.

   You say you work with a professional calligrapher. I’d love to see a wider range of style choices, and I’m rather surprised that you don’t already offer that considering that most pro calligraphers are adept at multiple styles. Give me the option of Italic calligraphy or Gothic Blackletter or other styles I can’t do easily myself.

   Although your service is supposed to help people save time, they still have to compose the message, type out all the addresses, etc., so I don’t know how much of a time saver it really is. At the very least, you might want to offer users a choice of standardized messages so they don’t have to waste time composing greetings themselves.
    
   Finally, the site itself is easy to understand, but I don’t think it really sells your product right now. It needs a more personal touch for a personal product.

8. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page.

   In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?

   This site helps anyone who owns or runs a business show their customers how much each customer is valued and appreciated.

   How would you use this service?

   I would send cards for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, job promotions as well as thank yous for my customers’ business.

   What’s your favorite page and why?

   My favorite page by far is the send a card page.  This page gives all of the information a user would need from price, to types of stationary and handwriting.  It is informative with a great layout that is easy to use.

   What’s your least favorite page and why?

   The log in page is too plain and there is too much space left unused.  Maybe some supplemental links to other parts of the site or other sites would be helpful

   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?

   I would be a yearly subscriber for two reasons:  it isn’t that expensive and I believe the art of actually hand writing and mailing notes has been overlooked and forgotten.  The yearly expense will pay for itself in return business.

   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?

   The excel address form would be helpful to many users in keeping track of what they had sent. The template for the stationary wasn’t necessarily helpful as I am not the one writing the note.  I can just as easily go by how many sentences the samples have to know how much space it will take.
    

   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

   I found having to download the templates somewhat annoying.  It would be nice/helpful to many to have the sample page expanded to more choices of actual samples using every possible font and color of ink.

9. Visit https://www.classicthanks.com. Spend no more than 5-10 seconds on the home page. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?
   The site is about proving businesses with a easy way to send hand written thank you cards.

   How would you use this service?
   Sorry, I would not use this service.
   What’s your favorite page and why?
   The best page on the whole site is in the sample menu. It the page that talks about tree free cards. Why is this page the first time I am seeing this information?  Why is it the only place I see this info.?
   What’s your least favorite page and why?
   The home page for several reasons. First if your all about hand written notes and calligraphy why is the Classic Thanks building connections in regular font? Second the graphic on the right side don’t inspire me at all. The look boring and complicated. Third when you click on the check out our membership page link it forces you to join to get more information. I never use websites that do this. I always think they are hiding something. This site is no different.
   Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?
   I would not do either.
   There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?
   Yes, they were helpful in showing the different options available.
   What was the most difficult part about using the site?

   Nothing was difficult just very annoyed that I have to join to get the information I want.

10. In one sentence, what do you think the site is about?

    Sending individual note via snail mail with cursive font to customers (or others).

    How would you use this service?

    Not really, because I’ve yet to see where those cursive fonts actually look like handwriting.

    What’s your favorite page and why?

    Tried downloading the example (word) and the logo for Classic Thanks was pretty nice.

    What’s your least favorite page and why?

    No least favorite but I had trouble getting enthusiastic about the concept.

    Would you be a yearly subscriber or would you send out individual notes?

    Neither, I would either literally handwrite (Wedding) or just use regular computer generated letters (can do my own cursive with word) than for business.

    There are composition and organization templates in the bulk send-a-card form. Did you find these to be helpful?

    I tried it and only saw the first page (which showed logo) but it didn’t look too bad.  Didn’t look handwritten though.

    What was the most difficult part about using the site?

    It wasn’t difficult to use (although I don’t have excel so I didn’t even open that up) but it didn’t have me thinking about practice uses for it.

11. $5 awarded to ro.kr44.

12. $5 awarded to Latasha.

13. $5 awarded to greatfeedback4u.

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