Boden Appreciation Wears Well

A colleague shared this email from Boden. It's incredibly low-fi when you think about all the glamorous, techy, stuff going on around us, but it underscores the ongoing  yet basic need for strong communications.

The email is a follow-up to an order my colleague placed. Boden wants her to review her recent purchases so it can post them on its site. But unlike most of the post-purchase emails I've ever received, you know, the kind that are as personal as a cash register receipt, this one was compelling enough to get and keep my attention.

The subject line is nice and direct: Review your Boden order and enter our prize draw.

Inside the email there's a note from Johnnie Boden himself. Of course he didn't write the customer a personal note, but his "big hearty thank you" has the spirit and gratitude of a human behind it. (I will point out, regretfully, that the From line was, "cservices@bodenusa.com" and not Johnnie or even Boden.)

The note--and it feels more like a note than an email--playfully asks the customer for her feedback, good or bad. Plus it includes images of the two products she's being asked to review.

Surely this email is auto-generated, but it has the warmth it needs to feel personal and engaging and get consumers to act. Simple, human communications. Sometimes that's all it takes.