Please give feedback - First Time Customer note...

[Wayne 962]

Hi all. In the never-ending quest to improve Pelican, our Customer Service team came up with the idea to give our 1st time customers a welcome letter, and a small tin of Jelly Beans as a welcome gift (with Pelican Parts written on the front of the tin). I have a draft of the welcome letter, I would like your feedback on it.

Thanks for all your help in advance.

Wayne

Hello there. As CEO of Pelican Parts, I would like to formally welcome you to the Pelican family. Over here at Pelican, we're car nuts just like you. I founded the company in my garage many years ago because I wasn't happy with the choices of parts vendors out there, and I thought that we could set a new standard of excellence in the industry. Ten years later, I'm happy to report that we're still growing strong and gaining new customers daily.

If you haven't found them already, you might want to check out the most interesting areas of our PelicanParts.com website. The technical articles section contains hundreds of Do-It-Yourself write-ups on everything from the installation of new headlamps to the complete replacement of your manual transmission clutch. Our forums are visited by more than 20,000 people each day, with thousands of them eager and willing to help out fellow car enthusiasts when they run into a perplexing problem or attempt a difficult task for the first time. In addition, our Photo Gallery contains more than 50,000 photos of classic Porsches and BMWs from the various events that we've attended over the past 10 years.

The shining jewel in our Pelican crown is our parts catalog, which is the most comprehensive Porsche & BMW catalog on the planet. With more than a million individual part numbers, we have just about everything you could possibly need for your car. Trying to find a hard-to-locate OEM part? Simply enter it into our search engine, and our servers here will hunt it down for you - we offer the full OEM parts listings for all BMW and Porsche dealer-only parts. And starting in 2005 we began to offer same-day shipping and FREE freight on the most common replacement items in our catalog.

We realize that there are a lot of choices out there when it comes to where you purchase parts for your "baby". That is why we've backed up our extensive catalog with the best-in-industry Customer Service. If you ever have a problem, question or concern regarding your order or the parts you've purchased for your car, don't hesitate to call us on our toll-free number (1-888-280-7799), or simply send us a message through our message center available from the "Help" link shown on every page of the website.

Thank you again for your first Pelican order, and I hope we can serve you well into the future.

-Wayne

P.S. If you haven't already seen them, you might want to check out the books I've written specifically for our customers: "101 Projects for Your Porsche 911", "101 Projects for Your BMW 3-Series", "How to Rebuild & Modify Porsche 911 Engines", and "101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster / 996" (Coming 2009).

[Wayne 962]

[Wayne 962]

Actual artwork:

[Joeaksa]

No red or green jelly beans?

Good idea and will make them smile when it arrives!

Why are you still awake and working on business at after 2:00 in the morning!?

[Macroni]

I personally am not a letter reader but I love Jelly Beans.
In my world the letter would be shorter w/ a simpler message.

[KFC911]

I think that's a great idea and would sure make Pelican "stand out from the crowd" if I were a casual, first time buyer. Many of us fanatics got hooked by "what it is" already...I noticed you didn't mention PPOT !

[rouxroux]

I might have been tempted to just put the cartoon pelican on the tin instead of the nut, bolt & gear.


How many decals do we need to send in to exchange for a jellybean tin?

Would be really cool with gold, red & black jellybeans!

[ChrisBennet]

Originally Posted by rouxroux

I might have been tempted to just put the cartoon pelican on the tin instead of the nut, bolt & gear.

+1

[Buckterrier]

Great idea. I'm with Macroni on the length of the letter though. It sounds a bit like a sales pitch.
In MHO, the shining jewel is this forum. And that is to your credit. This forum is like having a world class mechanic at your finger tips. That and Pelicans customer service. Pieces parts are pieces parts. The forum and Pelicans customer service are what makes your Co. stand out.

[JeremyD]

Shorten the letter -

Thank you - small token of our appreciation - a how to contact (and I would write out the url for the "help link"

and maybe outlining directing to a webpage for first time users on how they can get DIY help from the forums.

Just my opinion

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by rouxroux

I might have been tempted to just put the cartoon pelican on the tin instead of the nut, bolt & gear.

Me too, but to do that would be much more expensive - mult-color, instead of one color...

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Also, I know it's hard for everyone here to believe, but about 2/3 to 1/2 of our customers do not have accounts on the forums here...

-Wayne

[WPOZZZ]

Keep the letter short, actually make it a short note and stick it in the tin of jelly beans, if possible. Make it a welcome to the family and let them know about the forums. When letters get too long, I tend to phase out and just skim.

[Buckterrier]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Also, I know it's hard for everyone here to believe, but about 2/3 to 1/2 of our customers do not have accounts on the forums here...

-Wayne

That is hard to believe, (and their loss unfortunately).
Do you ever sleep?

[Wayne 962]

Nope, I don't sleep much. Too much to do!

-Wayne

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Need Mexico Blue jellybeans. Color #336.

I like the jellybean idea but if your first statement is "we're car nuts too", why not peanuts or cashews instead?

The concept is great though. Most places just send you a catalog (if that) which is a not-so-subtle way of saying, "send us more business - we like your money". This is a lot more personal and heartfelt. Consistent with your business model, which is great BTW.

[notfarnow]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Also, I know it's hard for everyone here to believe, but about 2/3 to 1/2 of our customers do not have accounts on the forums here...

-Wayne

Wayne, how do you track that? by IP address? I hadn't noticed anything in the order process that ties orders to the forum login.

I think the letter is great, but needs to be trimmed down a bit. Two paragraphs max in the letter, but then at the bottom maybe a point form list of other things they may be interested in (books, online DIY guides, etc)

[rouxroux]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Me too, but to do that would be much more expensive - mult-color, instead of one color...

-Wayne

Why would it have to be in color? I'd go with just the line drawing of the pelican.


...seriously! The "nuts & bolts" just does not do it for me. The pelican gives it some "personality" and lets folks know the "fun" aspect.

[Dixie]

It's a great idea; however, it's too long. If it takes over a minute to read, it won't get read. Refer to the reader as an individual, rather than a group. (For example "you", not "fellow enthusiasts".) And since the subject is what you offer the reader, only address what you can offer.

Something like this,

As CEO of Pelican Parts, I would like to formally welcome you to the Pelican family. Here at Pelican, we're car nuts just like you. That's why there's more to PelicanParts.com than the most comprehensive Porsche & BMW catalog on the planet.

• The technical articles section contains hundreds of Do-It-Yourself write-ups on everything from installing headlamps to replacing a clutch.
• The forums section is visited by more than 20,000 people each day. Here you'll find fellow enthusiast willing to offer you advice solving perplexing problems or simply congratulate you on completing a difficult tasks.
• Be sure to visit the Photo Gallery. The gallery contains over 50,000 photos of classic Porsches and BMWs taken at events we've attended over the past 10 years.
• The shining jewel will always be our on-line parts catalog. With more than a million individual part numbers, we have just about everything you could possibly want for your car. This includes the full OEM parts listings for all BMW and Porsche dealer-only parts. There's also a search feature. Trying to find a hard-to-locate OEM part? Simply enter it into our search engine, and our servers will hunt it down for you. And don't forget we offer same-day shipping and FREE freight on the most common replacement items on our catalog.

Pelican Parts takes pride in having the best-in-industry Customer Service. If you ever have a problem, question or concern regarding your order or the parts you've purchased for your car, don't hesitate to call us on our toll-free number (1-888-280-7799), or simply send us a message through our message center available from the "Help" link shown on every page of the website.

Thank you again for your first Pelican order, and I hope we can serve you again in the future.

-Wayne

P.S. Check out the books I've written specifically for our customers: "101 Projects for Your Porsche 911", "101 Projects for Your BMW 3-Series", "How to Rebuild & Modify Porsche 911 Engines", and "101 Projects for Your Porsche Boxster / 996" (Coming 2009).

I'm hoping you find this feedback useful.

[esample]

Great idea, but the letter is much too long. The guy just got a box of parts and wants to get on with installing them. Brevity is the soul of eloquence.

-e.