Prove with a human touch this isn't automated

Daniele Catalanotto
Nov 15, 2022
A Service Design Principle to bring a human touch in a cold digital world.

I want to send a thank you message to someone who just bought a book from me. Nobody answers when I send an email (remember, I don't have physical addresses). Why? I assume they think the message is automated, so why should they answer a robot?!

When instead, I send a photo of a handmade thank you card with a doodle and a few words written by hand or shoot a little video made with my phone, I get an answer from people saying how touched they are by the gesture. 

It's interesting to me, as all of these actions take me about the same time to do. But only a few are recognised as truly human, while others are seen as automated and cold.

So let me ask you:
How can you help people realise that what you do is really made by a human who cares?

Daniele's notes

  • This is the very first "thinking aloud" draft of this Service Design Principle
  • Once reworked a few times, it might end up in one of the books of the Service Design Principles series
  • The first title I had for this idea was "Send a photo of a handwritten note to prove you're human", but I feel that "Prove with a human touch this isn't automated" is the real idea behind this story.
  • Do you have other examples or opposing thoughts that could help me improve this idea?