For a time, I emailed every B2C customer who signed up. I welcomed them, asked where they heard about BeeLine, and told them if they ever had any questions they could email me directly.
Most people didn't engage, but some did. I was able to nip some onboarding issues in the bud, and develop some evangelists as well.
Some bigger companies automate this, but I always found it feels weird coming from a big company. I was always careful to put "founder" in my email signature, so the recipient knew it was coming from me. And I never sent the email right after they signed up, which might make it seem automated — even though it wasn't.
I used to do that while at BrainLuxury. Also tried to put "I am not a robot " into the subject line, with mixed results. Around 5-10% of customers replied, which is probably not amazing, but not horrible either.
What were you hoping to get from the customer replying?
It seems perfectly plausible that 95% of the customers of an app or online don't want to enter into an email conversation about the service - they just want it to be usable without need for further communication, and they aren't interested in getting involved in your wider sales strategy either.
Actually, I received direct email from founder of eBay when I posted on a message board that I was looking to buy a second-hand laptop, with a listing for laptop on eBay. It was very early days of eBay. I wish I had kept the email and my reply expressing uncertainty about buying on eBay and not receiving the product.
Most people didn't engage, but some did. I was able to nip some onboarding issues in the bud, and develop some evangelists as well.
Some bigger companies automate this, but I always found it feels weird coming from a big company. I was always careful to put "founder" in my email signature, so the recipient knew it was coming from me. And I never sent the email right after they signed up, which might make it seem automated — even though it wasn't.