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Writing letters in the voice of AAA

Each year, AAA Members receive 80+ million transactional letters from us—on topics ranging from welcome messages to the news that they’ve bounced a check. Each of these letters creates its own brand experience with the potential to deepen the reader’s relationship with us. So it’s important we get these letters right.

Four guiding principles help us shape these experiences. Be accurate and consistent We’re careful about spelling, branding, grammar, punctuation and formatting. Our primary reference works for these mechanics of writing are Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, The Chicago manual of Style, 15th Edition, and the AAA Masterbrand Guideline.

Be personal and appreciative As a Membership organization, AAA has a distinctively personal relationship with those we serve. We demonstrate this by speaking in the warm, helpful voice of a trusted fellow Member. Our language is simple, easy to understand, forthright and conversational.

Be direct and transparent We show our respect for Members’ time and trust by being forthright and to-the-point. We clearly state what we want the reader to know and what we want the reader to do, ideally in the opening paragraph. We avoid sugar-coating difficult news and when we make apologies we explain why we made the mistake and what we’ve done to prevent it from happening again.

Sell the value of AAA Our letters are powerful tools for deepening Member relationships through product usage, cross-sell and up sell. For this reason we include “sell” messages, to a varying degree, in every letter. Refer to the Cross Sell Decision Chart at the end of this document for guidance on which products to include in which letters.

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Here’s some specific guidance on style:

Voice

Write as you might speak to a Member if he or she were sitting across the desk from you. When an individual is the author of a letter we speak in the first person singular voice. When a business unit is the author of a letter we speak in the first person plural.

We’re pleased to welcome you NOT AAA is pleased to welcome you

We write in the active voice, not the passive

We’ve determined that... NOT It has been determined that…

We avoid archaic or formal terms

Per your correspondence of...

We strive, in all our communications, to leave the Members feeling confident that AAA “has their back,” and assured that the road ahead will be enjoyable. Even unpleasant news, like the cancellation of an insurance policy, should be delivered with humanity, compassion and helpfulness. Our brand attributes support us in this:

Expert Convenient Proactive Supporting Reliable Responsible

Salutation

In both AAA Insurance and Membership communications we address Members by first name preceded by the word “Dear.”

Dear Jane

If system limitations prevent customization, we instead use

Dear Valued Member

Signatures

We strive to make sure that letters are authored by an individual rather than a business entity. For Guidance on this, see the “Who Signs What” chart at the end of this document.

Closes

We close our letters with

Thanks for the trust you place in AAA.

Your fellow AAA Member,

When, due to system limitations, letters need to be authored generically, we close with:

Thanks for the trust you place in AAA.

Sincerely,

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Calls to action

We follow direct response best practices and always include a prominent and clear response method, ideally stating it at least twice. Use boldface and larger type to guide improve scan-ability. It’s important have a single, clear call to action. A letter that asks the reader to figure out what to do is never going to be as effective as one that tells the reader what to do.

Choose imperative sentences over declarative sentences

Discover AAA Insurance NOT When you discover AAA Insurance

Apologies

When making apologies, state the reason for a mistake in simple terms and specify what we’ve done to prevent it from happening again.

Brevity

We make letters brief and easily scan-able, limiting them to one page whenever possible. Highlight important elements like calls to action with bold face and use paragraph spaces to “chunk” content into quick hits of copy.

Typography/Layout

Because typography is an important element of our personality, we build consistency of voice by using our primary house, Frutiger Next, and enhance legibility for all readers by following these standard type specifications:

Body copy: set in Frutiger Next Light, 11pt minimum with 14pts of line spacing, and 7pts of paragraph space

Legal/mice type: Frutger Next Light 9pt

Authorship

Whenever possible, an individual should be identified as the author of a letter. For AAA Insurance and Travel letters the Member’s agent should be the signatory. We identify signatories with a signature followed by name and title.

Letter type Author

AAA Membership Steve Chan, AAA Membership Team Leader

AAA Insurance Steve George, AAA Insurance Team Leader

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Cross-Sell Decision Chart

Letter type “Volume” of sell Product(s) to cross-sell, prioritized AAA Membership welcome and renewal

High AAA Auto Insurance AAA ERS differentiation AAA Plus or Premier Membership AAA Member Discounts

AAA Insurance welcome and renewal

Medium Multipolicy discount AAA Home or Renter’s Insurance AAA PUP Life Insurance

AAA Insurance billing Medium Multipolicy discount AAA Home Insurance AAA Member Discounts: Auto & Home

AAA Insurance claims Low AAA Member discounts: Auto Direct Repair Network

AAA Membership transactions Medium to low depending on letter topic

AAA Plus or Premier Membership ERS differentiation AAA Member discounts

AAA Travel news High Sojourns AAA Plus or Premier Membership (for travel benefits) AAA Member Discounts: Travel

AAA Travel transactions Medium Sojourns Plus or Premier Membership (for travel benefits) AAA Member Discounts

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Cialdini Principles

We apply six principles of social psychology, as codified by Robert Cialdini, to improve our response rates.

Principle Example

Reciprocity: when the customer has already

gotten something from you, they are more

likely to reward you with loyalty and more

likely to purchase more products; so be the

first to give, and establish that reciprocal

relationship

A gift, waived enrollment fee, coupon, helpful

information, etc.

Consistency: once you have made a

promise, follow up on the promise;

customers appreciate it when you are

consistent with existing commitments.

Consistency also applies to our desire to

align our current choices with past behavior.

“You’ve come to count on AAA for dependable road

service, now you can peace of mind from your insurance,

too.

Consensus: customers are likely to follow

the lead of many others, and of similar

others; emphasize what the Member’s peers

are doing

“We’re 55 million Members strong”

“It’s no wonder that 1 in 5 drivers in Northern California

count on AAA Insurance.”

Authority: a credible communicator is

knowledgeable and trustworthy; establish

yourself as an authority, reference other duly

constituted authorities and always be honest

“Rated A+ by A.M. Best”

“...knowledge gained from more than 100 years of

rescuing motorists.”

Liking: give genuine compliments and

praise, and emphasize your mutual efforts

and mutual goals

[Member testimonials]

“I know that my AAA agent, Patti, has my back.”

Scarcity: people are more motivated by the

fear of loss than by the possibility of gain;

highlight the uniqueness of our products

and let the customer know how they will be

missing out if they don’t take advantage of

what AAA has to offer

“Don’t risk losing the protection you need—renew

today.”