I have discovered the most efficient way to get these business cards into a format and platform that I can actually use.
What do you do with the business cards you collect on a weekly basis?
I typically slip them into the back of my MoleSkine notebook that is almost always with me. At some point I take them out and put them neatly on a stack on my desk with good intentions. Then papers, books, and other work gets stacked onto them. At some point I see one of the cards poking out from underneath some paper and I go go through my desktop and collect all the little stacks of cards and put them into one larger pile.
At no point in my old process have I ever gotten the information from those business cards into a format and platform that is helpful and useful to me on a consistent basis. By the time I did get around to it, the information was no longer fresh and relevant. That changed when I discovered FullContact Card Reader!
We all now have a smartphone with us throughout our business day at a minimum. FullContact Card Reader is the easiest way to scan business cards into Google Contacts, iPhone Contacts and hundreds of other apps that can be integrated with it.
It is very simple to use.
- Scan a business card with the Full Contact app on your phone ->
- Choose where you would like to send it ->
- Add a tag that will help you reference the person in the future ->
- Add notes if there are any.
Within a short time (could be several minutes) the business card has been transcribed, and added to the service or app you selected in Step 2 above.
A big strength of Full Contact is the large number of apps and platforms that it can connect with. Here is a smpling of some of those that you might already be using in addition to your iPhone or Android contacts:
FullContact Card Reader is one of the new generation of web tools that understands that their best functionality is to interact with other tools that you are currently using, rather than try to get you to leave your favorites and move to this new tool.
Imagine what could happen to your business if every business card you collect can be quickly and easily captured and entered into one of over 250 other tools you use. The business card information could be entered into your CRM, your phone contacts, a Google spreadsheet or even into an email platform like Mailchimp.
There is real power here and the benefits can be delivered very quickly. It is worth a few minutes to download and install this app on your smartphone and see the impact in your business day first-hand.
Select your download from the appropriate store
Please note that while my focus in this post is on FullContact Card Reader, there are other services and tools that FullContact provides. I encourage you to explore all that they have to offer.