Business card scanning for marketing
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The challenge is this:
I meet people at an event. They are interested enough to swap a business card with me. I want to follow up by an email or a call. I also want their data in a database, but not necessarily forever. I may want to share this database with others in my office. I need speed in entry of data; ability to email easily and to save and sort email.
My goal is to get information from cards into a database more quickly than manual entry so that I can communicate with the recipient more quickly. This is not a client database. It is a prospect and referral database. I will want to purge it if the prospect or referral source does not pan out. I want to be able to sort contacts in a variety of ways (date of first contact, type of contact, strength of contact, etc.). There will be need for periodic manual purging and database maintenance of these fields, but I want to get the initial data in fast and accurately.
I am also toying with using the Plaxo service to email the contact annually to update their contact data; but not sure about that yet.
I am looking into an online contact management service that would allow for this. Has anyone heard of WebAsyst Contacts? WWW.webasyst.net. This allows sharing and seems to address some of my other needs and concerns. Does anyone have another solution they have looked at that might address this?
I am interested in any feedback from people on scanning business cards into a form that can be used in Outlook or other applications. I am looking at Cardscan. WWW.cardscan.com. Has anyone had any experience with this?
Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.
I use Outlook to organize contacts into separate contact databases. The casual contacts can be separated from the more permanent contacts. I also use Outlook's distribution lists to create categories for announcements (Ex: clients, friends, relatives)
The contact managers, like Plaxo, are more and more popular, but I find them annoying to fill out for other people. More and more applications and websites make it easy to synchronize with Outlook. So, I make that my primary contact manager.
As for scanning solutions, I've heard Cardscan works very well and the review sound good. Try google at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cardscan+review. Personally, I just type in the contact information because I find it easier than editting out the inevitable scanning errors.
This is a good question - the issue of how best to transfer information from business cards to a database comes up time and time again, but I still have not found the perfect answer.
I, like Roger, find it very annoying when Plaxo or other services like Plaxo ask me for my updated information. I rarely take the time to review my profile, let alone update it.
The best resource that I have and use is still Outlook. However, Outlook has its limitations. I find it hard to remember names sometimes. I have more of a visual memory. Therefore, I still keep the business cards and don't throw them out. Some people try to overcome the "I remember her, but not her name" issue by using Outlook to sort by profession, but that does not work so well for me as I am not always consistent or sufficiently descriptive (e.g., "appraiser" for one person might be entered as "business appraiser" or "real estate appraiser" for another person doing the same thing). In short, what works for me is Outlook with "card draw" backup.
For you, I do understand that Outlook alone may not be the best option. You can of course try Plaxo to get your database jump started, and just enter manually those that do not respond (assuming Plaxo keeps track of them). You could also add your own field(s) in Outlook (under the All Files tab) to help you sort through the strength of the contact, etc.
Thanks for the thoughts.
We haven't pulled the trigger yet on the CardScan. I want to make sure it can integrate effectively with Outlook and/or Practice Master before we go with it.
The main attraction of it is that it would allow me to get names into my propsect and referral network faster. This, in turn, will allow us to communicate with them more quickly and begin to see if a professional relationship can develop. Right now, I am poor at following up and that means lost opportunity.
As for Plaxo, I think the flaw is not in the software, but in how people use it. If you have a relationship with someone where you are communicating with them periodically, you may not need Plaxo or if you use it, you would need to send it no more than once a year for confirmation of data, so that it is not invasive.
I would also only send a Plaxo email to people I have a relationship with and would probably preface the Plaxo message with an email from me telling them it is coming.
The attraction of Plaxo is that if the recipient makes corrections on the fly, it saves us time and gives us more accurate data; both good things. (As an aside, I still get snail mail addressed to me with the firm name I had 10 years ago. You can imagine the impression that that person makes on me).
The problem with how people use Plaxo is primarily laziness. I get Plaxo requests from people I wouldn't know if I tripped over them. If I get
Plaxo from someone I know, I will fill it out. It is more personal then, or at least appears to be.
Ultimately, I believe, it all comes down to the four C's: courtesy, communication, care and content. Paying attention to these 4th C's means you get the 5th C - cash. And that is good.
This may be too late to be of use but I have used CardScan and Outlook for many years. The only drawback is that I have customized Outlook in several ways and CardScan can not use a customized contact template. I found a work-around whereby I can add the missing fields after scanning in the cards.
To Your Success,
Van
Thanks for the posting Van.
I haven't bitten on the Cardscan yet. In reviewing the software, it seemed to be more proprietary than open.
We can discuss at one of the monthly meetings and compare notes.