We get about a thousand new business cards a month. Manually placing each one into our system just isn’t an option.
So we had to figure out a way to streamline the process. Since it was a bigger headache than expected, we figured we’d spare you the time and share how we made it work:
STEP 1: Full Contact
We really wanted cardmunch to work. There was a moment of anguish when we realized it wasn’t going to happen.
So we looked up some alternatives. Unfortunately, word recognition technology isn’t up to the task yet. You need to use a program where they outsource the data entry. Our favorite was FullContact Pro. It’s 9.99 a month and user friendly.
STEP 2: TaskRabbit
If you don’t use TaskRabbit to outsource biz tasks, you really should. Data entry, organization, tedious task? These pros have you covered. We paid our rabbit $8 per 200 cards, or roughly 1 hour. We gave her the cards, and she could process them on her own time.
STEP 3: Sync your data or EXPORT
It takes a day or two for FullContact to process everything, so be patient. When you get your data, you can sync it up with SalesForce. If you don’t use SalesForce (we don’t), you can sync up with your google contacts. That’s what we did.
Best Practice: choose an address book on the left (all cards are automatically placed in ‘business cards’) and click EXPORT on the upper right hand corner to download a vcf file.
Feel free to e-mail [email protected] with any questions about the process. Through necessity, we’ve gained some experience…
