I have been on the road for about a week. As usual my pockets are full of business cards. I have been testing a great device from NeatRecipts. It scans in both receipts and business cards. I like a lot of things about it, form factor, size, software, support, and so far would give it a solid ten on a ten point scale. After using it for about 3 weeks, I would unconditionally recommend it.
As good as it is, there are some business cards that just don’t scan well. ( And the problem is not unique to NeatReceipts!) These are a combination of fonts/colors and designs that it just doesn’t seem to pick up. I am not sure why, but it occurred to me a moment ago that there are three parts to this equation.
1. The person who hands you a card!
2. The person who gets the card!
3. The folks who make the scanner!
So, today’s rant kind of goes like this.
If you plan to give out business cards, take the time to try them on a scanner. If your scanner can’t pick up all the information on your card, then maybe the person to whom you give it, might have a scanner and have the same problem. So, what should you do? Why not design your own business card in such a fashion that the scanner has a chance to read it. Cute works for some things, but when all you are trying to do is provide a means by which someone can reach back to you, use your head in the process.
Assuming that the person that you give your card to is going to go to the trouble of typing in your data just isn’t smart. Make it easy for them, make your cards readable, and avoid cute fonts, and shaded/light colors.
If your card is hard to read or scan, don’t plan on hearing from the person you gave it to, or maybe you didn’t plan to in the first place.
That IS kind of a rant Buzz, but is worth thinking about. Not everyone uses a scanner, and most people can figure out how to reach the people they really want to. At the same time, if someone doesn't make enough of an impression to make it into someone's contacts (regardless of the ability to scan your business card), then they probably will never be called anyway.
Posted by: Joe Kennedy | February 25, 2006 at 04:22 PM