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Scanning a Business Card to add a Contact

Charles Fox
  • Updated

Overview

Adding a new contact to your Contacts list in Marketscape CRM is easy enough, but if you get a contact's business card, you can create a contact in the mobile app on your phone. The steps are super simple and are shown below.

 

How to create a Contact

To create a contact using a business card you can either take a picture from within the app, or you can scan an image already on your phone. This means that you could send an image of a business card to another person's phone so they could add the contact.

Follow these steps to create a contact.

Whether the image of the business card is already on your phone or if you want to take the picture within the app, the first step takes place on the Marketscape CRM mobile home page.

  • Tap on the "Add Contact" button

 

 BusinessCards01a.png

The Create Contact page opens.

  • Tap the business card icon at the top of the page
 BusinessCards02Huha.png

Two options are made available.

  • Tap "Scan Business Card"

There are two options available to scan a business card.

 BusinessCards02a.png

Two options are presented to scan a business card

  • Camera - if you have the business card, you can take an image of the card in the app. The image will be scanned immediately.
  • Photo - If you already have an image of the business card on your phone, use this option.

 

 

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To use the phone camera within the app

To take an image within the app that will be scanned immediately, choose the Camera option.

  • Tap the "Camera" option

Note-width35.png The "Photo" option is displayed below.

 BusinessCards04a.png

Your camera phone opens immediately.

  • Take a picture of the business card.

When you take the picture, you will be asked if you want to re-take the picture.

 BusinessCards05.png

Once you accept the photo, the scan will fill in as many fields as it can identify.

  • Scroll through the create contact page to confirm that the fields were properly imported.
  • Make any needed corrections
  • Some fields will not be entered at all (like "rating," "Targeted Contact," or "Contact Type," for example. Fill in any missing fields.

Keep in mind that the only required fields for a contact are "First Name," and "Last Name." You can save the contact and come back to it later to make additions or changes.

  • Click the "Save" button at the top right

As shown in the image at the right, the scan correctly identified some of the fields. We would need to add the Account, "MacMillan Surgery Associates."

 

 

 BusinessCards06.png

From an existing photo

You can use the scan tool to import an image that is already on your phone.

  • Tap the "Photo" button
 BusinessCards07a.png

Instead of opening your phone camera to capture an image, the photos on you phone will be displayed.

TIP-width35.png You may need to search a bit to find the image of the business card.

  • Select the image of the business card
 BusinessCards08.png

The scan was able to pick out some elements from the business card image.

  • Scroll through the create contact page to confirm that the fields were properly imported.
  • Make any needed corrections
  • Some fields will not be entered at all (like "rating," "Targeted Contact," or "Contact Type," for example. Fill in any missing fields.

Keep in mind that the only required fields for a contact are "First Name," and "Last Name." You can save the contact and come back to it later to make additions or changes.

  • Click the "Save" button at the top right

 

 BusinessCards09.png

 

How accurate is the scan?

A computer is only as accurate as the data that is entered and the programming used to process the data. In preparing this article, we used a fake business card that we created quickly.

Note-width35.png Complicated and artistic business cards with patterns and complicated typefaces may be difficult for the scanner to process.

BusinessCards05.png

We did the scan a few times to see what would happen. Here are some results:

  • The address never came through
  • Once, the Position and Name fields were reversed, such that the physician ended up being entered as Mr. General Practitioner, and his position was "Joe Doctor." 
  • Initially, we had the wrong ZIP code and the scan added the correct city for the wrong ZIP code, so the scan was smarter than we were.
  • Nevertheless, the fake business card we created could not be much simpler. In the end, be prepared to edit or add content.

No matter what, the business card scanner will probably save you some typing.

 

 

 

 

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