Turn a Stack of Business Cards Into Contacts You Can Follow Up With

A muse can turn photos of the business cards you collect at an event into proper contacts, with the name, company, and details from each card saved in your address book or customer list, and a note of where you met each person.

What it does

Business cards usually end up in a pocket, then a drawer, then nowhere. The follow up never happens because typing up a stack of cards is dull work. A muse can do that typing for you. You take a photo of each card, front and back if both sides carry details. The muse reads the name, job title, company, phone number, email, and website from the photo and creates a clean contact for each person. It can add the event name and date as a note on every contact, so months later you still know where the connection came from. The full set can go into a contact app or a customer list you already use, ready for the follow up message you meant to send.

How to use it

1. Photograph each card in good light, one card per photo, and include the back if it has details on it.
2. Send the photos and say where you met the people: "Create a contact for each card, and note that I met them at this event on this date."
3. Ask for a review list first, showing exactly what it read from each card.
4. Check the list against the cards, fixing any name or number it misread.
5. Approve the import, then ask it to draft a short follow up note for the people you want to reach first.

What you need

• Photos of the cards, taken close enough that all the text is readable
• A contact app or customer list connected, or a spreadsheet to hold the results
• A few minutes to check the review list before the contacts are saved

What to watch for

• Small print, glossy cards, and fancy fonts are where reading errors creep in, so the review step matters.
• Check phone numbers and email addresses digit by digit, because one wrong character makes the contact useless.
• If a card lists a general company number instead of a direct line, the contact will hold the general number, and it is worth adding a note about that while you still remember.
• Once you have checked the set, the paper cards can go.