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How Business Card Scanning Can Improve Your Life

How many business cared have you collected over your lifetime? Hundreds, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands?! Searching through all of your business cards is a massive waste of time, not to mention frustrating. Even if you’ve made your own digital list of contacts you can add to each time you receive a business card, there is still the risk of typing in an email address or phone number wrong – and you’ll probably only find out when it’s too late.

Business card scanning is the future – it can collect all the important data from each business card and format the data into any format. Here are some ways this fast scanning service can genuinely improve your life.

Create a Digital Address Book

It’s probably something you’ve been meaning to do for a while – but really, who has the time?! Sitting down and manually entering the contact details for your entire address book or sales database is far too time consuming. Plus, it leaves room for errors. A business card scanning service can quickly scan all the details and sort them into the correct columns for name, address, phone numbers and emails. You’ll be able to access your digital address book from anywhere, on any device.

Say Goodbye to Losing Phone Numbers

We’ve all done it – had a really good business meeting or opportunistic chat with a client, and stuffed their card in a pocket in a hurry. When you go to follow up, you can’t find the business card anywhere, and have to struggle to get in contact with them. Once you start your digital address book it is easy to keep on top of, so you can enter the details straight away. Alternatively, Pearl Scan has a scan on demand service so each time you receive a business card simply arrange for it to be picked up and scanned into your system.

Increase Leads and Sales

Once data is captured effectively, it can be transferred into Salesforce or CSV. This means that you’ll instantly have a larger sales database to work from, and some of your contacts could be years old and make new leads. Instead of trying to contact people individually, involve them in your marketing and outreach and you’ll almost always find new leads and sales.

Business card scanning is convenient and will make your office and briefcase much more organised. Not only this, but it also has the potential to improve your business operations and increase sales. It makes total business sense.

Surveys are an invaluable tool when it comes to gaining inside information on what your customers really want. However when it comes to maximising the effectiveness of your content a strategic approach is always worthwhile. If you want to ensure that every question you ask hits the mark, read on for our top tips on how to draft hard hitting customer surveys that generate meaningful data.

Comply with the KISS rule

As a general rule of thumb, the KISS principle should apply to all questions. The acronym stands for ‘Keep It Short, Stupid!’ and essentially rules that all questions should be asked in the shortest and simplest way possible, without losing their intent.

Pepper surveys with open ended questions

While ‘yes/no’, multiple choice and scale rating questions are the easiest to answer, surveys should also be peppered with open ended queries that give customers an opportunity to spill their thoughts on various different subjects. A good strategy to encourage customers to open up is to start with a simple scale rating question, then follow up with an open ended “why do you feel this way?”

Ask one question at a time

It can be tempting to squeeze multiple questions into one line but ultimately, this just confuses and frustrates respondents. Instead, stick to one at a time and elaborate in a separate or sub question if necessary.

Keep rating scales consistent

If you’re using rating scales make sure they remain consistent throughout the survey. This will create a streamlined experience and ensure that answers are accurate and free from confusion.

Offer customers a bonus for their participation

It can be extremely difficult to convince customers to take the time to fill out a survey. Entice them in by offering bonuses such as discounts, credits or giveaways. Even the smallest of incentives can generate impressive participation rates.

Make data processing easy with survey scanning tools

Once you’ve gathered your data the next step is to process it into meaningful information. This is often the most tedious and time consuming element of customer surveys. Make the process easy by utilising survey scanning data capture technology that sifts through results and processes them into useable data in a fraction of the time it would take a human to complete the same task.

Ready to make the most out of your customer surveys? Head to Pearl Scan today for quotes on professional survey scanning tools that will turn your results into expedient information that you can use to grow, expand and enhance your business.

Whatever sector you operate in, the importance of market research is paramount. Whether you target fellow businesses or public consumers it’s hugely important to have a thorough understanding of your market and its needs. To do this, a hard hitting market research strategy is a must. Want to know more about why it should be an integral part of your business plan? Read on for our guide to why market research matters, and how you can implement strategies that are both time and cost effective.

Understand your market

Market research is underpinned by the goal of understanding niche markets and aligning business operations with the needs of customers. While internal politics, agendas, budgets, KPIs and branding are all key concerns, at the end of the day the customer is always king. As such, developing an understanding of your market from the customer’s perspective is critical.

Cater to needs

Giving customers what they want is a fundamental part of retaining new clients, and attracting new ones. Market research empowers businesses with the information they need to develop new ways to cater to changing customer demands. This will ultimately allow your business to pursue lucrative growth opportunities and prioritise the highest revenue streams.

Identify trends

Markets are continually evolving and it’s essential for businesses to stay on top of the latest trends. By reaching out to your target audience you can get up-to-the-minute information on the latest industry trends that your customers want to see. A current understanding of market trends is the key to keeping your business relevant and future oriented.

Scope out the competition

As well as determining the profiles, needs and wants of your customers, market research can also be an extremely valuable tool when it comes to scoping out the competition. This allows businesses to uncover what tactics competitors are implementing, and how effective they are.

Improves decision making capabilities

When it comes to making key business decisions market research is indispensable. It allows businesses to predict customer reactions and gain insight into what choices will be best for their bottom lines.

It’s clear that market research is an extremely useful arena, however far too many businesses shy away from the concept due to the perceived administrative burdens. It doesn’t have to be this way. Data extraction services such as Pearl Sca’s exist to help businesses slash the administrational responsibilities of market research and focus on data analysis.