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By Konstantin Monastyrsky, the founder of Skrol
The ritual of exchanging business cards usually goes like this: you and I exchange pleasantries, I give you mine, and you give me yours. At best, our respective cards will end up in a box somewhere because neither of us will ever find time to retype them into our respective Contacts apps. So what was the point?
With digital business cards, the same ritual would look like this: you and I exchange the same pleasantries. Next, you scan my digital card with your phone, and I’ll scan yours. This way, the next time you'll need to close a sale, schedule a meeting, get a referral, request a quote, or what have you, you’ll find my contact information in seconds and vice versa. Wasn't that the whole point of us getting to know each other in the first place?
And that's why we’ve integrated exceptionally capable digital business cards and business card scanner directly into Skrol. This way, Instead of buying, learning, and using two more apps to enhance with your basic Contacts app, you get all three in a single package that is much easier to use and completely free.
As you can imagine, I, too, have switched to using digital business cards and will be happy to share one of mine with you. To do so, I simply rotate the app, and here it is:
I said "one of mine" because I use three cards: the one above for Skrol Inc., another for friends and family with my home address and phone number, and the third one from my previous business. I simply swipe the display to the right or left to flip between them.
In situations, when I don't want to share my detailed information via the QR code, I tap it to reveal my photo instead:
In circumstances or places when you are concerned about your privacy or security, you can do the same or add one more card with information that can't be traced back to you.
When, occasionally, I may still need to show my original printed card with the company logo, I swipe down to its photo on the next page:
If you've ever tried to take a good-quality photo of a business card with a phone camera, you must know that it's nearly impossible to do well. The one above I took in seconds with the business card scanner built into Skrol. It looks so crisp because the scanner automatically adjusts the card for poor alignment and uneven lighting.
While traveling abroad, I can instantly translate my business card into one of 57 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Hebrew. Greeting local hosts that way makes it easier for them to pronounce my name and is also more respectful. This is how my card looks in Japanese:
When attending sit-down meetings with unfamiliar people, I can swipe down to the Nameplate mode and place my phone facing the room. I use a basic pop grip like the one here to keep it upright. The app automatically turns off the display’s auto-lock and turns up the brightness so that everyone can see my name from a distance, even in a brightly-lit room:
In addition to my primary business cards, I 'carry' personal card for friends and family and a business card from my previous company. While traveling abroad, I create a card with my local address and phone number. This way, I can show my address in the native language while asking for directions or hailing a cab:
A scrollable list of familiar names is a natural interface between you and your contacts, hence the word "Skrol" in the name of our company and app.
At its basic, the List view helps you find contacts to view their folders. But we went a step further to help you pick what to do in response to a single tap, double-tap, long hold, and swipe to the left or to the right.
The choices for each action are view or edit folder, make a call, send a message, send an email, add/remove to/from a group, repeat the last action, and delete a contact. This flexibility becomes magic when you need to organize a contact list with hundreds of names.
The swipe to the left to make a call and swipe to the right to send a message are illustrated in the list view on the left.
A scrollable list of familiar names is a natural interface between you and your contacts, hence the word "Skrol" in the name of our company and app.
At its basic, the List view helps you find contacts to view their folders. But we went a step further to help you pick what to do in response to a single tap, double-tap, long hold, and swipe to the left or to the right.
The choices for each action are view or edit folder, make a call, send a message, send an email, add/remove to/from a group, repeat the last action, and delete a contact. This flexibility becomes magic when you need to organize a contact list with hundreds of names.
The swipe to the left to make a call and swipe to the right to send a message are illustrated in the list view on the left.
Here are several other practical reasons why I went digital for good and recommend you the same:
Interestingly, when people hand me their regular business cards, I scan them with the app right before them and show the result. That, too, provokes happy giggles. And when I ask them to add a selfie to their contact folder and hand over my phone, some giggle even more. I don't push it, though, when sensing the slightest discomfort or hesitation with taking a selfie.
For all of the above reasons, I stand out from the crowd during networking events, trade shows, and conferences and get to engage with a lot more interesting people.
Digital business cards are even more valuable online than "offline!"
Since I spend a lot more time online than in face-to-face events, I routinely add a link to my digital business card to all outgoing emails, text messages, documents, and presentations. Here is what people see in their browsers after clicking that link:
In addition to the usual contact info, they can access my social sites, chat apps, and appointments calendar right from the web. All these options neatly combined in one place create a more professional impression about me and increase my chances of getting a reply or a callback.
The next section explains the technology behind digital business cards and their other benefits.
Skrol’s digital business card technology is built on top of the vCard protocol. It is an internationally-established standard for sharing contact information between computers and smartphones.
You may have seen this standard in action when adding contacts to your smartphone by tapping a file with the VCF extension or scanning the QR code with a camera app.
But that’s all good and well until you change a job, move to another place, switch emails, or change phone numbers, and all of your current vCard files, printed QR codes, and NFC tags become outdated, and you — out of reach.
Skrol fixes all that by letting you create and update virtual vCards right from the app and save them in the cloud. That way, whenever your contact information changes, everyone with the link to your virtual vCard will still be able to contact you because they don't expire and are always up-to-date.
For security and reliability, the virtual vCards are stored inside the high-performance database hosted by Google Cloud Platform servers. Google uses the same Trusted Cloud infrastructure technology for managing Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive, and Workspaces documents.
Here are even more uses and benefits of digital business cards built with virtual vCard technology. Please note that the terms “virtual vCard” and “digital business card” are synonyms:
Sharing your digital business cards in person and online will encourage others to do the same for the mutual benefit of everyone.
You are more likely to benefit from new business and career opportunities because anyone you shared your virtual vCard with will be able to find and contact you for as long as you wish.
Please share the link to your virtual vCard with your family, friends, clients, and associates. The more people start using this technology, the more useful it will become for everyone, and all of us will win!
