For me, I don’t want to include ALL of the information that has been included in the past. Mobile, home, fax, email, etc can all be found (much more up to date) online. My newest cards are simply my name and web address (http://www.twitpic.com/4shdg). This makes for keeping my information fresh and available to everyone.

I don’t see business cards disappearing all together anytime in the near future but I do see a shift in how people use them. Maybe my next ones will include a QR-code or Datamatrix image on them for fast lookup from a mobile phone.

-Jesse

One of the characteristics of the customer service you are providing (that makes it great), is that you are lining up for your customers instead of having your customers line up for you. That characteristic demonstrates respect for your customer’s time and also communicates value (that they are worth your time and that you are listening to them).

The best part of all this is that it is time efficient for both parties! The customer isn’t sitting there with music on hold or listening to “your call is important to us” and your resources also have greater flexibility in how they handle & process requests.

This definitely scales. And, it is great service. You are pioneering a huge shift in customer service so there will always be folks waiting for you to slip up. The reality is that you are raising the bar for customer service best practices and that will make some people nervous, especially champions of the status quo. Keep pushing! You are doing a great work.

Cheers,
Marcel

I waited until the end of the season, the final game 7, and let them know what I was thinking. I am the ONLY one who had business cards on me. So I might have caught them off guard.

I think they have a place and even though you can find people many ways. You still should have a way of contacting someone. I realize we work in the social web and everything and if you are on twitter all you have to do is put the twitter id on your smart phone and off you go.

I agree follow up is great! I still think there is a place for business cards. If you forget them there are companies who provide an electronic version.

My card has my contact information plus a twitter id and blog address.

That friendship came because you were 1)listening 2)authentic 3)effective. Those are all scalable. Perhaps not with a single person, but look at GetSatisfaction and UserVoice. I think Dave’s smart, but I thought that comment was way off the mark.

And I rarely exchange cards anymore, because all my information is readily available through Google.

I’ve noticed that people who only want to give me their Twitter ID often are the people who have personal conversations on their public Twitter feed.

The reason most people don’t like business cards is that NO ONE EVER FOLLOWS UP.

Probably one in 25 business cards I hand out will someone actually follow up. Conversely, I follow up with every single business card I get and that’s how I’ve grown my social network. Key to success here is buying a business card scanner.

While twitter, Facebook, and the whole range of social networks are great ways to stay in contact, for professional purposes I think when possible an exchange of business card with URLs to one’s preferred social networks are the way to go.