The Most Useful QR Code Function

My first encounter with QR codes took place this past summer as  I was sitting an open house with Debra Presley. She had a copy of CREB Real Estate News with her and on the back cover was an ad posted by Kelly McKelvie. I asked Debra about it and she told me these little bar code things were the latest thing and expressed her amazement that I knew nothing about them. Well, I read the ad, downloaded the app and was ultimately disappointed to find that all the code did was take me to a page of Ms. McKelvie’s current listings.

“That’s it?”, I thought. Cool technology, but you’d think it could be put to better use… Being the techno-geek that I am, I headed home that evening and began to study QR codes. I started with the QR Code Wiki. There I discovered that what began as a way to track automotive parts was now appearing in hundred different forms. From event tickets to billboard advertisements to tattoos pointing those who scan them to their bearer’s Facebook profile!

But what would be the best way for a Calgary real estate agent to put the power of QR codes to work for them? It has often been said that a business person’s most effective marketing tool is their business card. The main purpose of the business card is to put the business person’s contact info at the disposal of potential customers. Could QR codes do this job? The answer is a resounding YES! In fact, QR codes can do it even better.

Once you’ve given someone your card, they can call you whenever they find themselves in need of your services – as long as they can find your card.  And herein lies the Achilles heel of the business card. With so many of them about these days, keeping them all handy would see us all walking around with our pockets bulging with business cards! Most business cards end up in these nifty little books called business card files – or worse, in file 13.

Luckily, smart phones have given us an alternative to keeping hundreds of business cards about. These days, if we want to keep someone’s contact info handy, we enter it into our phone’s address book. We have to REALLY want to keep that info, though, because entering the info takes a couple of minutes. If only it were effortless to enter that info….

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Now, with QR Codes, it can be effortless. Try it now!

Fill in the fields you would like added to your clients’ and associates’ contact lists.

Delete any fields you don’t want to use.

First Name:
Last Name:
Email:
Cell Phone:
Company:
Title:

Generate Your Own Contact QR Code

 

 

 

 

 

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Note: To scan a QR code, you need to download a QR code app on your phone. The best app I know of is QR Droid which is available in the Android Market. Scan by QR Code city is by far the best of the many iphone apps I have tried. As for blackberry – the only app I’ve found that even made a good show of scanning a QR code was Code Muncher, but it failed to add anything to the phone’s address book. I’d love to hear from anyone who is able to successfully scan a contact QR Code with a Blackberry and have the data stored to the phone’s address book.