In this article, you will learn how to collect and process leads quickly at any Event, scan badges, and business cards, and add tags and notes to best define and subdivide leads. With that, you will never miss a sales opportunity due to lost information!
The badge reader included in the mobile apps is a great way to speed up the data collection process. If the Event Organizer gives you Lead Capture rights, the badge scanning will be available on both iOS and Android devices, through the Swapcard Mobile App.
How to: Scan a QR code
Download our Mobile App.
Click the Scan icon on the lower right corner of the event home screen.
In the first tab, you will have the option to scan QR codes.
As soon as you scan the QR Code on an Attendee's badge or app, their contact details will be shared with you and the person will be added to your contacts.
You can score that lead and add notes to remember important information related to that Attendee.
How to: Scan a Business Card
Download our Mobile App.
Click the Scan icon on the lower right corner of the event home screen.
In the second tab, Card, you will have the option to scan business cards.
The app will take a picture of the business card that will be saved as a contact, and you will be prompted to a prefilled contact form. You will have the opportunity to check the contact information collected and add relevant information, such as the lead score or notes to remember details of that first interaction with the attendee.
If the user is not part of the list of Attendees, the app will create a contact profile (only visible to the person/booth who scanned the card) based on the information on the business card.
.
Offline mode
To enable networking even in situations with a weak or non-existent network connection, Swapcard has implemented an 'Offline Mode' for a lead capture. This feature enables users to continue scanning attendee badges and temporarily store them locally, on their device. (Important: if a user deletes the app with unsynchronized scans, they will be deleted without possibility to restore). Once a stable network connection is reestablished, the stored data is synchronized, allowing for the creation of contacts.
Here's a detailed breakdown of how it functions:
When a user initiates a scan, and the system recognizes that the request is taking an extended period of time (more than 2 seconds) due to a poor connection, it automatically switches to Offline Mode.
To alert users of network issues, a message appears at the top of the screen, stating, "Please check your internet connection and try again." This message serves as a clear indicator of the connectivity problem, ensuring users are aware of the situation.
In Offline mode, a user can continue scanning badges as usual; the badge scanner remains available, and nothing prevents users from scanning badges. However, there are differences in the user experience because not all the data is accessible.
Once a QR code is scanned, the system recognizes the set of symbols encrypted behind the picture and stores it locally on the device. A message appears, saying, "Offline scan saved," along with an explanation that it should be synchronized once a connection is restored.
Since the device is offline, the system cannot validate QR codes; it will store all of them, and recognition will occur after the connection is restored.
Because there is no connection to databases, the system doesn't display any contact information such as Name, Last Name, Job, etc. Users can only see the code decrypted from the badge.
Users can still add some details about the scanned person: Scores, Tags, and Notes to the scan. This information will be stored locally and synchronized later.
Users can view pending scans by clicking "See pending scans" after scanning a QR code or by clicking the top-right icon displayed among their contacts.
In the list of pending scans, a user can see the list of scanned codes with their date of scanning, and a button “Sync”.
Also, in this list, users can see an error sign, which means that the system tried to recognize the code once it’s back online, but for some reason the code was invalid. In such cases, make sure to check in with the organizer or the lead capture support onsite so they can help.
How to synchronize scanned codes
Once connection is restored, it is important to synchronize scans. To do so, a user should click go to My contacts, by clicking on the icon located at the left-bottom of My Profile > My Contacts. At the top, there will be an icon with a crossed wifi and a number. Click the icon and it will force the synchronization.
Once scans are recognized and synchronized, a message about success is displayed, and scan will disappear from the list of scans and appear as normal contact records.
Only invalid codes will stay in the list of scans with an error sign, users can still access them and see all information stored during the scan: Score, Notes, and Tags.
All the leads will then appear in your contact and in the Exhibitor Center if you’re sharing your contacts with your team. Make sure that they allow this in the settings in the Exhibitor Centre.
Limitations/recommendations for Offline Mode
A user needs to log in at least once online in order to use offline mode;
If the network connection is poor, it is recommended to deactivate the wifi or 4G/5G and proceed in the offline mode.
If a user is logged off from the mobile Event App for some reason, the scans will not be deleted, they will appear in the scans list once a user logs back in.
If a user deletes the app with unsynchronized scans, they will be deleted without an option to restore.
Android issue on some specific devices
Scan feature relays on Android library to initiate the camera and Google ML kit library.
Some devices are not able to recognize the QR code due to specific internal issue that Swapcard is not responsible for.
Here is the list of known devices facing this issue:
Samsung Galaxy A23
Xiaomi Redmi note