Most people in this Q&A thread are trying to helpfully A the Q. If someone on a cooking thread wants to know the best way to grill a steak, I wouldn’t want to engage in an argument about vegetarianism. 
In much of the world, Japan especially, exchanging business cards remains an important part of business etiquette, like wearing a necktie. Whether or not it should be is a tangential issue.
Scannable + Evernote with tag “Contacts”. You can also allow for linking to LinkedIn which is very helpful.
I own a service/contractor business and it is a standard practice to provide a business card at client meetings.
ScanSnap comes with a utility called “Card Minder” that I’ve been meaning to try out. Has anyone used it?
I would like to share a funny story from that a friend told me. He was a Executive at a major Hollywood studio and they decided that putting people’s titles on their business cards was not conducive to a equal workplace environment.
So armed with business cards my friend went to Japan for a series of meetings and the result were the same whereas everyone sat around and no one discussed anything as the Japanese we unsure who was in charge of what.
Afterwards, the cards were amended to include the person’s title on the back of the card that was printed in Japanese.
Actually, I like to have the physical cards at the initial meeting as I place them on the table oriented to match the people’s position sitting around the table so I can associate a newly introduced person more easily and observe the cultural dynamics of the team.
Later I scan them using WorldCard and export them to my Contacts application
Evernote is the main driver but I have been testing out Adobe Scan. Not sure how much I like it but it will save business cards scanned into contacts. It’s a work in progress.
Amending my earlier post:
I’ve been experimenting with this very issue over the past few weeks. For years, I scanned cards into Evernote and tagged the scans with contacts. That worked well.
However, since April I’ve been weaning myself off Evernote and as part of that, finding an alternative solution to card scanning.
I had high hopes for Google Photos but it choked on a card or two and that’s that.
I tried using a scanner app on the iPhone, scanning to PDF and saving to DEVONThink, as @Bmosbacker suggested. That seems pretty good, but it’s a couple of extra steps. And it doesn’t automatically send the card to the contacts app.
I may just stick with Evernote for this one purpose. Which is like driving a Sherman tank to the corner store but still.
It’s the fastest way.
“Here’s my card. Call me”=1 sec
Get out phone, open contacts, start typing (how was you name spelled again, Schwarzenegger?)=way slower.
So, just using something digital is not always an improvement or more efficient. I tried differents tools since the days of the Palm (remeber IR contact data sharing, working one in 10 attempts?) and still prefer cards. Whats missing is a cross-platform, universal protocol.
I’m seriously considering adding a QR code to my next batch of business cards, containing a VCARD or VCF with the card contents. Anyone with a smartphone should then be easily able to scan the QR code and quickly (and correctly) import my info that way.
Can you take a scan of a card and then attach that to a contact in the Apple Contacts application? I can’t seem to find it if it’s possible.
I see no way to add an attachment to a contact.
Thanks for all the info!
I’m going to to try the workflow both @MitchWagner and @Bmosbacker suggested!
Two reasons.
Putting the burden on potential clients might play well - as it could be construed as in the spirit of GDPR.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. You will see WeChat is definitely providing a far better method of connecting in China. If you don’t have a WeChat account and know how to scan QR codes you will miss out on important connections in China. It’s quickly superseding cards.
It will take another 15-20 years in Asia before cards are defunct, however.
I still habitually hand them to everyone. In Australia I am often told “sorry I don’t think I have one” and sometimes you’ll get one that’s been in a wallet for several years 
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