QR code restaurant - featured image

Become a QR Code Restaurant for More Sales

Restaurants are among the chief beneficiaries of the opportunities presented by QR codes. In this post, we tell you how your restaurant can take advantage of this technology to bring in more business.

What Are QR Codes Anyway?

A QR code is a kind of barcode that contains information about the item it is attached to or that it refers to.

You might have started to notice QR codes popping up when you’re shopping or eating at restaurants. They are those black-and-white squares you see that are full of lines and dots that only your phone or certain machines can read. It might seem like they’ve come out of nowhere. However, they’ve been around for a while. While they didn’t fall out of the sky last week, they’ve rapidly risen in popularity over the last five years or so.

RELATED ARTICLE: HOW BARCODES HAVE REVOLUTIONIZED SOCIETY

QR codes are a shortcut you can use to get instant access to information about something. Codes like these have been used to scan and identify products for decades. In fact, you have probably scanned a few yourself when you were trying to find a more competitive price for something online.

These days, local businesses and other services are using QR codes for much more than just a product label. For example, businesses can utilize them to direct customers to their social media pages, websites, and more. All their customers need to do is scan the business’s codes with their phones.

Many restaurants have implemented a QR code menu into their online infrastructure. However, this is just one of the many ways restaurant owners can take advantage of this technology to increase their sales.

RELATED ARTICLE: 7 SKILLS YOU SIMPLY MUST HAVE TO SUCCEED AS A RESTAURANT MANAGER

Read on to find out how you can turn your business into QR code restaurant to increase sales.

How Restaurants Can Use QR Codes Most Effectively

As a business owner, your primary goal is to make sales and generate a profit, right? Additionally, any good business owner knows they must also provide value and top-notch service to their customers. While value and service may be secondary goals, they march in lockstep with the first. No business can achieve one without the other.

QR codes can help you achieve all your goals, with a heavy emphasis on the “providing value” aspect of this dynamic. By implementing several iterations of this technology throughout your restaurant, both online and in person, you will give your customers something that perhaps other competitors don’t.

Use a QR Code Menu

How many times have you been searching for a restaurant in a new city, or even locally, and you went online to look up the menu first? This makes sense. With the Internet at your fingertips, why would you not? By doing so, you mitigate the risk of being dissatisfied your meal.

Customers want to know what your restaurant is about. They want to understand what you’re known for. They’re looking for a sense of what type of food your place offers. A QR code menu for your restaurant can help you do this far more effectively than other methods.

Customers don’t want to have to search online, go to your home page, look for the menu, hope to find it, and then have to scroll through a clunky website on their mobile device while they try and read what’s there. Making matters worse, most of the time they’re in a rush.

But with a QR code menu, you could just link to a mobile-optimized menu page right from your social media page or website. You could even place a code at the entrance to your restaurant.

Make it easy for new diners to know what you’re all about. Hunting and searching for a menu while scrolling and zooming in and out is neither convenient nor enticing. But starting with a pleasant online experience shows them you value their time. That’s social points, that’s value, and that’s creating a great brand perception.

Use Them for Promotions and Events

You might be thinking you could post your QR code at various places around town where curious people will take out their phones and scan it. But the savvier ones among them will just assume you’re trying to install a keylogger on their phones or something, so don’t do that.

Instead, utilize QR codes in your restaurant and on your website or social media pages to direct customers to informational pages about events and promotions. First, you’ll need to generate the idea and promote it to the audience you’re seeking to attract for certain promotions or events. Next, create online resources to answer questions and tell people what they need to know about it, quickly and simply.

Placing a QR code within your physical locations and online from your verified social media pages will assure clients they can trust it and it is safe to scan. Your code can direct anyone intrigued by it to the landing page or whatever resource you’ve created for the particular occasion.

Restaurant owners could have a QR code that directs people to an RSVP form online, for instance. People could fill out the form and indicate their level of interest in the event. Create a contest, raffle, giveaway, sale, coupon, or event. There are plenty of ways to make good use of these codes for your restaurant.

Use Them for Payment

You can use QR codes to take and make payments, too. You might have already experienced this at a coffee shop or another business in your area. In fact, you might already have a mobile payment app that gives you a unique QR code that you can use at checkout, where a business scans your code and deducts the required payment.

This is a seamless and convenient method of payment. It has great appeal to those who are familiar with it. The classic experience at a restaurant has been to have to wait on the check, send your card or cash back, wait to receive change, then tip, then finally leave. It’s a process that QR codes for checkout can help with.

This will appeal to diners, especially those with time constraints. Moreover, it will create a more efficient process for you and your wait staff. There will be less time spent on transactions and more on great customer service. Some of your customers might be confused by it at first and not fond of the new technology. But you’re playing the long game here, and this is the future payment transactions are headed in.

It’s A Win-Win Move

Becoming a QR code restaurant is a win-win move. It is sure to pay for itself, given its low costs, in a short amount of time. There are a lot of ways for restaurants to use QR codes right. We’ve just scratched the surface with the ideas we offer here. Regardless of how you choose to use them, you will see an increase in sales.