You probably run a restaurant. And one of your top most aim is to ensure a good guest experience and increase the footfall at your restaurant.
To do this, you ensure a lot of things such as provide quality food, maintain restaurant hygiene, design a guest-friendly infrastructure, provide coupons and deals on the food you offer.
In fact, you also look for ways and means to engage your guests better. You obviously want guests to enjoy the experience. And recommend your restaurant to others. Afterall, word-of-mouth is one of the best marketing hacks.
You want to explore the scope of QR Codes to achieve your goal. And you’re right. QR Codes are a potential tool to make your restaurant modern, tech savvy, and quick.
QR Codes have already become pervasive. And the cherry on the cake is that some of the popular restaurants across the world are using it already.
In this article, we’ll tell you how QR Codes make sense in restaurants and how you can use them for your business.
A. Why use QR Codes in restaurants
For the uninitiated, QR Codes are advanced barcodes that can be easily scanned via a smartphone. They are easy to create, and occupy very limited space.
Here are some of the reasons why you should use QR Codes in your restaurant:
1. Link to unlimited content
You can encode web URLs into QR Codes. And make it possible to display unlimited content.
That is, you can link useful information about your restaurant or the food you offer.
Besides, you can also link engaging information like quizzes and anecdotes which guests can checkout while waiting for their meal.
2. Link to multimedia content
Multimedia is always a promising platform to engage people. And QR Codes can also link to multimedia content. You can link online videos, documents, image galleries, and audio files in a QR Code.
For example, you can link recipe video for the dishes that you prepare in your restaurant.
Related : How To Make QR Code For App Links
3. Update linked information anytime
It is always possible to update information on a webpage. But by using a Dynamic QR Code, it is also possible to update the URL the QR Code links to. For example, you can change a video link that you have already encoded in a QR Code.
Here, note that your QR Code design will remain the same. Hence you do not have to splash money in reprinting costs.
4. QR Codes are damage resistant
QR codes can resist damage upto 30%. That is, even if your QR Code is slightly torn, damaged, or worn out, it still holds the capability to be scanned.
5. Create colorful QR Codes
Make QR Code the point-of-engagement inside your premises. You could add it to the menu or even on a poster. And we’re talking about a customized QR Code here.
Obviously, a black-and-white QR Code is boring to look at. But a customized variant with your logo and brand colors will look enthusing.
So simply create a custom-designed QR Code. And make it y a point-of-interest for your guests.
Now that you know why QR Codes make sense in a restaurant, let’s see how you can use them.
B. How to engage guests in your restaurant via QR Codes
Here are some effective ways of how you can exhaust QR Code technology for your restaurant. And help your guests savour the experience as a whole.
1. Make it easy for your customers to dine-out and learn about their food
You can put up QR Codes that help customers order their meal and self-pay their bills. How?
Create QR Codes which, when scanned, bring up the menu for customers to help them order their meal.
And as they finish their meal, scanning the QR Code brings up their bill to help them pay it digitally.
They’ll do not even have to bother about pulling out their phone just for using a tip calculator online, because now, they can do the rest also on the phone.
This will make it convenient for customers to order, pay, and even tip the restaurant staff.
Some use cases of QR Codes in restaurant for this purpose
Vancouver
Vancouver’s tech firm Ready has already made it possible. Every table has a QR Code that brings up the menu/bill as customers scan it.
Tori Dundas, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Vancouver Startup—Ready, said;
“The thing that sets it apart is that it’s not an app and you don’t have to download anything. In the restaurant, there is a QR Code on every table. If you have an iPhone, you literally don’t have to download anything. You hover your camera over the code, your bill pops up, and you pay it electronically. The level of convenience is what sets up apart from everyone else.”
Cape Town
In Cape Town, restaurants are taking initiatives to even enhance dining experience of their customers in other ways.
Abalobi, an initiative that covers all the aspect of small scale fisheries—from hook to crook in Cape Town, is making it possible. When fishermen get a catch, they digitally log its information: type of fish, where it was caught, how many fish were caught, etc.
This information becomes available to nearby chefs. And with a QR Code they add this information to their menus. This QR Code helps diners learn about their fish.
2. Offer them games and rewards
Restaurants can give their guests an option to play a mobile-based game. This will keep the guest engaged while they wait for their order or bill to arrive.
The customers can scan the QR Code and access the browser based online game. They can also win freebies or discounts if they manage to score well in the game.
3. Help them submit their feedback
Feedbacks are important to know what you’re doing right and what improvements you need to make. Further, such reviews online also help you rank better on the search engines.
But submitting a review is a tedious process. Hence, customers often don’t bother doing it. But a QR Code can help you get them to do it. How? By making it easier to submit their feedback.
They just need to scan the QR Code and submit their comments. That simple. And we call it—a Google review QR Code.
4. Link fun activities in QR Code
You can use a QR Code to ask quizzes, run contests, and keep competitions. Just by scanning a QR Code, guests will be redirect to a contest or a lucky-draw webpage. If the guests win the contest, they can win freebies or get discounts.
Similarly, you can link anecdotes to your QR Code. That is, you can provide fun facts about your restaurant or share your story.
5. Run promotional campaigns with dynamic digital content
Restaurants can run a Dynamic QR Code-based campaign. By using Dynamic QR Codes, you can change/update the information anytime. Besides, you can also track how well your campaign worked.
For example, a popular bar in Gurgaon (India) stamped a QR Code on every guest’s arm. They called it the ‘Buddy Stamp’. Once scanned, the guests could view varying content throughout the evening.
These pages provide content such as deals, food menus, radio taxi contact numbers, etc.
6. Allow guests to place an order and pay using their smartphones
You can also give guests the option of placing orders and making payments by scanning a QR Code.
For example, The Melt takes orders by generating QR Codes. And helps guests skip the effort of making online order.
Also see how robot bartenders at Tipsy robot bar use QR Codes to make drinks and how Japan tested order taking robots in Pizza hut.
7. Easily share a Coupon Code with a QR Code
Who doesn’t love discounts? They’re a great way to increase the footfall at your restaurant.
Hence, you can consider offering discounts to your customers. And to make it easier for them to avail it, create QR Code coupons. Then, hand them out to your audience.
Upon scanning, your guests will be able to avail the discount or deal. And since coupons are a great way to incentivize your customers— a QR Code coupon code will perform this function better.
8. Increase social engagement with your guests
You can also increase your social media followers using a QR Code. Simply create a Social Media QR Code and lead your guests to like your restaurant’s page on Facebook or Tweet.
Since they are already your customers, they will be likely to follow you online. And a strong social media presence is a great way to market your business online. While you use social media, you can also think of using the best restaurant advertisement examples, such as paid ads.
Also read: Increase engagement with these 5 must-know QR Code best practices.
9. Provide detailed information about the dish
Since QR Code can link unlimited information, you can add details of the food being eaten. That is, you can tell them about the possible allergies, precautions to be taken, the best season to consume a particular meal.
Along with that, you can provide information about the ingredients being used and in what quantity.
Restaurants can also add QR Code in the menu which provides important details about each dish. This is especially important for guests to avoid any possible food allergies.
10. Tell them who is the Head Chef
You can promote the Head Chef by allowing fans to access information by scanning a QR Code. This could be their favourite recipes, video interviews, etc.
Besides, chefs can also give details of food combos— with what things can the particular dish be combined best. And served best.
This will be both informative and engaging.
11. Show them an engaging video
The video could be anything that makes your restaurant unique. For example—your special dish.
You can educate guests about its preparation via a YouTube video. Guests who scan the code will be able to view the video on their smartphones.
This will keep your guests fully enlightened about what they are eating.
Restaurants using QR Codes to show videos
United Kingdom
Radisson Edwardian in UK is one of the most famous hotel and restaurant chains in the country. And it massively makes use of QR Codes campaigns in its restaurants.
The restaurant uses QR Codes in their menu to show videos of dish preparation. On scanning via their smartphone, the guest can see how their selected dish was prepared.
12. Allow them to download the restaurant’s mobile application
You can link the restaurants’ app by creating an App QR Code. And add to it to bill receipts, menu, or even posters inside the premises. This will provide an easy and quick access to app download to your guests.
This way, the number of downloads for your app will also increase.
13. Allow them to access the restaurant’s free Wi-Fi
You can share your restaurant’s Wi-Fi network credentials through QR Codes. Guests who scan the code can connect to the network.
This will also save the guest’s effort in manually typing the password. Plus, your password will also not be publicly revealed.
You just read an exhaustive list of QR Codes can engage your guests better. With many restaurants already using it, plan your QR Code strategy today before major decisions are taken.
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