If you are like most restaurant owners, you are always on the lookout for new, innovative ideas that can improve how you operate and attract new clientele. The arrival of COVID-19 threw a wrench into many well-defined restaurant business plans, forcing owners to reevaluate their operations. While the successes of the past still remain relevant, building a new way to safely operate required some new thought processes.
One piece of proven technology that restaurateurs are utilizing is QR codes for POS systems. Introducing QR codes into your restaurant will allow you to develop safe interactions between staff and customers. The use of QR codes can reduce the amount of direct contact for in-house dining, streamline online ordering, and double as a cost-effective marketing tool to expand the reach of your brand.
Before you begin, there are a few points of consideration you need to understand in order to maximize the benefits of QR codes. They come with a wide range of purposes, so ensuring you understand the right use for QR codes, as well as how to properly integrate them into your POS solution, is critical.
Understand the Proper Setup of QR Codes for Restaurant Use
Determining how and where QR codes should be used in your restaurant is a decision that requires a little finesse and some forward-thinking. Determining where the placement of QR codes will best serve your restaurant’s operations, ensure the safety of diners and staff, all while preventing them from becoming an overwhelming presence, is a delicate balance that must be established. Identifying the key places for QR code placement will give you the most benefit with minimal adverse impact.
While QR code readers are plentiful and available for installation on almost every smartphone currently in use today, some of your customers may not know or understand how to scan and use a QR code. Some of your initial signage may need to include basic instructions on how to use a QR code. While this adds more text to signage and menus, it improves the usage rate of QR codes and ensures that customers do not leave out of frustration.
Strategic placement on menus, at a hostess stand, or on the front door will aid in encouraging customer participation in using QR codes. Accessibility and usability are the most important elements to keep in mind when deploying QR codes in your restaurant for the first time. You must remain vigilant and be prepared to proactively address any issues with QR code locations or technical items to further promote customer engagement.
Improve Order Accuracy and Speed
Just as important as the physical location of your QR codes is the technology you rely on. Seamless integration of QR codes with your POS system can provide robust gains in both ordering accuracy and the speed of filling those orders.
The QR codes you have at your tables allow you to build a safer dining experience in a few ways:
- A QR code that integrates with your POS app will launch your app on a customer’s phone when scanned. Customers can place their orders and pay from the convenience of the app. This limits the number of trips a server makes to a table and provides the customer with greater control over the safety of their dining experience.
- To add an extra element of customer safety, you can ditch the physical menu completely by placing a QR code on a tablet insert or table tent. This then opens your menu on a mobile device when the QR code is scanned, presenting the diner with the same contact-limiting experience as the last scenario but with the extra feature of not having any menus to touch.
- Placing a QR code at the hostess stand can help you automate the seating process. A customer arrives, and after scanning the QR code at the hostess stand, your app opens and asks them for their reservation or party size. The app will then direct them to their table or provide a wait time, both of which help limit contact with others.
Just these few applications of QR codes greatly reduce exposure to COVID-19 and other health concerns for all parties. Your staff can go home after their shift with confidence knowing that they are unlikely to spread illness to loved ones, and your customers can confidently dine knowing that you value their safety.
Promote Customer and Staff Safety With Curbside Marketing and Ordering
There are other exciting ways QR codes can be employed to boost revenue, productivity, and safety. Curbside marketing placements in your windows, entry doors, or sidewalk sandwich boards make it easy for passersby to quickly scan and view your meal options. The QR codes in these situations can be configured to prompt the user to download your POS app, view your menu in a web browser, or sign up for promotional alerts.
Those who scan your outward-facing QR codes and download your app can then place takeout orders while they stand in front of your business. From here, a customer can also request curbside delivery service, or ask for the meal to be delivered to their home. These QR code locations present you with another great, low-cost, high-reward marketing tool that will help drive business.
Build Your Integrated QR Code POS System Today
It is no secret just how effective QR codes can be for business operations and marketing. There are a number of key points within the customer journey where the use of QR codes can help create a safe and inviting atmosphere. Accomplishing this requires that you have advanced POS technology in place to help build streamlined, QR code-driven restaurant processes.
