QSR December 2022

DEPARTMENT INNOVATION

ASecondLookatQRCodes The early COVID headliner has plenty of life in a post-pandemic landscape. B Y L I Z M O S K O W

R estaurants have many pressing issues to contend with to ensure their survival in the current post-pandemic world. Struggling with inflation, labor shortages, supply chain, and impending recession, some might argue that there isn’t any real incentive for restaurants to focus their attention on menu QR codes. The implementation of QR codes solved a problem initially—to provide customers with a contactless way of reviewing what’s on the menu. With that “problem” solved, operators can focus on the real issues at hand, or so they may have thought. Static QR codes, while solv ing for “something” are generating additional problems for consumers who exhibit strong opinions either for or against them. For restau rants, they’re also a massive missed opportunity to effectively engage their audience, generate sales, and create loyalty. QR codes can, and should be, used differ ently to enhance the customer experience for restaurant diners. With the right approach, the QR code menu can morph into an interactive ordering tool that enhances hospitality rather than hampers it, resulting in increased check averages and happier, more loyal customers.

Although its applications might be changing, the QR code remains a viable option for operators.

A quick look at how these black-and-white squares are currently being used in different sectors of business shows us QR codes can enable consumers to directly connect to brands in a robust way. On the retail shelf for example, there is a strong trend toward using QR codes to offer promotions to shoppers. Pre-pandemic estimates aggregated by Juniper Research showmore than 5 billion QR code coupons would be redeemed in 2022—a figure that has only grown as consumers ( nearly 50 percent, as of last year ) become more and more comfortable scanning marketing-related codes. Furthermore, QR codes are at the forefront of the $40 billion global connected packaging industry, with three quarters of shoppers willing to scan product packaging to gain more detailed information. Sarah Ellenbogen is the CEO of Digiphy, a Techstars, M13, and LightShed Ventures backed startup that supports restaurants in amplifying the relevance and effectiveness of QR-based mar keting. Digiphy is one company actively helping restaurants solve these problems in order to satisfy their customers, but also to help them capitalize on the full potential that dynamic content can pro vide for their business.

“In the restaurant setting, QR code PDF menus often fail to provide a multi-dimensional experience and seem to only showcase a utilitarian one-way PDF menu that is hard to absorb, diff icult to navigate, and often leads to frustration and aggravation for the customer, the opposite of a positive hospitality experience,” Ellen bogen says. During COVID, the PDF menu was a functional solution for providing contactless menus. But many, if not most, restaurants have done away with paper menus altogether, default ing to the QR code despite the fact this practice often leads to an underwhelming and often maddening user experience for their guests. The main frustration is this: PDFs are not optimized for mobile viewing, forcing users to pinch, zoom, and scroll their way through the document in order to comfortably read it. This is bad for the customer, but also really bad for the res taurant as early data has shown that QR code PDF menus lead to lower check averages and less order volume due to the unnec essary friction it creates. For diners over the age of 40, few things can frustrate you faster than having to hold your phone at arm’s length because you can’t read the small print. CONTINUED ON PAGE 62

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