Restaurants quickly realize that QR codes offer an easy, touch-less ordering option even after the peak of coronavirus.
Barcodes have found a niche in restaurants and other industries worldwide amid the coronavirus when social distance is the game’s name, and human contact is best kept to a minimum. Most often, Operators place the codes at the hostess stand, on table tents, or outside the door, allowing guests to scan them with their phones to pull up a menu, order, and pay. As a result, they have become a standard offering from ordering software suppliers.
It is mostly done through little to no contact with a traditional waiter, nor does the guest need to download an app to do it. Indeed, QR codes are here to stay, and as part of this technological adaptation as an essential tool in our daily lives. The popularity of QR codes is gaining more space in the business world and offers us help in the most diverse situations.
The QR is a simple code to use. By reading the figure with a camera on your mobile device or tablet, you will access information related to the product, site, or interest. Thus, the QR code in restaurants is beginning to be seen more frequently to help speed up the activities inherent to the premises.
Moreover, the QR code is a quick response code developed under some of the premises of the popular bar codes. It can contain information in typical bar codes or a dot matrix. Its importance to the business world is immeasurable. For example, about two years ago, Branded implemented QR codes at one of its restaurants, an upscale sports bar in Manhattan called Duke’s. In an interview, Julie Zucker, CMO of Branded Strategic Hospitality, admitted that guests love it because it allows them to easily order drinks or food on busy game days without flagging down a server or squeezing through a crowd to the bar.
When the pandemic had hit and dining rooms were closed, Branded used the QR codes to support curbside takeout at Duke’s and two neighboring concepts. The codes are also in place at outdoor tables where seated guests can scan and order from any of the three restaurants. They are alerted via text when their order is ready and can pick it up at the bar.
In the same interview, Michael Schatzberg, founder and managing partner of Branded, said, “It was a labor issue for us. Many restaurants embrace QR for this contactless, ‘I do not want to touch a menu.’’ It is no surprise that guests have been receptive to the codes. According to Restaurant, nearly a third of consumers said disposable or single-use menus would make them feel safe as restaurants reopen.
Business sister company Technomic. QR codes take that one step further by putting menus on guests’ phone screens.
For restaurants, the codes can help solve the labor crunch brought on by the pandemic by requiring less waitstaff. They also offer an opportunity to engage more deeply with guests. In short, the codes provide some benefits at a relatively low cost to the restaurants and yet, until recently, they had not found a foothold in the U.S. as they had in other countries.
