The widespread usage of smartphones means that QR codes can be highly effective for promoting businesses and helping them connect to their intended audiences. Not only are QR codes quick and easy to read via a smartphone camera, but they offer multiple opportunities to increase brand interactions with customers.
Kushal Tantry, CEO of QR Code Developer has shared his top tips for incorporating QR codes into your existing business model to help improve the customer experience and drive more sales.
Customers can quickly access your website
Businesses can use QR codes to help potential customers quickly locate their website, by placing them on posters, business cards, and other promotional materials.
Incorporating a QR code that customers can scan with their phone means they don’t have to type in the URL for your website. This can often be a point of resistance, especially if you want to direct them to a subpage of your site that might have a lengthy URL.
Another way to share your information is to put your contact details into a QR code. This makes it easy for customers to get in touch and find out more about the business, or even use it again if they keep it saved on their phone.
Improved customer experience
If you run a cafe, pub or business where customers choose from a menu or catalog, QR codes can offer an additional point of sale. In addition to a physical menu, linking a QR code to a digital menu means that customers have more options when ordering.
Consider extending this further if there is other online media that customers can access via a QR code. Codes can also be placed on email receipts or invoices so that customers can bring the payment system up on their phone if they are not paying in person.
Trackable interactions
A valuable metric when using QR codes is that you can monitor the number of times it has been scanned. You can also log information about which devices or operating systems were used to scan the code, the timing of scans, and whereabouts the code was scanned.
Using QR codes on flyers, posters or business cards allows you to track which are most successful at driving customers to your site and ultimately converting them into paying customers.
This can also help businesses determine the types of customers using their QR codes. This can help build up a profile of their target audience and assist them with future marketing or services.
Email signups and followers
It is valuable to encourage customers to sign up for an email list or follow the business on social media. This allows them to see any updates posted on the platforms and be reminded to use the business again soon.
QR codes can send customers to your website to sign up via email, or to an online page that hosts the business’s social media accounts.
These QR codes could be printed on a physical receipt or business card, which means customers can be directed straight to the email signup page and avoid needing to search for the websites themselves.
Feedback surveys and reviews
Utilizing customer feedback is a good way for businesses to appeal to their target audience and improve upon areas customers are unhappy with.
QR codes streamline this process by linking directly to the feedback form which the customer can complete in their own time. This allows for more indepth feedback forms which offer customers a potential incentive once completed. QR codes can also link to external online review sites so that customer feedback can help boost rankings.
Offer incentives and deals
Businesses can use QR codes to offer customers rewards or incentives for repeat visits. These can be tracked by scanning their unique QR codes at the till using a dedicated app.
For example, Costa Coffee offers a free drink for customers who have made purchases previously and scanned the QR code on these visits. This rewards customers for their loyalty and gamifies the reward scheme.
