QR Codes: Turn Your Cash Register Rental Into a Marketing Opportunity
Whether you've used them yourself, or have just seen them popping up on business cards, advertisments, property listings, etc., QR codes are a quick way to give customers information.
While waiting in the lobby of a local restaraunt for my to go order, I found myself looking for something to distract me from the hunger that was starting to overwhelm me. Normally I fill this time with a quick game of Angry Birds, but something else caught my eye. Sitting on a nearby shelf was a ketchup bottle with one of those "pixely black and white squares" printed on it. That's the term I ususally use for it, but they are technically called QR Codes.
What is a QR Code?
A Quick Response Code or QR Code is a two dimensional barcode capable of encoding over 7000 purely numeric characters or over 4200 alphanumeric characters. This type of barcode was developed in 1994 for the auto industry to track part numbers and descriptions. Since then, they have found more broad uses. These codes can be programmed with everything from product numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers, website URLs.
QR Codes can be read by a number of scanning devices. With certain smart phone apps, the camera on a cell phone can function as a scanner. Simply aim the phone at the barcode and up will pop the encoded message, or the user will be brought to the specified web address.
Engage Your Customer
So there I was, scanning a bottle of my favorite ketchup with my phone. I was brought to they company's website and found out some interesting facts about America's #1 condiment. (Although in my family, we count ketchup as it's own food group.) It occured to me that the time inbetween paying for my order and receiving it, I was a fairly captive audience. This gave me an idea.
The standard cash register receipt footer has room to program 2-6 lines of text with each line containing up to 32 characters. Most of the time that space is filled with a "Thank You For Your Business" message and a maybe a website and phone number. Some cash registers have the ability to print a monochrome logo or other image in addition to the header or footer. This is the perfect scenario for printing a QR Code. This feature makes a picture worth an entire website.
Now your customer has quick access to important information about your business. It could be just link to your home page, or maybe a customer feedback survey, or an announcement about next month's special offer. There's no need for the customer to remember or even type out the long web address of a custom page making it easy for them. And the easier something is, the more likely you are to get a response.
As an example and special offer of our own, try scanning the code to the right. If you don't have your phone handy or don't have a QR Scanner app yet, you always use the old school method of clicking on the link as well.