The Future of the Humble QR Code

I’m an introvert.*

From the time I was young, social interactions exhausted me and also gave me the heebie jeebies. I would make my younger brothers call the pizza place to put our order in. We weren’t getting pizza if I had to call. Full Stop.

The invent of online ordering and it’s explosive growth over the last few years has been a balm to my quiet soul. I don’t have to talk to anyone, I don’t have to feel like a pain in the butt when I ask for something without pickles or peppers, I can even order ahead so I don’t feel impending doom of an upcoming task.

SO. what the heck does all of this have to do with the QR code?

A lot. I promise. One more story and it’ll come together.

Last year I was at an airport - a layover for a business trip. It was really busy and there weren’t any quiet corners where I could plug in my computer and just knock out some work in peace. I was trying to find lunch and was just starting to feel a little overwhelmed, drained, and hungry. Then I saw one little sign at a random restaurant that had a QR code and this was the only way to order food. I didn’t care what kind of restaurant it was. It was lunch. Turned out to be hotdogs and burgers. I ordered and 10 minutes later got an email that my lunch was ready. Smoothest airport experience. EVER.

It got me thinking about what the future of the QR Code could be. More widespread airport use, for one…. but where else?

Hospitals. Imagine going to visit a loved one and you just scan the code on your way in. You get hungry later and only need to visit the cafeteria when your food is ready. You get as much time as possible with your loved one but can still get dinner whenever it suits you.

Corporate Campuses. Same deal - but you order food to be ready in-between meetings so you can pop down quickly.

Food Trucks/ Skyways. For those of you unfamiliar, skyways in downtown Minneapolis are enclosed bridges on the second floor of most buildings so you don’t have to walk down to the street to cross into another building. The second floors of many buildings have restaurants that you can visit for lunch even if you’re in a different building.

For those or Food Trucks on the street during downtown lunch, you could order ahead and just run out when your food is ready. Super handy.

But, Crystina, couldn’t you just put the url of your online ordering menu somewhere?

Yeah, you absolutely can. There’s nothing wrong with that, but how many people (points at self) are going to say “Oh, it’s cocobananas.com/order. I can remember that.” And then they (me) spend 20 minutes typing in random websites in their phone because they (me) were SURE they remembered it.

Putting a QR code up instead of a URL is almost like giving your potential customers a call to action. They can take a quick picture of the QR code to use later. If it’s a food truck they could also take a picture of the food truck so they remember that it was the bright pink one with a blue cat on the side that had the amazing elote.

QR Codes have all of the benefits of online ordering with the added benefits of less clicks or searching to find them. If your restaurant’s online menu is easy to find, you’re likely to lose less customers. We’re fortunate that restaurants have used QR Codes for their dine-in menus quite frequently recently. That means that a large segment of the population is already accustomed to use QR Codes to order food.

While it’s 1000% selfish of me to hope for more QR Codes and less interaction, but I’d be curious to see how much more focus a food truck could put on execution if they don’t have someone dedicated to taking orders. That person could be running food or backing up the kitchen. Food trucks are small enough as they are. Or how many more orders a hospital cafeteria might get if someone could order and get the food faster than ordering through a 3rd party delivery app.

It does bear mentioning that some online ordering providers have already provided best practices and support for using QR Codes; so I’m not introducing anything that isn’t already there for you. For some of you, you just have to commit to using what’s available! For those whose online ordering company DOES NOT provide or support QR Codes, you can generate QR Codes through Google Chrome. You can find simple instructions here. Or, to further illustrate ease of use, I generated a QR Code of Google’s QR Code instruction page and posted it below. (QR Code-ception if you will.)

At any rate, who know the silly QR Code would become a staple in the restaurant industry? Not me, but I’m here for it.

A QR Code that will take you to instructions on how to generate a QR Code of any website on Chrome.

*There are some of you here that are shocked that I’m an introvert. If that’s you, then know I consider you someone worth the social fatigue to get to talk to! Thanks for being awesome!