Tecfuge Business Solutions

QR Codes and How it Turns out to Be A Business Leverage

Quick Response, or QR codes were first invented back in 1994, as a way to track automotive vehicles during production, and to scan components quickly. Now, over a quarter century later, they are having a moment in every country as consumers look to reduce contact in their everyday interactions to help minimize the spread of COVID-19. Many restaurants and Shopping Malls now have virtual menus and payment counters that are accessed through QR codes. Digital payment systems with QR technology are also becoming more popular.

Digital payment systems with QR code technology are already widely integrated in China. The country also has been using a color-coded QR code health pass in the pandemic, to control people’s movements and to slow the spread of COVID-19.

How the use of QR code picked up during COVID-19?

The two-dimensional barcode was designed by Masahiro Hara from the Japanese automotive components company Denso Wave for the motor industry in 1994. Its purpose was to allow high-speed component scanning.

However, the codes soon became used in a much broader context, including in both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile-phone users (termed mobile tagging). A QR code uses four standardised encoding modes (numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary, and kanji) to store data efficiently.

When smartphones started gaining traction, the codes became even more popular; however, they were hindered by a few issues: they were complicated to use and slow smartphone internet speeds prevented successful execution. The Apple iPhone camera did not support QR code scanning, requiring users to download a third-party app. So, as the iPhone took over, brands stopped seeing the potential in QR codes. In Apple’s 2017 iOS 11 update, the iPhone camera was for the first time able to scan QR codes with no third-party app required, and the use of the codes has been growing in popularity ever since.

Now with the coronavirus pandemic sweeping through many parts of the world, for a second or third time, the need for a QR code has become paramount as the fear of contamination through touch has been drilled into the psyche of people. Governments are using it more and more to help trace and stop the spread of COVID-19. If you use your mobile phone to scan a QR code when you enter a business, be it a store or cafe, your details are logged in the event of a breakout of COVID-19.

In New South wales, Australia, their NSW Berejiklian announced all hospitality businesses are required to have QR code check-in procedures. Berejiklian urged businesses to use the government’s Service NSW centralised app; however, businesses can use their own digital system.

In the UK, a QR code has to be displayed if you own hospitality services, including pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes; tourism and leisure services, including hotels, museums, cinemas and amusement arcades; and close contact services, including hairdressers, barbershops and tailors (including mobile close contact businesses).

Patrons scan the code when they arrive, using the Johnson Government’s NHS COVID-19 app.

In France, anyone who needs to travel has to fill in a digital form that generates a PDF certificate containing a QR code, which can be used to get through a station without touching anything. Businesses such as gyms are also seeking to use QR codes to make their businesses entry and access touch free.

How does QR code work?

A QR code is, effectively, a bar code that is read by a smartphone camera or QR reader app. Once scanned, the QR code takes the user to either an online form (or an app installed on the user’s phone) which records the date and time of the user’s visit to the premises and, in most cases, the user is asked to provide their contact details and answer a questionnaire.

The collected information is then used to identify a visitor or staff member that may have a connection to a COVID hot spot and, on request, disclosed to State health authorities for contact tracing purposes. For businesses required to collect contact information, the fields for the questionnaire will depend on the applicable government direction or order. For example, in Queensland the required information is limited to the date and duration of visit, name, phone number and email address.

But anyone who has been asked to scan a QR code for contactless check-in in response to COVID-19 will know that often the information requested is not limited to basic contact details. The questionnaire will often also ask for yes/no answers in response to the usual COVID Safe questions (“have you got a temperature”, “have you been in contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19” and “have you recently traveled overseas”). In some cases, the questionnaire further extends to the date of birth and other profiling information, and direct marketing “opt-in”, all under the guise of being for “COVID safe purposes”.

It is important to remember that any information or opinion relating to the health of customers, visitors and staff is sensitive information under the Privacy Act and attracts additional privacy obligations and protections, compared to other personal information.

Benefits of QR code in Business

  • Faster Way to Transact

What are the other ways for customers to pay? It’s either they use cash or card, and either is nowhere near fast nor convenient. You are going to hand over the change or need to go through the extensive steps of processing a credit card.

On the other hand, QR codes are as easy as pointing a smartphone camera and a customer is good to go. It doesn’t hold the line nor put the woman on the cash register under a lot of stress and pressure.

  • Less Human Error

One way or the other, the person manning the cash register can get too distracted, resulting in human error. Either too much change is given or charging the wrong amount on a credit card.

The benefits of QR codes ensure neither happens.

  • Secure

You just can’t trust anybody too much these days, whether it may be a customer or staff. Your own employee could potentially take advantage of the details that can be found on a credit card. On the other hand, a customer can pay with fake money.

With QR codes, customers don’t get to risk the potential of their credit card credentials getting stolen. In addition, you can’t get paid with fake money with digital payments.

  • Saves You on Costs

By using dynamic QR codes, you are able to create an image that allows for updatable embedded data. So, when you put up QR code posters, you don’t necessarily have to take them off and replace them when they have served their purpose.

Instead, you can just update its content. It saves you on manpower and printing expenses.

  • Paperless Menus/catalogs

If you are a restaurant, you need menus. If you are running something else, you have catalogs. Aren’t you tired of having to keep printing them out?

Wouldn’t it be better if you can just print a QR code for people to scan for a digital version? It brings everything in the palm of their hands, making it more convenient.

  • Engages Customers

Telling people about your business usually is not enough. Your posters tend to get ignored and your flyers are thrown out. However, QR codes can get them hooked by engaging them. There are various different types of engaging content you can link to QR codes. It can be an online game or a digital magazine, but one that stands out the most is a QR code scanning game.

Give discounts to the first scanners and something else to the rest. Through this, you keep people anticipating and coming back for more.

Conclusion

Year after year, QR codes are seeing more integration into daily human activities. It is just a matter of time before everybody will find the need to learn how to scan them. With how the technology is progressing, it is opening more options and flexibility for you as a business owner. It also shows that it is not about to get outdated anytime soon and render all your improvements useless.

With the benefits of QR codes, it brings significant changes to your business. It makes things easier and increases the potential for revenue and survival.

All of that for something that doesn’t require any extensive learning and investment. With all that said, QR codes are one of the greatest assets you can get to help your business and marketing.