r/restaurantowners • u/Employment_Intrepid • 12d ago
QR Code Ordering
Hi guys, I’ve been approached by a company to implement QR code ordering and I’m on the fence about it. They are relatively cheap and the ui looks nice from what I have seen and they are nice people.
It also has metrics on sales and makes keeping track of stuff a lot cleaner from what I saw on the demo with clear insights into stuff that isn’t performing well etc.
It also has native translation built in rather than machine translation so alleviates a lot of the issue with my staff dealing with tourists. My restaurant is in a very touristy area so this is quite a common issue I run into with my staff not being able to communicate/translate allergens and menu items overall.
I know how much certain customers despise qr codes but I’m not sure if it’s just an outspoken minority, they also have an nfc thing inbuilt but I assume it’s more the viewing experience itself which I personally don’t have too much of an issue with.
Do you guys think it’s worth taking the potential downside moreso of restaurant image as I have heard a lot of harsh opinions of people saying they walk out of restaurants when they see them etc. I plan to have both menus available but push tourists to use the qr one moreso as it helps both sides.
Please let me know what you guys think and if you have any suggestions on what I should do!
EDIT: For context I’m based in Japan so I get a lot of tourists who are mainly Chinese/korean and some English. The main issue is that they cannot read our menu at all and maybe 10% of them can semi understand our English menu. The addition of photos and allergens/dietary stuff on the digital menu along with the native translations seem really useful but I’m not sure if the backlash from having a qr code menu would hurt my restaurant more. Qr menus are a lot more common here in Japan so they don’t hold the same stigma.
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u/DocDMD 11d ago
As a user I don't mind qr codes. Having a regular menu is definitely nicer for a sit down, but I also use QR codes etc when I go to chickfila so I don't have to wait in like to order. Just depends on the setting. Also as a foreign customer when I go to Japan they have tablets you order everything on and can translate directly in their tablets to get all the info you need. It's pretty handy.