Love them or hate them...QR ordering is here to stay
‘The times they are a-changin' goes the song, and indeed they are. The writing is on the wall for paper menu based menus. The long-cherished idea of trying to appease everyone – ‘all things to all people’ is vanishing.
The challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic required restaurants to reinvent or make dramatic changes to the conventional hotel restaurant business model they had followed. 2020 brought with it a new focus on personal hygiene and the adoption of social distancing. One such change for operating in the post-COVID new normal was the recommendation that restaurants use disposable or digital menus.
Albeit COVID-19, when one considers that paper restaurant menus are the single most unhygienic item on a restaurant table (There are 185,000 germs per square centimeter on the average paper menu), and nearly 16 times more contaminated than the second most germ-infested item - pepper shakers, it makes absolute sense.
Disposable or single-use menus (SUMs) designed to be used only once and thrown out, are a solution to the problem of shared-item contamination – although not the ideal way out. Single use menus are usually for special events, like private parties or weddings. I.e. for any occasion where the menu is specific to that one-time dining experience. The downsides of disposable menus or single use menus revolve mainly around the cost of constantly printing them. Any restaurant running a high-volume operation that switches to SUMs is effectively funding a small printing press.
Digitizing menus, apropos QR code menu solves all the problems of reusable menus or single use menus. The QR (which stands for quick response) was first invented by a Japanese engineer in 1994 to keep track of car parts more easily. Smart phones and cameras accelerated its use into everyday life but it wasn’t until the pandemic that it became a ‘must have’.
QR codes are inexpensive to create and maintain, totally touchless (the ideal germ free dining choice since the only thing customers touch are their own phones), the menu does not need to be condensed (it can be as extensive as one wants it to be), is easy for guests to navigate (admittedly not as easy as skimming thru a paper menu though), can be edited in seconds and have an array of uses - From QR code marketing and QR code tracking to touchless ordering and payments to QR code nutritional information.
Many restaurants have major staffing issues. When short-staffed, the remaining staff can handle more tasks efficiently when there is technology that takes away 50% of the walking part of their jobs. This includes not having to take orders, work out and present bills and revisit the tables to take payments manually. Additionally, ‘run out’ items can be instantly marked out of the menu – avoiding the disappointment of the customer when told ‘not available’.
That said, introducing this technology presents its own unique set of challenges. Some customers, especially older generations, are generally averse to change. After all, we’re talking about a high-touch industry that revolves around optimizing the human experience. Clearly, there will be guests that could care less about a QR code to order food. Some have not kept up with technology, whilst others may show resistance to not been provide physical menus. Others may rant about having phones out as a horrible way to begin dinner… However, be that as it may, we are now at a place in time, where most guests use and expect technology to be available where they stay or dine.
Ilzaf Keefahs is a free lance writer who enjoys focusing on hospitality related matters that he is passionate about, and likes to share his views with hoteliers and customers alike. He delves into the heart of hospitality to figure out both customer service and consumer trends that impact the industry
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