A Guide to Creating QR Codes for Restaurant Menus
If you want to go digital, you should start creating QR codes. QR codes ushered in the idea of replacing conventional menus with digital ones. They are among the latest trends in the food industry as they allow touchless transactions between the crew and customers. Beyond the menu, the codes are also used in marketing, gathering customer data, and collecting feedback.
QR Codes and Restaurants
The pandemic shut down many businesses and had the most significant impact on the tourism and food industries. Over 100,000 restaurants in the US shut down in 2020 alone. Restaurants were among the first to go because food and human contact don't go well together if society wants to control the spread of COVID-19.
But the restaurants figured out a way to entertain customers again despite the ongoing concerns about the pandemic. They replaced the menu on paper when they discovered they could create a QR code online and edit its content if you want to remove or add new dishes to your menu. The customers and restaurant staff can read the menu after using their phones to scan the code.
Steps in Creating QR Codes for Your Menus
Do you now realize why restaurants should create a QR code for free? It might seem too tech-forward for you to consider the idea of a QR code as your restaurant menu. But if your goal is to bring your business to the new era, it needs to catch up. What's even more important is you're promoting safety by reducing contact if you opt to go digital with your menus.
Generating QR codes to create your new restaurant menu is easy. A few steps may vary, depending on the best QR code generator you will choose, but it usually goes like this:
1. Visit the QR code generator's website and pick a template, if any, for a restaurant menu. It is critical if you are new to the process. At least you will have a guide in developing the menu instead of doing it entirely from scratch.
2. Encode your menu and customize it according to your brand's colors and theme.
3. Add dish photos and other multimedia content, but use only the smallest image sizes possible that will not look pixelated on your customers' screens. You'd want them to be attracted to the dishes you're offering and not be put off by blurry images in your digital menu.
4. Fill in the information fields in the QR code generator with the correct details so they will appear on the menu.
5. Give life to your QR code menu by introducing more images, colors, and other customized additions. Even these extra decorations should show the brand image you have chosen for your restaurant.
6. Save your restaurant menu and download it.
7. Print it and distribute it all over the restaurant, particularly in easily accessible areas to your customers.
Best Practices in Creating QR Code Menus
You can customize QR codes, unlike the usual codes you see in stores and online. Take note of the following best practices for making a QR code menu:
Design the menu
QR codes can look more than the usual black-and-white codes you often see posted in stores and online. Play around with it without departing from your brand image. Make your menu stand out by adding colors, logos, shapes, and stickers to your final code.
Make an easily scannable menu.
Print at least 1 inch x 1 inch QR codes so they will be manageable for people to see and scan. Remember to use colors in contrast with each other to improve the code's scannability. Another tip is to test and scan the code using different devices.
Make a mobile-friendly menu.
Create a menu that loads quickly and is easy to navigate and scroll using a mobile device. As with the other elements in your restaurant and marketing materials, introduce key branding elements to your menu. Reduce the sizes of the images you use while maintaining clear photos.
Update the menu regularly
Unlike conventional menus that you have to re-print new every time you change something, you can edit the digital copy of your QR code menu on the computer or phone. You can mark the unavailable dishes, change the prices, add new items, introduce newly created specials, or replace the images. And to add another reason why you should use QR codes, you don't have to change the existing codes in the restaurant, just the content.
If you're ready for QR code menus, FormBot lets you create them for free. You can also use it to build free forms from scratch or use templates. Visit FormBot today!