QR Menus for Contactless Dine-In Experience Diners Love

QR codes and digital menus are changing dine-in waitress holding ipad with contactless menu

QR Menus for Contactless Dine-In Experience Diners Love

The global pandemic has ushered restaurants into a full digital transition. From the delivery-app boom to contactless digital menus, technology is changing every aspect of the dining experience. 

QR menus are now a must-have and restaurants are looking for the most efficient way to make the transition. Here’s what you need to know.

Table of Contents

The Evolution of Digital Menus

Digital menus have been around for a while. The order station, for example, is suited for take-out-only, fast-food or cantine-like establishments. Handheld tablets connected to the restauran’s POS system were common even before the pandemic. 

This bulky technology was a bit ahead of its time from the customer’s perspective and didn’t really gel with the restaurant experience. The trust required to order without a waiter needed some getting used to while the software was usually slow and the device a bit sticky. Not so much a seamless, clean or contactless experience. 

Today, most restaurants have digital menus available, complete with pictures and prices. These are usually found on mainstream delivery apps and most of the best delivery app alternatives. This helped bridge the trust gap with customers, since it enables them to order from their own personal device.

With indoor dining coming back, how can restaurants translate the delivery digital menu success to the dine-in experience? The answer is in QR menus and a strong menu system.

What Are QR Menus?

QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are the modern day barcodes, on steroids. Today’s smartphones can read a QR code directly from their camera software, no special apps required, which sends patrons directly to the restaurant menu. 

One way to go about this is to use a QR code to link to a PDF document of your menu or a menu page on your website. However, this is not exactly an interactive experience and it misses the full potential of data-drippin’ insights a restaurant can get from using more advanced software. 

How QR Menus Are Enhancing the Dine-In Experience

Restaurants that migrate to digital menus will benefit in a bunch of ways and the less obvious ones are the most exciting. 

  • Make customers feel safer by letting them use their own clean device to browse the menu. 
  • Reduce printing costs every time you need to update the menu or replenish ruined ones. 
  • Enjoy the flexibility of creating separate menus for different meal times or seasons, making it easier for guests to focus and choose. 
  • Easily and quickly update menu items, pricing, or specials.
  • Expect a faster table turnover since less time is spent on getting menus into the hands of diners. 
  • Connect the menu to the POS system to reduce payment time. Fast contactless payment, including tipping and digital receipts is supported by most of the top POS systems for restaurants.
  • Unlock invaluable customer data to gain insight and to optimize the menu for sales. What categories do customers click on first? What items do customers linger on but not order? Which images do they click on? 

Getting More from Digital Menus

The possibilities with QR menus are endless. Here are some tips to get you started:

  • Online QR code Generator – this nifty tool enables you to create QR menus of various types. Sign in to create a Dynamic QR menu with constant images and changing content. This is useful if you want to have only one QR menu image, but change the menu link between lunch and dinner, for example. 
  • Create a wifi QR code that automatically connects guests to the restaurant WiFi. No more “do you have the password” awkwardness. 

Post a QR code linked to a Google form outside inviting guests to automatically join the waiting list.

How to Choose a QR Menu Supplier

With enough upgrades and software at your restaurant, you want to keep things as efficient and simple as possible. 

That’s why finding a digital system that makes life simpler is critical. When considering a QR menu supplier, consider the following: 

  • Does it integrate with all other marketing channels, like deliveries and reviews? 
  • Will you need to update items once or multiple times? 
  • Does it integrate with your POS system and allow ordering, payment and tipping? 
  • Does the system provide insight from the way guests interact with the digital menu? 

Achieving all this and more takes a powerful global restaurant platform. Luckily, Cheetah has recently partnered with OpenMenu, an all-in-one solution for restaurant operators looking to make the digital jump. 

OpenMenu - The Smart Choice for a Digital Menu System

OpenMenu is a restaurant management platform that provides the perfect blend between simplicity, integrations and advanced data insights. Here’s why we trust them:

  • Integrate menus seamlessly to all other marketing and POS systems. Changes and updates will automatically update everywhere else. 
  • Retains the restaurant brand and style without compromising on a seamless ordering experience for guests. 
  • Calculate and display the nutritional value of a dish based on OpenMenu’s huge database of over 9000 ingredients. 

Once diners start using OpenMenu, the advanced machine learning algorithms will provide advanced analysis of how customers interact with your menu and where it can improve. 

Online ordering & Menu management

OpenMenu is the industry-leading restaurant menu management platform allowing restaurant operators to control their menu from the ground up.

10% off on paid services for Cheetah Plus members
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