Left for dead, QR codes made a dramatic comeback in 2020 due, in large part, to the need to go “contactless” as businesses and restaurants re-opened. One recent study found 86% of participants scanned a QR code at least once in 2020. More importantly, 67% said that QR codes “made life easier” with 58% wanting to see more widespread applications in the future. In short, QR codes are here to stay and, in this article, we will tell you how our solution, QR Codes for Chat, can enable you to leverage the rapidly increasing popularity of QR codes to acquire more customers.
Briefly, our self service platform makes it easy to generate QR codes that, when scanned, open a chat with your business. Our solution is the first in-market solution that does this. You can scan the QR code below to see what the experience is like. Or, if you are on your phone you can click here.
Why chat?
At some point, you have probably seen and even used the chat function on a website to get customer support or to ask a question before buying a product. Chat is the most preferred way to communicate with a business and is especially popular with millennials and younger customers.
Most preferred way to contact a business
The benefits for a customer are:
anonymity while asking questions
faster response times
freedom to multitask
The ability to communicate with anonymity is a unique benefit over texting, calling, or emailing a business, particularly early in the purchase process when a customer is still considering their options. As a business owner, you probably prefer to get a customer on the phone or in front of them in person. Chat can help more potential customers get comfortable with the idea of making that kind of commitment.
Imagine you are trying to hire a contractor to finish your basement. You would probably prefer to get quotes from a few contractors before making a decision and, even before that, you would probably want to confirm the contractors have the skill and availability to do the job before giving them your contact info and home address. Customers typically answer these questions by reading third party reviews or soliciting referrals from trusted sources. Our own data shows that chat is an especially powerful solution during this phase of purchase consideration, with a lift as high as 35% to sales by allowing interested prospects to get answers to basic vetting questions anonymously through chat.
Why QR codes?
While QR codes have been around since 1994 and are widely used in many parts of the world, it took a global pandemic for the technology to get traction in the United States. Another major driver of adoption has been the addition of native QR code readers to virtually every phone camera in 2017, eliminating the need for app downloads.
QR codes are a more seamless way for people to launch websites and other content from print and direct mail, signs, flyers, and other forms of offline marketing. QR code scans have the additional benefit of being measurable, making it possible to measure the performance of these types of campaigns.
Why QR Codes for Chat?
One of the most popular call-to-actions in direct mail, print, out of home, and other non-digital forms of marketing is to “contact our business”. These offline marketing campaigns also tend to target customers in the consideration phase of purchase, where chat is a particularly powerful communication tool. QR Codes for Chat makes it possible to supplement these campaigns with a “scan to chat with us” option.
In chat, it’s possible to automatically schedule meetings, offer promo codes, answer questions, share content, and even live chat with a business. A QR Code for Chat is a dynamic, adaptable experience that is easy to update and change without changing the QR code. A realtor could permanently fix a single QR Code for Chat to a sign and update the chat with each new listing. If the QR code were associated with a property listing, a new one would need to be generated and attached to the sign with each property listing change.
How will this help my business?
For our existing customers, we see as many as 1 out of 4 customers engaging in a chat at some point in the sales process. But what if chat converted just one more interested prospect into a customer each month? What would that be worth to your business?
Currently, QR Codes for Chat offers a free 14 day trial and a monthly plan for $20 per month. Would 1 more customer a month be worth $20 to your business?
If you’d like to give our platform a try, click here to get started.
We also host daily webinars where we share live demos, answer questions, and walk you through the end to end process of getting started. If you’d like to join one, click here.