Unleash the Power of the QR Code: How DRV Codes Can Change the Restaurant Industry

If you’ve been to a restaurant since the COVID-19 pandemic began, you are probably familiar with the traditional QR code. Once seen as a nifty, if not outdated, piece of tech with few practical applications, the QR code has become a pandemic staple with its contactless capabilities and its accessibility to anyone with a smart phone. Many restaurants are using QR codes to provide their guests with a mobile menu they can access through a phone camera. As the QR code continues to become more mainstream, many restaurants will begin to explore the full potential of this technology and how it can enhance the restaurant experience.

Enter the Direct Response Video code, otherwise known as the DRV code. 

Like the QR code, DRV codes are designed to scan unique codes using a smart phone’s camera or an app to guide a user to a specific action. However, DRV codes differ from your traditional QR code, as they are embedded in digital and video mediums, like TV screens, digital billboards and social media pages. For restaurant owners, the ability to implement this technology, on a digital menu board for example, can make their customer experience that much safer as social distancing continues as a vital business function. With the comeback of the QR code during the pandemic, many restaurants now have the opportunity to expand on that technology even further with the DRV code, improving safety measures and even expanding marketing opportunities.

Social Distancing Solution

As of today, it is hard to say just how long COVID-19 will be a part of our daily experience. The pandemic won’t be with us forever, but social distancing, in some capacity, just might be our reality for the foreseeable future. 

While the QR code has been invaluable in the move to contactless service, it has one big flaw. Customers still need to get up close and personal in order to scan the code, sometimes in spite of social distancing guidelines.

Technology like the DRV code provide that exact functionality that current QR codes are lacking. Sophistication in DRV augmented QR readers enable end-users to scan codes seamlessly at a 150 to 1 distance ratio, giving consumers the ultimate social distancing solution, and access to the same information a restaurant is trying to display through its QR codes. In simple terms, a customer could scan a menu code from their table from 60 feet away, keeping restaurant goers safe, without sacrificing functionality.

Attracting Customers 

In the age of information, the average person is inundated with thousands of advertisements, memes, and informative materials each day. Vying for a person’s attention is no easy task, and time is of the essence. 

This is where technology like the DRV code can be a crucial component of your marketing plan. Unlike your traditional advertisement, QR codes and DRV codes can eliminate steps in the customer decision making process by sending information directly to a person’s phone shortly after scanning the code. 

In such a fast-paced world, consumers don’t always have the time or attention span to type in a website URL or a phone number, per traditional means of advertising. Restaurants using QR codes in public spaces have a much better chance of attracting customers by streamlining and simplifying the decision-making process.DRV codes take this process one step further by bringing these codes to the digital space and allowing scans from further away, expanding a brand’s opportunity to reach its audience.

Advertising Advantage 

Restaurants operate on thin margins and every penny counts. When it comes to marketing and advertising, it can be very difficult to quantify the importance of an ad campaign beyond a ballpark estimate, and most restaurants don’t have the luxury of a trial-and-error approach when it comes to spending on advertising.

Integrating DRV technology into digital advertisements allows for a whole new way to collect and analyze data from a restaurant’s marketing campaign. The DRV’s unique codes allows brands to access real-time data tracking, campaign conversion rates and even customer demographics. This can either validate a campaign’s messaging or give the restaurant a chance to reevaluate their approach moving forward, an invaluable service during these uncertain times.

There is no doubt that a number of uncertainties still surround the future of the restaurant industry. It will be essential for brands to continue to integrate new technology, like DRV codes, that will enhance safety conditions and enable marketing and advertising advantages. Leaning on these technologies will be the key to leading the restaurant industry through the challenges of the future.