How to launch QR code payments at your restaurant

The hospitality sector has experienced a major digital shift in recent years, partly thanks to food-tech innovations—all of these start-ups seeking to make the daily lives of restaurateurs easier with technology. Among these novelties, the use of the QR code has become more popular—first to check the menu on your smartphone, and then to pay.

What are QR code payments? What are the benefits for your business? How can you set up QR code payments at your restaurant? 

Discover all of the answers you need in this article.

What are QR code payments? 

Payments can be made directly from each of your tables by providing your customers with a QR code, allowing them to pay their bills independently at the end of the meal. This type of payment now has many advantages in addition to saving time, such as quick and easy bill-splitting and tipping options.

Your guests will only have to scan a QR code and enter their bank details online to pay quickly.

Why offer QR code payments?

• Save time

With payment by QR code, save up to 15 minutes per table and increase efficiency at the end of the meal. Waiters are not always available when customers want to pay the bill. They might also have to go get a payment terminal and split the bill if everyone is not using the same payment method, which can slow down the process. With table payments, customers pay and leave the table whenever they want, all in less than 5 minutes.

Saving time with QR code payments boosts your table turnover rate, too. This means your customer count and sales will increase as a result.

• Get more tips

In addition to paying the bill, your customers will be encouraged to leave a tip directly by credit card. A button will offer them several options: eg. €1, €2, €5, or the amount of their choice.

With just one click, the customer can add a tip to their bill. Since the process is fast and satisfying for the customer, tips can be increased by up to 40%.

• Make your customers happy

More than 80% of customers now know how to scan and use a QR code via their smartphone. For all customers in a hurry, being able to pay with their smartphone is a great service. Today, almost all of us use a smartphone, which makes payment by QR code accessible to everyone.

• Increase your average order value

On average, digital payment allows you to increase the average order value by 10%. This is largely thanks to the time you save, which can be reinvested in the quality of your service, and the fluidity of your customer experience.

How to set up QR code payments at your restaurant

1. Find the right system

To start table payments at your restaurant, you can:

• Ask for advice from your restaurant community. It is always pleasant to have the objective opinion of a person who has already become familiar with the product.

• Compare all providers offering this service on the market in order to find the one that is best suited to your budget and your current fund.

• Opt for POS software which already includes QR code payments in its functionalities.

SumUp POS Lite enables you to offer QR code payments with all of your transaction data seamlessly synced to your POS system. 

One of the advantages of QR code payments is that these payments don’t replace other payment methods, but complement them. You can launch table payments by QR code, while continuing to card payments, too. This may reassure customers who are less comfortable with new technologies, or allow you to juggle between the two as soon as your servers have more availability.

2. Receive QR codes

After receiving your physical QR codes, all you have to do is place them on your tables and check that they are working correctly. Make sure you have ordered a little more than expected, in case you decide to add a few tables, lose or break some QR codes.

3. Inform your customers

Once payment at the table has been set up, it's time to inform your customers. You can make it clear with a poster outside your restaurant or post it on your social media. Then, train your staff on how the QR codes work, since they will have to inform their customers of the new way of operating as soon as they arrive at the table.