NFC or QR code for collecting Google reviews?
21 September 2026 · 4 min read
Both get a customer to the same review form. The difference is how much has to go right first, and that decides how many people finish.
Speed: one gesture against four
A tap is hold-phone-near-sign. A QR scan is unlock, open camera, aim, wait for focus, tap the banner. In a queue, the second one loses people.
QR codes also fail in the conditions counters actually have: low light, a phone with a cracked lens, a sign behind a reflective surface, or a customer standing too close to focus.
Phone support: where each one wins
QR reading works on any phone with a camera, going back a decade. NFC background reading needs an iPhone XS or later, or almost any Android.
That is why the sensible answer is not one or the other. Every stand we ship carries both: the chip for the majority, the printed code for the rest.
What to put on the counter
Lead with the tap. Put the words "Tap your phone here" where a customer reads them first, and let the QR code sit underneath in smaller print as the fallback. Customers who cannot tap will find it; customers who can will never need it.
Questions, answered
- Is a QR code enough on its own?
- It works, but it asks for more effort at the moment the customer is deciding whether to bother. Most shops that switch to a tap see the difference in the first month.
- Do QR codes expire?
- A printed code cannot change. Ours point at a short link we control, so the destination can be repointed if your review URL ever changes.
