Collecting Reviews In-Store with QR Codes and NFC, Within Google's Policies

To collect reviews with a QR code or NFC card, put the review link within every customer's reach without pressing them: a printed code displayed in the branch, and a link in the receipt or thank-you message, for everyone in the same way. Google suggests this itself, and prohibits incentives, gating, and asking for a review under pressure on the premises. This guide is about strategy; for places and wording read where to place QR and NFC review stands.

What Google says

• On its page about creating the link or code, Google says you can encourage customers to use it by including it in your receipts and thank-you emails, adding it at the end of conversations, and printing the QR code and displaying it in your shop.
• It notes that review QR codes can currently be created only in a computer browser, not on a mobile device. The path in your profile is Read reviews, then Get more reviews.
• The content policy says merchants should not require or pressure users to leave ratings or write reviews while on the premises, nor request that specific content be included.
• It also prohibits incentives for reviews, discouraging negative reviews, and asking selectively for positive ones.
• And it allows merchants to request or encourage content that reflects a real experience without incentives or attempts to influence the rating or the review content.

The practical summary: quietly displaying the code is fine, and any wording that makes the customer feel obliged or watched on the premises is not.

QR or NFC?

A QR code works with the camera of any modern phone and costs nothing. An NFC card opens the link when a phone is held to it, on devices that support it. Both open the same review link, so start with the code and add the card if you think it suits your customers. Create the link and code for each branch in the Google review link and QR tool.

Four points in the customer's journey

1. While waiting or paying: a printed code in a visible place, with an open invitation line. The customer decides alone.
2. On the receipt or invoice: a line and code at the bottom, so it reaches someone eating at home or collecting takeaway.
3. After leaving: one thank-you message with the link. Samples and timing are in asking for a Google Maps review on WhatsApp.
4. When asked: if a customer says "where do I write a review?", point to the code or give them the link.

What staff say and do not say

Before you train your team, agree on one rule: staff point to the code if asked, and do not ask or press.

• Fine: "The code is on the table if you would like to share your view", when the customer has praised the service themselves.
• Not fine: "Give us five stars", or "put my name in the review", or "don't leave before you rate us".
• Do not give staff a monthly review quota. The policy prohibits a merchant asking staff to collect a set number of reviews.
• Staff and their relatives do not write reviews of the business. That is a conflict of interest the policy prohibits.

What Google prohibits, and what to keep off the card

• Anything in return for a review: a discount, a gift or a prize draw. Do not print "rate us and get..." on the card.
• Gating: asking the customer how happy they are, sending the happy one to Google and the others to an internal form. The code is for all customers in the same way.
• Asking for specific stars or specific content, such as naming a staff member or a dish.

A negative review is handled with a professional reply and contact with its writer, not by preventing it. And we do not recommend a device in the shop for customers to write on; it is better for each customer to write from their own phone and account.

Measure without illusions

• Each branch has its own code and link, so you know which branch's customers respond.
• Scans are not reviews. A customer may scan and not write, so compare scans with new reviews in your Google profile.
• Do not set a monthly review target and hold staff to it. Set a target for how many customers the code reached.
• Watch new reviews daily and reply to each. A customer who sees that earlier reviewers got a reply writes more easily.

Test before you print

1. Scan the code with an iPhone and an Android phone, and check it opens the review form for your branch.
2. Print it at a size a phone can scan from a normal distance, on a non-glossy surface.
3. Try the card on two different phones if it is NFC.
4. Write an open invitation under it that does not ask for stars.

Common mistakes

• One branch's code in every branch, so reviews reach a branch the customer did not visit.
• A code that opens the business's general page, not the review form.
• Showing the code only after confirming the customer is happy.
• A line on the card that promises a reward.
• Treating the code as a substitute for replying to reviews.

For the wider picture of raising reviews legitimately, see the guide to raising Google Maps reviews.

In SMTAK each branch gets a review link and QR code and you follow the scan count, and you can try creating the link and code for free in the tool mentioned above.