NFC or QR: which one your customers actually use

People assume the QR code on our products is a fallback for old phones. It is not. In plenty of situations the QR is the better route, and the reason we print both is that neither one works everywhere.

What each one is actually good at

NFC wins on effort. There is no app, no camera, no aiming. The phone touches the tag and a notification appears. For someone standing at a counter with one hand free, that is close to frictionless.

QR wins on distance and choice. A QR code can be read from a metre away, which matters on a wall, a window or a table you are sitting across from. It also lets someone scan without touching anything, which some people simply prefer, and it can be read by essentially any phone made in the last decade.

Where NFC falls down

• Older iPhones. iPhone XS and newer read tags in the background with no setup. iPhone 7, 8 and X can read them but need the NFC Tag Reader turned on from Control Centre first, which almost nobody has done.
• Phone cases. A thick case, a wallet case stuffed with cards, or a metal plate for a magnetic car mount will all weaken or block the read.
• Not knowing where the antenna is. On iPhones it is at the top of the back. On Android it is usually the middle. People instinctively tap with the bottom of the phone, and nothing happens.
• NFC switched off. Rare on iPhone, occasional on Android where the user has disabled it to save battery.

There is more detail in will an NFC review card work on your customers’ phones.

Where QR falls down

• Bad lighting. A dim restaurant, a bar, an evening job site. The camera struggles and people give up.
• Glare and angle. Glossy laminate under a downlight is the classic failure.
• Size. A code printed small and read from too far away will not resolve.
• It cannot be changed. Printed is printed. An NFC tag can be rewritten with a free app if your destination link ever changes.

The honest split

In a well lit cafe with a stand at the counter, most people tap, and the ones who cannot tap scan. On a card handed to someone standing in a driveway at dusk, more people tap than scan because pointing a camera is fiddly one-handed. On a wall plaque people scan, because they are not going to press their phone against a wall.

That is why the choice is not NFC or QR. It is which product suits the moment, with both routes present on all of them.

What neither can do

Neither one makes anybody want to write a review. The tap removes the friction between deciding to leave one and actually doing it, and that gap is where most reviews die. But the deciding part is still down to the service and to somebody asking.

Anyone selling you a tap product on the promise that it generates reviews by itself is overselling it. It closes the last three steps of a process you still have to start.

Practical advice on choosing

• Counter, till, reception desk: a stand. People are stopped and close.
• Handed over, mobile work, table service: a card. It travels.
• Flat surfaces, benches, near the till: a tile or disc. Low profile, stays put.
• Walls and windows: a plaque, and expect scanning rather than tapping.