The real cost of a paper menu
The cost of printing a menu seems like a one-time cost, but it is not.
The price of tea goes up by five taka, and the menu is out of date. A new item is added, and there is no room on the menu. In the monsoon two menus get wet and spoiled. Six months later you print again.
And what happens in between: the waiter comes and says "that one is eighty now". The customer starts with a small discomfort right away.
A QR menu has neither of these. When a price changes, change the page, and the card on the table stays as it is.
What the thing really is
Two parts.
One, a page. On it your items are arranged in groups: tea, snacks, rice and curry, sweets. The name and price of each, and a picture if you want.
Two, a QR code. The link to that page is inside the code. When you point the camera, the phone reads the link and opens the page.
The important point is here: the menu is not inside the QR code, only the address is. So you can change the menu as many times as you like, and the code stays the same.
The steps
In the builder, say what you want in your own words. The more specific you are, the fewer times you have to fix it.
A useful way to say it: "Make a menu page for a restaurant. The groups will be tea and coffee, snacks, rice and curry, sweets. Each item will have a name and price, in large text that reads well on a phone. At the top the shop name and opening hours, at the bottom the phone number and a WhatsApp button."
Then give the items. You do not have to give them all at once; first give ten and see whether you like the arrangement, then the rest.
When you tap share, you get the QR code along with the link. Download it and have small cards printed at the computer shop next door.
What the card on the table should be like
- Put one line of text with the QR, like "Point your camera, the menu will open". Many people look at a code and do not know what to do.
- Keep the code big enough. A very small code does not read in low light, and restaurants are often dim.
- Keep the shop name on the card. Even if the code does not work, the customer will know what the card is for.
- Laminate it or print on stiff paper. Water will spill on the table.
What this menu cannot do
We need to be honest, because not knowing this leads to disappointment later.
From a plain menu page, the customer cannot send an order, and no list of orders is collected anywhere. It is something to read, not something to order from.
There are two ways to go further:
A WhatsApp button. Put a button at the bottom of the menu that opens a chat with your number when tapped. The customer can then write the order directly. This has no extra cost.
A form on the site. If you want to keep orders as a list, you need hosting, and then the submissions come to the inbox, whichever link the customer comes from.
For a small shop, the first is enough most of the time.
Changing prices
This is the biggest advantage of this menu, so use it.
After the site is built, you can change prices, names and pictures yourself from the site manager page, without telling the AI anything and without spending any Token. How is in the post on changing your site yourself.
When the price of malai tea goes up, change it in two minutes, and let the card on the table stay as it was.
Whether to add pictures
There are arguments on both sides.
With pictures, a new customer chooses more easily, and the costly items sell more. But a bad picture is worse than none, and on mobile data the page gets heavy.
The middle way: give pictures only for the five or seven items you most want to sell, and just name and price for the rest.
Take pictures beside a window, in daylight, from above. No flash.
To build the menu by describing it in plain words, start from the menu card and QR menu page.
Questions and answers
Do I have to change the QR code when prices change? No. Inside the code there is only the address of the page, not the menu. So you can change the menu as many times as you like and the same card keeps working. This is the main difference from a printed menu.
How much does it cost to print the QR code? Downloading the code is free. The printing cost is for the computer shop next door, and it depends on the number of cards and the quality of paper. A few cards, one per table, are enough.
Does the customer need a separate app on the phone? No. These days the camera of almost every phone reads a QR by itself. If some older phones do not read it, the customer can type the menu link, so it is good to write the link in small print on the card too.
Will the menu open without internet? No, because the page comes from the internet. If the restaurant has wifi, write its name and password on the card, and that does two jobs at once.
Will orders go straight to the kitchen? No, this menu is for reading. If you want to take orders, put a WhatsApp button, and then the customer can write directly in the chat. If you want to keep them as a list, you need hosting and a form.
Do I need a separate menu for several branches? If the prices or items are different, make separate pages and separate QR codes. If they are the same, one is enough, and just write both branches in the address part.
Will the menu show up on Google? Once you publish it, the page is open to Google, even on the free address; you do not need to buy a domain. The chance goes up if the shop's address and hours are given properly. The rules for that are in the post on showing your shop in search.
Should I keep the old paper menu? Keep it for the first few months. It is polite to have a paper copy at hand for people who are not comfortable with QR, and in that time you can also see how many people actually use the code.
In short
- A QR code does not hold the menu, only the address of the page
- So when prices change, you do not have to reprint the cards
- Put one line of instruction and the shop name on the card
- A plain menu does not collect orders, and a WhatsApp button is the easy way
- If you want orders as a list, you need hosting and a form
- Give pictures for a few chosen items, not all