QR Code Review
A QR code review directs customers to review submission pages on platforms like Google Maps, Tabelog, and Hot Pepper. It is placed near registers or on tables at restaurants and salons to encourage customers to write reviews on the spot.
Review page URLs are often long and complex, so converting them to QR codes lowers the barrier to submission. Displaying them with a message like "We'd love your feedback" is effective. Increasing Google Business Profile reviews can also improve search rankings.
Google explains that local search rankings are based on relevance, distance, and prominence, and states that businesses with more reviews and higher ratings tend to rank higher in local results. When gathering reviews as an MEO (Map Engine Optimization) measure, do not single out the customers who look most satisfied: give the same invitation to every customer who meets the same conditions. Soliciting only positive reviews breaches the policies described below.
The user contributed content policy for Google Maps spells out what a merchant must not do. Prohibited practices include offering incentives such as cash, discounts, or free products and services in exchange for posting a review or for editing or removing a negative one; discouraging or blocking negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive ones; and requiring staff to gather a set number of reviews. Contributions from people with a conflict of interest, such as current or former employees, business or consulting partners, and family members, are also subject to removal. Encouraging customers to post content based on genuine experience is allowed, provided that no incentive is offered and no attempt is made to influence the rating or the wording.
In Japan a further rule applies under the Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations. A designation issued under Article 5, item 3 of that act, covering representations that consumers find difficult to identify as coming from a business, took effect on 1 October 2023. Where a representation is made by the business itself, or written by a third party at the business's request, yet consumers cannot tell that it comes from the business, it is treated as a misleading representation and the business becomes subject to an administrative order. A label such as "Ad" or "PR" that makes the involvement clear keeps a post outside the scope of the designation, but it does not cure a breach of Google's policy, because that policy prohibits offering the incentive itself. Displaying a QR code to invite feedback is not itself restricted; the problem lies in having people post in exchange for something of value.