I wish everyone thought like this. Unfortunately the average user demands an app and thinks they have nothing to hide.
I was at a car park in UK and you didn't have to install an app, just scan the QR to go to the web page, simple payment. Sadly they then messed it all up by not offering payment through normal services.
Lord no!
Scanning a random QR code.... where is the worst it will take you?
They'll get analytics from digital menus regardless of if a QR code is scanned or not. The QR code isn't really making a difference here, other than maybe adding in a specific table ID.
> built in table identified ordering...attack vector
Oh no, they're going to know table 36 ordered the appetizer sampler and a few beers. The horror. They couldn't have possibly known that before.
They're going to get a lot more verifiable information about me when they run my payment card than what they'll glean from a fresh browser tab.
I'm not promoting QR codes here. When I can avoid them I do. It's just that the incentives for owners and consumers are better with them and that's the challenge.
> Oh no, they're going to know table 36 ordered the appetizer sampler and a few beers. The horror. They couldn't have possibly known that before
I have no idea what you're on about here. I'm clearly referring to quishing to collect payment info. It's very easy to copy a website and plop a QR code onto a picnic table over the old one.
I will scan a QR code on a check the waiter printed for me and pay through that.
> You know exactly how many times your menu was scanned in house
The vast majority of the time I've seen a QR code stuck to a table its just goosejuicerestaurant.com/menu or https://taplist.io/demo-brewery on the QR code. About the only real time I've seen otherwise has been McDonalds, but they have raised metallic emblems glued to the table, it would be pretty obvious if it was messed with. And I'm not sure if they're even useful outside of the app.
Yes, that's what I'm referring to.
And I usually prefer to just scan a QR code to get the wifi details. Once again, its far fewer taps.
If you could do something with just two clicks or do something with 26 clicks, which path would you normally take?
To paraphrase George Bush: Goatse me once, shame on...shame on you. Goatse me — you can't get Goatse'd again
type out: https://thisislegitparkingpaymentwebsite.com
Is this goatse or is it the real payment website for your parking? You won’t know unless you go there
No, I don't just go around and scan every random QR code sticker on every single lamp post without any kind of context. But a QR code on the back of a business card with their contact information already nicely digitally formatted? Sure. A friend's QR code of their WiFi credentials on a little plaque in the den? Sure. A QR code at the bar showing the live tap list menu? Sure. A presenter giving the presentation slides by QR code? Sure.
And I pay attention to the URL that QR code is sending me to before I actually decide to go there. The QR code is just so I don't have to type in reallylongannoyingurl.ninja/some-horrific%20path/and?with=junkinit. It shows me the URL and asks "Do you want to go to obviousgoatse.com?" after it scans the code. That's the tap 2 of the two taps.
No, the average middle manager demands an app.
The average user has gotten over the novelty of having seven million apps on their phone.
The Customer Service department (we're a real business, so we have one of those) forwards all email, social media, and phone contacts about it to me.
Number of middle managers who have brought up having an app since 2019: Around five.
Number of actual users who asked for an app since 2019: One. Maybe two.
Your turn.
Do you think most existing users would switch?
Do you think there are many people who don't use your service because there's no app?
No.
No, because that's not how our industry works.
Have you ever asked them?
My company requires everyone in the company to meet our customers in person once a year. Everyone from the CEO on down to tech nerd button pushers like myself.
Our method of telemetry is called "talking to people."
I wouldn't find it productive to talk to 200,000 users in person to determine if it's worth building a native app. I suspect most startups talk to some of their customers in person but I don't know anyone making sweeping product decisions based on that.
Fortunately, our company has more than one employee, so one person does not need to talk to all 200,000 users.
If they did they would not need to be pushed to apps by "it works better on the app" or offered discounts for using the app.
I'm sure every industry is different. For my current work, our users overwhelmingly want a native app. The majority of traffic is mobile and iOS. Everytime I tell someone about what I do they open up the app store and I have to tell them it's not on there and they ask why.
Anyway, apps have higher monetary conversion. The desire to push users to the app needs no other reason.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK616185
https://www.aba.com/news-research/analysis-guides/preferred-...
https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-IAB-Glob...