Latest
/
Best Practices

Using QR Codes at Your Next Sporting Event

Displaying a menu, scanning an event ticket, and opening up a GPS map to pinpoint your destination—QR codes can do it all. Quick response (QR) codes have been around since 1994, but it’s only now that this technological innovation’s functionality has been fully realized. QR codes are fast becoming industry-standard for restaurants and are regularly showing up at live events and sporting venues, as well. They can improve your next sporting event in more ways than you may realize. Read on to learn more about how QR codes can enhance your next sporting event.

But First, What Are QR Codes?

QR codes are essentially highly advanced barcodes composed of (usually black and white) little squares and specks. They can store a fantastic amount of information and can serve more purposes than traditional barcodes (but more on that in just a moment).Once scanned through a smartphone, QR codes can display almost any kind of digital information including:

  • Web pages
  • Contact forms
  • E-commerce portals
  • Media such as videos or images

Yes, the possibilities are endless, but if you have an eye for aesthetics and are raising a brow at the black and white Rorschach-blog-like designs, we have excellent news—the physical codes themselves can be tailored to your brand. QR codes can be colored and even shaped in novel ways to align with your event. They can be designed to resemble a team mascot, for instance—or even your stadium.Essentially, QR codes are a customizable, versatile way to offer a seamless shortcut for your consumers to access information or complete an action.

How QR Codes Work

QR codes are a fascinating innovation, and thankfully, they’re simple to implement for both the customer and the vendor.The basic process works like this:

  • You (the sporting event proprietor) use a QR-coding service to design codes to include whatever information you wish.
  • You place the codes in whatever way makes sense. That might mean individually tagging items like a wristband or stationing the codes at a centralized location, such as a dining table or booth.
  • Customers open the cameras on their phones and let the camera focus on the code.
  • The information embedded in the code sends your customers to wherever you’d like to send them, whether that be a restaurant menu, a digital ticketing booth, or a digital store.
  • Customers take whatever action they’re directed to.

10 Ways QR Codes Can Improve Your Next Sporting Event

QR codes help in some obvious ways and in some ways that might surprise you.The specifics will depend on your particular brand and needs, but they are limited by nothing but your imagination.

#1 Increase Stadium Sales

It’s a conundrum almost every live sports fan has encountered—stick around just in case something exciting happens, or risk missing the action to stand in an endless line for snacks?QR codes might just be the answer hungry fans have been waiting for.Without the worry of a long line, live sports fans would likely spend more on food and drink—and the data agrees. According to research by Oracle, lowering or eliminating wait times at sporting events would potentially create a whopping 66 percent increase in spending at sporting events.The same principle applies to patrons who are dining in at a stadium restaurant. Freed from the need to flag down a server, they can continually add to their orders at will from the convenience of their seats.

#2 Eliminate Patron Congestion at the Gates

QR codes can be used at arrival and departure of sporting events. Customers can bring in their physical or digital tickets with QR codes and scan them in readers positioned at your venue’s entrances.This simple method can significantly increase check-in times for all your guests.Bonus? Faster check-ins mean not only improved venue logistics but also happier customers.

#3 Speed Up Pedestrian Flow in Booths, Stores, and Gift Shops

With QR codes, many purchase items can be tagged and left for customers to pick up at self-service kiosks.Rather than waiting in line to complete their purchases with staff, patrons can make their purchases on the fly as they browse shops and vendors. Then, they can continue on their way. Multiple checkout stations can be set up at a low cost which can help ease bottlenecks and pedestrian congestion. When purchases are easier to make and foot traffic is flowing, customers can enjoy a frustration-free event experience.

#4 Create Return Customers at Your Stadium

QR codes aren’t just a bunch of black specks to help customers make purchases—they can be embedded with all kinds of fun easter eggs and surprises to enhance the event experience. Dynamic QR codes can be altered in real-time to surprise fans and keep them coming to see what new surprise awaits.When customers scan your codes, you can offer them:

  • Links to quizzes about the teams
  • Branded puzzles and games
  • Entry forms for raffles
  • Exclusive media content
  • Opportunities to sign on to loyalty and rewards programs
  • Coupons and freebies
  • Invitations to follow your brand on social media

Any of these options will give your guests the opportunity to stay engaged with your brand even after the game.

#5 Improve Your Hospitality

Make no mistake—QR codes aren’t precisely replacements for cashiers and servers. Instead, they’re more like sidekicks, helping to increase your valued employees’ bandwidth. Freed from easily digitized to-do list items, your staff can focus their talents on hospitality.By taking the easily automatable tasks off of your team’s plate and onto the QR code, you’ll be helping your team do what they do best—engage with customers, make them feel at home, and cultivate memorable experiences.QR codes can make it easier for your customers to enjoy themselves and for your staff to do their most exceptional, inimitable work.

#6 Improve Safety for Guests at Your Next Sporting Events

Whether your customers are diehard hockey fans or lifelong basketball aficionados, you want them to enjoy their favorite sport without worry—and QR codes can help.QR codes make your events safer in two ways:

  1. Less cash being carried – When fans are paying for their goods through their smartphones, they don’t need to carry cash. This simple truth cuts off a good deal of crime at the head.
  2. Social distancing – As fans become more cognizant of health concerns, adding QR codes can keep both your guests and your staff safer from airborne-disease transfer by limiting the amount of time they spend in close proximity with each other.

#7 Give Your Guests a Voice

You can use QR codes to send your guests feedback forms that capture real-time impressions of your event. This data is invaluable and can be used to improve your future sporting events.By offering feedback forms through the digital content revealed by your QR codes, you can capture guest experiences while they’re still fresh.

#8 Make Parking Easier

Similar to the way that QR codes can be used to expedite fan check-ins, they can be used as parking passes, as well. That is exactly what the San Francisco 49ers did at Levi’s Stadium. The result? Improved parking, fewer accidents, and happier fans.

#9 Help Communication with Fans

QR codes don’t have to be used exclusively with merchandise and concession-oriented items. Dynamic QR codes, which can be easily reprogrammed in real-time, can be set up at stable locations as informational tools.Through these dynamic QR codes, you can inform guests of:

  • Weather advisories
  • Exit-gate advisories (redirecting flow from congested exits to less-congested ones)
  • Venue events
  • Team news
  • New sales

The options here are limited only by your imagination.

#10 Collect Valuable Data Insights

QR codes are exceptional data collection tools. They allow you to track purchases, habits, and reactions to marketing materials with far greater detail than billboards or radio commercials.All that customer data can help you adjust prices, select merchandise, and stock restaurants more effectively. With this precise information, every event can help make the next event better.

Score A QR Code for Your Next Event with GoTab

As detailed above, QR codes can be used for all kinds of interesting, novel purposes to keep guests entertained and engaged. At their core, though, they are there to increase efficiency and convenience.From simple purchase codes to creative The fundamental value of QR codes offers an excellent potential return-on-investment as an essential sporting-event innovation.GoTab can get you set up with QR coding quickly, easily, and affordably. Our company grew from within the hospitality industry, so we know the in’s and out’s of meeting (and exceeding) customer needs through technology. From firsthand experience, we’ve designed our product to make implementation simple and cost-effective for even the most tech-challenged sporting venue operator.Sources: 

Tap Room Playbook: Check Your Experience

Tap Room Playbook Episode 2: 

When you really think about it, with everything managers need to do in a tap room, the hospitality aspect is often overlooked.

Watch Now →
Tap Room Playbook: Kick A** Brands

Tap Room Playbook Episode 3: 

The best breweries pay attention to what their brand stands for. How do the best brewers bring their brand to life?

Watch Now →

Situated “in the heart of it all, yet tranquil enough to make you feel away from it all too,” The Limelight Hotel Snowmass offers 99 hotel rooms and 11 residences, as well as footsteps-to-gondola access in winter and summer — right in the middle of Snowmass Base Village.

The Situation

Especially over the last few years, the Limelight Hotels IT team had witnessed a significant shift to contactless technology in the hospitality industry. After evaluating friction points in the guest journey, aligning with modern technology platforms in their restaurant was determined to be an effective way to offer elevated contactless dining experiences to their guests while also evolving their technology platforms to continue to support long-term company goals. Limelight Hotel partnered with GoTab to provide an enhanced on-demand dining experience on par with the brand’s reputation for exceptional guest service.

The Solution

Reducing Staff Touch Points Without Sacrificing Guest Experience

Guests are now able to begin a tab from their room or the property’s restaurant by scanning a QR code, texting a link to friends or family members on the ski slope to add in their orders, then meeting up together at the patio or lodge to enjoy their meal and après ski festivities without interruption. By streamlining tasks like inputting orders and processing payments, this eliminates friction for hotel staff and allows them to focus on delivering renowned guest service for a memorable experience. Since partnering with GoTab, Limelight Snowmass has consistently seen higher check averages and sales.

“We found the Point of Sale platforms we were looking at offered the guest and staff limited opportunities to further reduce touch points or improve the traditional restaurant experience. The GoTab platform enabled the guest to take an active role over the flow of their experience while simultaneously reducing touch points and further streamlining restaurant operations.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group

According to the Limelight Hotels team, some of the other platforms that were evaluated were either missing some of the pieces they were looking for, had weak customer support models, or had little willingness to develop integrations to existing hotel platforms already in place. To that end, GoTab integrated with cloud-based platform, Infor. Together, GoTab and Infor are providing dynamic solutions to support central, efficient service across hotel amenities and deliver exceptional guest experiences.

“Previously, guests would call down to the restaurant to begin an order from their room or while they were out enjoying the ski slopes. Using GoTab, guests can now place orders from anywhere on the resort, giving them the on-demand service they want without interrupting their day. GoTab empowers us to give control to the guest, reducing touch points and streamlining overall restaurant operations, making Limelight Hotel the resort of choice for Snowmass.”Nick Giglio, Manager of Hotel IT Operations, The Little Nell Hotel Group

Since introducing GoTab, The Limelight Hotel has seen a consistent level of upsells and items sold per check resulting in additional revenue capture. They have been able to maintain service levels in their restaurants during periods when there was reduced staffing available without significantly diminishing the guest experience.

The Benefits

Eliminate Phone Orders – Take Orders from the Slopes. Guests can start a tab from their room or on the mountain without interrupting the flow of their day.

Future-Proofed Technologies – Delivering elevated contactless ordering via integration with the Infor hotel management platform.

Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.

  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.
  • Eliminating Friction in the Guest Journey – Maintaining service levels during periods of reduced staff without diminishing the guest experience.

Request a Demo

Ready to experience GoTab for yourself? Sign up for a free demo and get qualified to receive a complimentary meal on us!
Request a Demo