The QR codes impacts on epic customer experiences

Since the invention of QR (Quick Response) codes in the 90's by some clever chaps at Toyota all manner of business sectors have worked to create novel ways to deploy them. You will not have escaped their increasing usage on printed material from letters to bill boards with more firms now trying to improve the design of these ugly squares of black and white pixels. With the functionality to allow a consumer to leap direct to a specific web page it has potential to improve the customer journey eliminating the pain of typing in a 30 character plus long URL (uniform resource locator) address. Certainly taking a photo of a complicated square pattern is easier than opening up an Internet browser and spending time keying in a web site with its various backslashes, forward slashes, full stops and every form of punctuation. QR codes are certainly a positive step in creating a more epic customer experience but firms need to ensure they consider the application of these codes. Certainly lets adopt some colour and imagery in these so they fit better with brands but lazy use plastering them on everything doesn't make any steps to improve the experience. So select where to use them and brand them so they feel like a seamless part of the customer journey so they can help create more of an epic customer journey.