Taco Bell Uses QR Codes for Job Seekers

Taco Bell uses QR codes to help prospective employees locate restaurants so they can apply for a job.  The process was very simple, you get your smartphone out, open a QR code reader (iNigma in my case) and scan the QR code on the sign.  You are able to see a video and search by city, state, or zip for job openings at Taco Bell.  The idea of using QR codes to help job seekers was clever.  The video is just under two minutes and contains interviews of employees sharing their experience as well as benefits of working at Taco Bell.  The employees in the video mention the opportunity for growth as well as the work environment being fun and “fast paced.”

Taco Bell Uses QR Codes for Job Seekers

Mobile Smart

Taco Bell made sure that the proper environment was set up for those who scanned their QR code. They had a mobile-friendly landing page that allowed you to search for jobs by city, state. When you enter a city and state, it returns a list of open positions. Clicking on a location in list returns a full job description along with a field to enter your e-mail address to apply for that job. The process was very simple and the mobile site was fast on my 3G phone.

The Results

I did a little research and found that less than 1% of the “hits” to the mobile site was due to QR code scans. At the time this post was written, the link used for this campaign received a total of 45,922 clicks, however; most of the activity was due to direct links from e-mail and direct access from the web, the QR code only received about 7 scans. This was very surprising since the QR code was placed at the entrance of Taco Bell. This campaign was started in Spring of 2011 and is still continuing. I am curious to see how long it goes and if the QR code scan activity increased.  Overall, I thought it was a great use of QR codes, they had an incentive, the content was mobile friendly, and the code was placed in a prominent location.

Additional Resources

Here are more links to articles about  mobile campaigns with QR codes that you may find helpful.

[box type="shadow"]

• See how Vegetarians benefit from scanning QR Codes
• QR Codes at Panera Bread – QR Codes + Social Media
• Walgreen’s Uses QR codes to Educate Consumers
• QR Code Marketing Tutorials

[/box]

Panera Bread Uses Social Media and QR Codes to Engage with Customers

Panera Bread uses QR codes to engage with customers.  The hanging banners like the one in the photo included in this post are placed throughout Panera Bread and when scanned lead you to Panera Bread’s YouTube Channel.

Panera Bread uses QR codes to Engage with customers

The idea of engaging with customers using QR codes while they are at a location for an extended period of time can prove to be worth the investment if there is a call to action, however; Panera Bread’s use of QR codes did not provide this.  I scanned the QR code simply out of curiosity, but in a few months  this will not be the case.

QR Codes are Great, but Where’s the Incentive?

When you are using QR codes for marketing, provide an incentive to scan the QR code.  Panera Bread receives a lot of customers during peak times; from my experience especially during breakfast and lunch.  Providing an incentive for people to scan the QR code could have given a more pleasurable experience for the user and Panera Bread could have gotten more out of the use of the QR code than simply having it land on their non mobile-friendly YouTube Channel.

A Call to Action

I would love the opportunity to work with Panera Bread’s marketing team before they attempt to use QR codes in their marketing again.  Our team could create something for them that creates a pleasurable experience for the users as well as ROI for Panera Bread.

Panera Bread, I am extending an invitation for you to contact me regarding our team providing an awesome mobile marketing campaign for your restaurants!  Send me a DM in Twitter @mslinkexchange.  I look forward to working with you.

Here are a few links to other blogs about QR codes…you may find them interesting!

[box type="shadow"]

• See how Walgreens Uses QR codes on paper products
• How to Use QR Codes for Your Business
• How to Increase Website Traffic with QR Codes
• See how Vegetarians benefit from scanning QR Codes

[/box]