The principle: one scan, and the customer lands on the right page
The aim is not to send the customer to your Google Business Profile, still less to your site. Every extra screen between their phone and the review form loses you volunteers along the way. A good QR code opens the rating window directly, the one with the five stars. The customer just has to tap, write two sentences and publish. So the whole mechanism comes down to two ingredients: the right link, then a clean code pointing at it.
Step 1: get your review link
Sign in to your Google Business Profile, the one you manage to appear on Maps and in search results. In the management interface, open the section that offers to ask for reviews: Google generates a short address there, of the g.page/r/ type followed by a code, which leads straight to the rating form. Copy that address and keep it to hand, it will be used everywhere: QR code, text messages, emails, signature. Then test it in private browsing on your phone. If the window with the stars opens straight away, the link is good. If you land on your full profile, take the link again from the management interface rather than from the browser's address bar.
Step 2: generate the QR code, free and with no catch
Paste that link into a free QR code generator. They are almost all equivalent, on three conditions. First, insist on a static code: some services create “dynamic” codes by default, tied to a free trial, which stop working when the trial period ends. You are then left with printed material that leads nowhere. Second, export at high resolution, ideally SVG or a large PNG, so the print stays sharp on a plaque or a poster. Third, keep it plain: a dark code on a light background, with no gradient or decoration, scans better and from further away. Before printing anything, check the result with two different phones, an iPhone and an Android for example.
Step 3: put it where the customer has ten seconds
The best spot is where the customer is already waiting: next to the card terminal, on the counter, on a restaurant table, in the waiting area, on the back of a salon door. The moment of payment is ideal: the experience has just ended and the phone is already in hand. Think too about the holders that leave with the customer: the receipt, the bag, the appointment card, the invoice footer or the email signature for tradespeople. And always pair the code with a simple line, something like “Your review helps us enormously, thank you!”: a silent QR code, with no explanation, is almost never scanned.
The NFC version, more direct still
A QR code means opening the camera and aiming it. An NFC chip only needs one gesture: the customer holds their phone near the plaque and the review page opens on its own, just like a contactless payment. The two technologies complement each other well, which is why combined plaques, with NFC in the centre and a QR code as backup, have become the counter standard. We explained how they work in our article on Google review plaques and NFC cards, and you will find plaques ready to place, with the review link already set up, in the shop.
The mistakes that cost you reviews
Four traps come up again and again. A code printed too small: below three centimetres a side, many phones struggle to pick it up. A link that points to the whole profile instead of the form: every extra click cuts your chances. A code never retested after a reprint or a change to the profile. And above all, the practices Google explicitly forbids: offering a discount or a gift in exchange for a review, or only showing the QR code to visibly delighted customers. These shortcuts expose your profile to reviews being deleted, and even to wider penalties. The request must stay open to every customer; the quality of your work does the rest.
The QR code does half the work
A plaque on the counter captures the customers who are in the shop. For everyone else, the review request goes out after the purchase or the service, by text or email, at the right moment and without you having to think about it: that is typically what we automate for shops. For the exact words to use in these messages, our article on review request messages gives templates ready to adapt.