QR code for reviews: make one for free, and where to put it
QR code for reviews: the link to put behind it, a test before you print, the wording beside it, and what to check when nobody scans.
Written by OpenRated Team Customers tell you they will leave a review, mean it, and then never find the page. A QR code for reviews removes the finding: they point a phone camera at a card by the till, the review form opens, and the whole thing takes a minute while the visit is still fresh. The code itself is free and takes ten minutes to make. What decides whether it earns you reviews is the link you put behind it, whether it survives printing, and where it sits.
This guide takes those three in order, then the wording and the rules that go with the ask, and what to check when nobody scans.
What the code does for your business, and what it will not do
A QR code is a picture of a link. The phone reads it and opens the address, nothing more. For a review request that is exactly the step customers drop: searching your business name, picking the right listing out of three with similar names, finding the "write a review" button. Collapse those into one scan and the people who were already willing do it on the spot.
That is the limit too. The code does not make anyone want to review you: a customer who had a flat experience walks past it, and one who had a bad experience may use it, fairly. And a code nobody points to is wallpaper within a week. The scans come from the ask, not the print. If you are still weighing whether reviews are worth the effort at all, start with why reviews matter to a business and come back.
Pick the link first: one code, one destination
Every QR code for reviews is only as good as the address inside it, so decide where you want the review before you touch a generator.
Google. For a shop, a restaurant, a clinic or a trades business, the reviews people see are on your Google Business Profile, and Google now generates the link and the code for you. Its help page, read on 2026-10-05, gives the route: go to your Business Profile, select Read Reviews and then Get more reviews, and copy the link or save the QR code. Google also notes that the QR code can currently be generated only in a computer browser, not on a mobile device, and that the same screen lets you send the request by email, WhatsApp message or Facebook post (Google Business Profile Help).
Another platform. A software company's buyers read software review sites, not Maps; a product business may want reviews on its own product pages. Most review platforms and most reputation and review management tools hand you a review link in their dashboard, and "QR code review requests" is one of the twenty rows every product in that listing is compared on, so it is a reasonable thing to check before you pay for one. The software review categories buyers browse are listed at the software categories index.
Several at once. If you want the customer to choose between Google and an industry site, the code should open one plain page with a button per platform. Keep it to two or three. And never let that page sort customers by how happy they are and send only the happy ones onward: Google's policy forbids a business to "discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews from customers", and the section on rules below says what the US rule adds.
How to make a QR code for reviews for free, in five steps
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Copy the review link. From the Business Profile screen above, or from the review platform's dashboard. Paste it into a browser on your phone once and confirm it opens the review box, not just your listing.
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Make the code, and choose static. Google's screen gives you a finished code; skip to step 3. If you use a generator, paste the link and pick a static code. A static code holds the address itself, costs nothing and works for as long as the link does. A dynamic code holds the generator's short address instead, which redirects to yours: you can change the destination later and count scans, but the code stops working the day the subscription lapses or the generator shuts down, and by then it is printed on your invoices. Pay for dynamic only if you need the scan count or expect the destination to change.
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Download it as PNG and SVG. The PNG is for anything on a screen; the SVG or a PDF goes to whoever prints the card, so the squares stay sharp at any size. Keep the file: you will reuse it.
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Test it before anything is printed. Scan it with an iPhone and an Android phone from where a customer would stand. Print one draft on the office printer, matte paper, and scan the paper too, under the lighting of the spot it will live in. Confirm the right listing opens and the review form appears when the customer is signed in. A code that fails here fails on a thousand receipts.
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Place it with the ask written next to it. A bare code gets ignored. The card needs three lines: what the code is for, how long it takes, and the code itself. The template in the next section is enough.
That is the whole build. Set aside an hour, most of it for the test and the card.
Where to put a QR code for reviews, by the moment it catches
Placement is a question of the customer's moment, not of surface area. The best spot is wherever the experience has just finished and the customer's phone is already in their hand, with a person nearby who can say one sentence. Here is how the common spots compare for a business that serves people in person or ships to them.
| Placement | Suits | The moment it catches | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter card at the till | Shop, cafe, pharmacy, salon | Paying, phone already out | Clutter: one card, not one among six |
| Receipt or invoice | Trades, repairs, services | The job is done and signed off | Thermal receipts print grey; test a real one |
| Table card or menu back | Restaurant, bar | The bill arrives | Mid-meal it is noise; the server's line at the bill makes it work |
| Packaging insert | Online shop, subscription box | Unboxing, product in hand | Nobody is there to ask; the card has to do the asking |
| Window, van or shopfront sign | Any business with frontage | Passing by, which is no moment at all | Low scans, and livery is the dearest print you will buy; people do not review from the pavement |
Two spots people reach for that do not pay off. A QR code in an email or a text is a detour: the customer is already holding the phone, so send the link itself. And a clinic's waiting room catches the patient before the appointment, with nothing to review yet; the reception desk at checkout is the moment.
For an online shop the packaging insert is the counter card's equivalent, and the review it asks for is usually a product review on your own site, the kind product review software collects and follows up by email after delivery. A business card or appointment card works like the receipt: the code takes the whole back of the card, and it is handed over with the sentence, not left in a holder.
The ask that goes with it, and the rules
The card does the asking when nobody is there, and a person does it better when they are. A card template that fits a 10 by 15 centimetre print:
Happy with today? Scan to leave us a review on Google. It takes about a minute. [the code] Thank you. We read every one.
Two sentences for staff, chosen to be sayable at the till without a script voice:
- "If you've got a minute, the code on the counter goes straight to our review page."
- "Thanks for coming in. There's a code on the receipt if you'd like to leave us a review."
Now the rules, stated as published and not as legal advice. Google's Business Profile help page says that "offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, to customers in exchange for reviews is considered fake engagement and is strictly prohibited" (Google). Google's content policy also lists "merchants requesting that staff solicit reviews that include specific content" under rating manipulation (Google Maps content policy), so the staff sentence asks for a review, never for five stars or a mention of a name.
In the United States the Federal Trade Commission's rule on consumer reviews, announced on 14 August 2024, "prohibits businesses from providing compensation or other incentives conditioned on the writing of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment, either positive or negative", and bars a business from misrepresenting that the reviews shown on its own site are all or most of those submitted when some were suppressed for their rating (FTC). So the "scan to enter our monthly draw" card you may have seen elsewhere is the incentive Google's page prohibits, whether or not it asks for a particular sentiment, and the "rate us first, then we'll send you on" landing page is the selective solicitation Google forbids. The FTC's suppression clause reaches it only when the reviews that got through are then shown on your own site as if they were all of them. The longer treatment is in is it legal to pay for reviews.
Is it safe to hand out a QR code? Yours, yes: it holds a public link to a public page, and a scan shows what a search for your name would. The risk runs the other way, a sticker placed over your code that sends customers somewhere else, so scan one of your printed codes each month.
When the code is up and nobody scans it
Check in this order, because the first cause is the commonest and the cheapest to fix.
- Nobody is asking. Walk the floor for a day and count how often the sentence gets said. Usually the answer is never, and the fix is the two lines above, said at the bill.
- The code is hard to read. Too small for the distance, glossy laminate under a spotlight, a brand colour with too little contrast, or a design template that put a logo over the middle. Reprint it plain, black on white, bigger than feels necessary, matte.
- The link lands in the wrong place. The listing instead of the review form, or the wrong branch of a multi-location business. Scan it yourself and look at what opens.
- The code has died. A dynamic code whose subscription lapsed, or a link that changed when the profile moved. A static code works for as long as the profile is active and the link has not changed; a rebrand or a move can mean a new link, and a new code.
If all four pass and the count is still low, the problem is upstream of the code: too few customers who feel strongly enough to spend a minute. That is a question for the service, not the signage, and a wider set of ways to ask is in how to get more reviews.
The one thing to do this week
Open your Business Profile on a computer, copy the review link, and get the code onto a plain card at the till with the three lines above. Then give the people on the counter one sentence and ask them to use it at the bill for a fortnight. The code costs nothing; the fortnight of asking is the part that produces reviews.
