Rochester, N.Y.— Businesses in Rochester’s East End are using new technology to bring more customers through their doors.
The East End Business Association is using QR, or Quick Response, codes to provide customers with information about their business and also special deals.
QR codes will be posted on the doors and windows of nearly all East End businesses.
Smartphone users are able download an application that can scan the QR code. They can then hold their phone up to the code and then the phones will be directed to a webpage.
“It’s exciting to just be able to point your phone at something and it’s just like a new toy, a new kind of game you can play with your phone,” says Julie Bernuzio, co-owner of Bernunzio Uptown Music. “You can also get information [about the store] at the same time.”
But business owners say their customers will enjoy the savings that will come from exclusively from scanning the QR code.
“You don’t know what you’re going to find,” says Patrick Giuliano, owner of Gusto Restaurant. “You go up to one of the windows, you scan the code with your iPhone and you don’t know what’s going to be there. You might find that the restaurant is having a free appetizer that evening.
The East End is the first Rochester neighborhood to use this new mobile technology and business owners say it’s already intrigued customers.
“People will come and scan with their phones,” says Giuliano. “The next thing you know they’re looking and talking. It’s really created a buzz and it’s just a small sticker in a window. I think it’s a great idea.”
