QR codes for cafés

What actually gets scanned

1. WiFi — the most-asked question in any café. A printed card at the counter and on each table ends it. Use a guest network separated from your till system.
2. Payment — a counter code for UPI, PIX or your local rail, at least 4 cm for a 40 cm counter distance.
3. Loyalty — a code replacing the punch card.
4. Google review — on the receipt or the cup sleeve.

Counter payment codes: check them daily

The dominant fraud is physical — someone pastes their own payment code over yours. Print the payee name large enough that a customer notices when their app shows a different one, and look at the standee at the start of every shift. It takes five seconds and it is the only defence that works.

WiFi card design

• Print it as a card at the counter and on tables, not in the window.
• Include the network name in text as a fallback.
• Use WPA (which covers WPA3 — the format has no separate WPA3 value).
• If your network has a captive portal, say so, or people will think the code is broken.

Our WiFi card tool prints an A6 card or table tent with the instructions already laid out.

The cup sleeve

A code on a takeaway sleeve is scanned somewhere else entirely — on a train, at a desk. Point it at something worth reading later: the roastery story, a subscription, the loyalty signup. Not the menu they have already ordered from.