QR codes are a form of barcode that makes the storing and retrieving of data very quick especially through an app on a mobile phone such as Blackberry or Iphone. When you scan the code it redirects you to information stored online which can be any webpage. The potential for an estate agent could come when you add a QR code to marketing literature or an advertising board, then as a prospective client walks past a house they could use their mobile phone to find out all the details via a direct link to that property on the estate agent's website.
The main advantage for the customers is they can quickly get all the information on any given property whilst the advantage to the estate agent is that you can use the codes to track returns on investment for their advertising spend. The main challenge I can see is awareness of how to use a QR code and how to get a new QR code on to a property board, as with all technological challenges it’s just a case of analysing the problem and creating solutions.
The proliferation of QR codes is growing, in the past week I’ve seen them on fliers for printers, fizzy drink bottles and fliers for laptop computers. That combined with the increasingly common use of so called ‘smart phones’ to access the internet means QR codes offer interesting opportunities for estate agents to direct people from offline media to online.
New developments come along all the time for the property sector but in my opinion none are quite as interesting as the QR code. QR stands for Quick Response and the codes and was invented by those clever people in Japan where they are used a lot to store and retrieve data using mobile devices.
We recently discussed developments like the QR code at the Forward Thinking Estate Agent roadshow in Bristol. We had exceptionally good feedback and are looking forward to the other Forward Thinking Estate Agent events coming up over the next year.
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To download a free QR code reader for your mobile, please visit the
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