For caterers and food traders

Your hands are covered. The QR is not.

A market stall at two in the afternoon is not a place you can take a phone out. Cardr puts a QR code on the counter that hands over your whole card and takes their enquiry back, without you touching anything or breaking the queue.

Catering has a handover problem that is physical before it is anything else. Somebody asks whether you do weddings while you are serving, your hands are not clean, there is a queue behind them, and the enquiry is worth more than everything else you will take that hour. A QR code on the counter answers it with no hands and no pause: they get your card, you get their details, and the queue keeps moving.

The real scene

The counter, mid-service, with a queue behind.

Fifteen seconds, no clean hands, and the person asking about a wedding is worth more than the rest of the shift.

Where it happens

The counter

Fifteen seconds, no clean hands, and the person asking about a wedding is worth more than the rest of the shift.

  • Hands not clean The enquiry arrives mid-service. Picking up a phone is not one of the options available to you.
  • A queue behind Fifteen seconds before the transaction has to move on, and the person asking is worth more than the rest of the shift.
  • Said they would look An enquiry that leaves as a good intention leaves as nothing. It has to leave as a number.

Every constraint above is what decides the format. A card that fails any one of the three does not get used a second time, however good it looks.

The enquiries that matter do not arrive by email. They arrive at the stall, from somebody who has just eaten something and is now wondering whether you could do a hundred and twenty covers in September. That conversation happens in the middle of service.

Everything about that moment argues against picking up a phone. Your hands are not clean, the queue is real, and the till is the only thing that should be getting attention. A printed QR on the counter or the front of the stall removes you from the transaction entirely: they scan it, they have your card, and you carry on serving.

The return leg is what makes it worth doing rather than a nicety. An enquiry that leaves as their name, number and a note about September is a booking you can chase. An enquiry that leaves as somebody saying “I’ll look you up” is nothing at all, and that is what most of them currently are.

The card itself

What it looks like on the phone.

Not a mock-up. The artwork below is drawn by the same function that draws the inside of the signed .pkpass file, in the same colours the real pass carries, so this is what Wallet shows.

Cardr UpdatedToday
NadiaSarr
DoesEvents, 40 to 200
TradesSat, Deptford

cardr.co/nadia-sarr

Scan or tap to savei
An example card in the ivory letterpress design. The holder is invented; the rendering is not. All eight designs are on Pro, three on the free plan.
What you get

Hands-free, and it still takes their number.

  • A QR that does the whole job. Printed on the counter, the menu board or the van. Nothing to hand over and nothing to touch.
  • Their enquiry captured. Name, number and email come back through the same scan, so “I’ll look you up” becomes a contact you can actually follow up.
  • The event against the name. Notes on Pro, so “wedding, September, 120, vegan option” sits on the contact rather than being remembered wrong three weeks later.
  • The follow-up written. The message that turns a stall conversation into a quote request, drafted from the note, so it goes out that evening instead of never.
  • Menus and dates behind a link. Sample menus, allergen information, where you are trading this weekend. Change it once and every card already saved is right.
  • Free to start, with nothing to buy. A printed QR costs nothing and does everything an NFC tag does, which matters when the alternative is an object that gets covered in oil.
Questions

Caterers, answered.

Can I print the QR code on my stall?

Yes, and it is the way to use this. Your card has a permanent QR that does not expire, so it can go on the counter, the menu board, the side of the van and the top of an invoice. Print it once. If you change your number or your menu link, the code stays the same and the card behind it updates.

Does the customer need an app?

No. They point their camera at the code and your card opens. On an iPhone they can add it to Apple Wallet, which is already installed and cannot be deleted. On Android they open the page and save you to their contacts. Nothing gets downloaded and nobody signs up.

How do I capture the enquiry if I am serving?

The exchange is part of the same scan, so their details come back to you without you doing anything at that moment. You look at them afterwards, when service is over, with the enquiry sitting there as a name rather than as a half-memory of somebody in a green coat.

Can I put allergen information on it?

You can put a link to it, and that is the better way round: allergen information changes with the menu, and a link means the version people see is always current. It is not a substitute for the allergen information you are legally required to display at the point of sale.

What does it cost?

The card, the QR code, the Apple Wallet pass and the two-way exchange are free forever, with no card details taken. Pro is £12 a month, or £9 billed annually, for the enquiry list with notes, the drafted messages and the reminders. Sixty-day money back guarantee.

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