NFC review card vs QR code vs text message: which gets more Google reviews?
There are three common ways to put a Google review request in front of a customer: a QR code they scan, a text or email they receive later, or an NFC card they tap. We sell one of them, so take that into account. But they each do a specific job well, and choosing the wrong one for your business is the usual reason "we asked for reviews and got none".
The thing that actually decides it
Review requests succeed or fail on timing. A customer who is standing in front of the person who just did a good job will say yes to almost anything reasonable. The same customer, reading a text about it the next evening, has moved on. Every method below is really a way of controlling when the ask happens.
QR code
Good at: places where the customer is on their own and has a moment — a café table, a counter, a waiting room, the back of a van, a printed invoice. It costs nothing, needs no setup beyond printing, and every modern phone camera reads one.
Falls down when: there's nobody prompting. A sign that says "scan to review us" gets glanced at and ignored by most people, because there is no social moment attached to it. It also needs the customer to open their camera, hold the phone steady and tap the banner, which is three steps more than it sounds in a busy shop. And you have no idea whether anyone scanned it.
Text message or email afterwards
Good at: businesses that already have the customer's number or email and don't see them in person — online orders, phone bookings, trades that invoice by email. You can send it automatically from most job-management software. It reaches everyone, including customers you forgot to ask.
Falls down when: it arrives too late, which is usually. By the time the message lands the customer is cooking tea. Response rates for follow-up texts are typically single digits, and you are paying per message. There's also a legal angle: a review request by text or email is a marketing-style message, so you need a lawful basis to send it, and a customer can ask you to stop.
NFC card
Good at: the moment a job finishes with a person present. The technician says "would you mind leaving us a quick review?", holds the card to the customer's phone, and the review page is open before the sentence ends. The customer doesn't have to find anything or type anything. Because a person is asking, the yes rate is far higher than a sign; because the page is already open, more of the yeses turn into reviews.
A second thing a card gives you that the other two can't: a count. Each tap is logged, so you can see whether your team is actually asking. With a QR sticker you'll never know.
Falls down when: there's no face-to-face moment. A card is useless for a web shop. It costs money (ours is £5 a month per card), one per person who carries it. And the customer needs a phone made in roughly the last eight years with NFC switched on — nearly all iPhones since the XS read a tag automatically, older ones need the reader in Control Centre, and most Androids have NFC on by default.
What we'd actually suggest
If your staff meet customers at the end of a job — trades, cleaners, mobile mechanics, hairdressers, anyone with a van — the card wins, and it isn't close. The ask is in person, at the right second, with nothing for the customer to do.
If customers serve themselves and leave without speaking to anyone, a QR code at the point they pay is the sensible choice, and it's free. Put it where they're already stopped.
If you never see the customer at all, the follow-up message is the only option that works, so make it short, send it the same day, and include the direct review link rather than "find us on Google".
Plenty of businesses run two of these. A café might have a QR code on the counter and a card at the till. A plumber might tap the card at the door and let the invoice email carry the link as a backup. None of them is a mistake; the mistake is asking three days late.