If You Build It …

One of my favorite scenes in “Field of Dreams” is near the end, when Timothy Busfield’s, character, Mark, looks at the baseball diamond built into the cornfield and asks, “When did these ballplayers get here?” Of course, most others have been able to see the players from the get-go, but it was only after a near-death experience in the bleachers that his eyes are opened to what everyone else has been watching all along. 

I kind of feel the same way about QR codes. I really hadn’t noticed them until recently, and now I see them everywhere; especially in financial services. 

For those unfamiliar, QR (which stands for Quick Response) codes are small squares that act like UPC codes and can be scanned by cameras. The QR boxes then launch apps or web browsers that take the user to a custom or specific location. 

I’ve seen them on Capital One Bank ads on phone booths and now, Toyota Financial Services is using them to give customers faster access to their accounts through their mobile devices. Even Enterprise Holdings is getting in on the act, too.

In a press release announcing the rollout, Toyota announced that more than 5,200 customers had already downloaded an application that works with the QR codes to allow customers to pay their bills and view account information on their smartphones. 

Enterprise is using the QR codes to promote vehicle sales for the manufacturers that are providing fleets to Enterprise’s rental car counters nationwide. 

QR codes are an awesome tool that finance companies can use to interact with customers and prospects. It’s also just the tip of the iceberg that can enhance the customer experience and improve customer satisfaction. There are so many opportunities for the codes to be used. Toyota is printing them on statements mailed to customers; Enterprise is placing them on the driver-side windows of vehicles in its fleet. I can see them being used on car lots, and when scanned, customers can be taken directly to additional information or loan applications. They can be used to send personalized marketing offers to customers to offer incentives to buy new vehicles. They can also be used to send unique and private communications to customers, for such purposes as debt collection or vehicle recalls. 

I expect to see more financiers begin to utilize the technology in 2012, and I expect that consumers will adopt the technology en masse.