A Temple is a building, which is devoted to the worship of Gods. It can also be a historical site or a tourist spot.
People in temples perform various activities. This includes devotional, spiritual, or site-seeing. Hence, people pray, meditate, sacrifice, make donations, or do photography.
Temples also have their weekly bulletins. This has information on temple activities and other vital information.
But owing to COVID-19, people are avoiding physical touch with any foreign object such as a temple bulletin. Hence, not many people will actually be interested in collecting the temple bulletin.
Plus, living in a world, which promotes eco-friendliness, printed bulletins are not considered ideal.
Similarly, people usually make donations in cash. But since paper notes cannot be sanitised, making donations cashless becomes the need of the hour.
And finally some temples are also tourist spots. In the time of pandemic, how do you provide a contactless exposure to keep the tourists engaged?
If you are thinking of how to resolve the above challenges, then stop worrying. Here is a solution—QR Code technology.
QR Codes are a sustainable option. The best part is that they help in delivering a contactless experience.
Scroll down to know more.
A. QR Codes— A brief
QR Codes today are a common sight. These 2D barcodes can easily be scanned via smartphone or a dedicated app to access the linked content.
With the increased need of social distancing, QR Codes have become increasingly popular. Accessing content of a QR Code does not require any physical contact.
Hence, businesses, marketers, and institutions all over the world are using this technology to ensure proper safety and hygiene of their customers.
QR Codes are easy-to-use and not at all capital intensive. You do not need to incur any equipment cost such as a handheld scanner.
The best part is that QR Codes can link unlimited content. You can link a website URL, text, PDF, and other content to a QR Code.
Plus, you can also edit a QR Code anytime you want. The pattern of the updated QR Code remains the same. Hence, you do not need to reprint it.
This is possible by creating an advanced type known as Dynamic QR Codes.
With Dynamic QR Codes, you can also track their scanning activity. That is, you can get important analytical data. This includes district, city, country, browser, and device from which the QR Code was scanned.
Besides, you can add design to a QR Code. And make them totally customized. That is, you can add a background color, a text, or a background image to a QR Code.
Now let’s see how QR Codes can be used in temples.
B. QR Codes in temples
Changing circumstances demand the need for new technology. See how QR Codes in temples are serving different purposes.
1. For contactless registration
COVID-19 pandemic is highly contagious. And it is difficult to trace the source from which a person becomes coronavirus positive.
To deal with this, administrations are now using QR Codes for contact tracing. And temples are no exception to this trend.
Temples all over the world are now using QR Code-based registration. Visitors need to scan a QR Code and fill a registration form for their contact details. This requires zero physical contact and the temple administration also gets the database of visitors.
For example, Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai, China reopened for visitors from July 2020.
Visitors are required to scan a QR Code of the temple to register their name, identity card number, and telephone number beforehand. Each visitor is allowed to make only one reservation per day.
2. To make easy donations
Amidst coronavirus, it is ideal to go as contactless as possible. People generally make donations in cash in temples. It only entails physical contact with paper notes, but also makes it impossible to sanitize them.
Owing to this, temples are going digital with QR Code payments for donations. Apart from delivering a contactless transaction, QR Code payments have other benefits too. It will eliminate the possibility of thefts from donation boxes.
For example, Wat Samrong Tai in Phra Pradaeng district, in Bangkok has started a QR Code-based transaction for donations. People can make donations through PromptPay, the government’s promoted e-payment system.
The aim is to maintain transparency in managing donations through the use of e-banking, besides promoting contactless transactions.
Furthermore, Buddhist temples in Laos, Vientiane also use QR Code-payments. The Joint Development Bank of Laos is facilitating these payments. It started a ‘9 Temple Project’, in February 2020.
Buddhist devotees can now simply scan the QR Code of the temple using the JDB Yes application and make monetary contributions.
3. To engage tourists better
You know that QR Codes can link both text-based and multimedia content. And generally temples, which are tourist sites, give information through posters placed at different places in the temple.
But here are two problems. Due to limited space, you are not able to give detailed information. So, you generally give a website link, which has more details about the temple. But not many visitors actually type the whole address in their mobile browser to visit your website. This leads to low traffic.
Secondly, tourists may not understand the language in which details about the temple/artefacts are given. For assistance, they usually hire guides, which can be expensive.
By using QR Codes, you can resolve all these challenges. As QR Codes provide information digitally, tourists can easily translate in their own language. This will make their visit hassle-free.
Besides, with QR Codes, you can:
- Provide detailed information without worrying about limited space
- Provide fun facts, anecdote, and story of your temple
- Link interesting videos
- Link sermons and hymns
- Display beautiful images of temples and its architecture
For example, Bhubaneswar in Orissa, India is very famous for its exquisite temples. The development authority of the city started a QRpedia project in 2019. It installed QR Codes on temples and other heritage sites. Upon scanning, visitors can get detailed information about the temple and its history.
“The QRpedia project will help tourists, researchers and others, in gaining a better understanding of the region. Projects such as QRpedia have been undertaken in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia in a bid to enable the tourists for exploring the rich historical background of the places they visit,”
—a Bhubaneswar Development Authority official
4. For a sustainable temple bulletin
Temple bulletins have detailed information about temple activities. You may also print a brochure for that matter. You may print them weekly or monthly.
This requires a lot of printing cost and paper consumption. Besides, as mentioned earlier visitors will be wary of having physical contact with temple brochures.
Here is where QR Codes can prove helpful. You can link your temple bulletin in a QR Code. And by creating a Dynamic QR Code, you can update it anytime you want. You do not have to reprint it.
This will save both printing costs and paper consumption. Plus, visitors just need to scan the QR Code to view the bulletin without any physical contact.
5. To make temple bulletin interactive
You can also print a QR Code on your conventional temple bulletin. And make it actionable and interactive.
That is, instead of giving links such as a website, social media accounts, or registration link for a temple event, you can simply create a QR Code.
Upon scanning, visitors will be redirected to the target content. Thus, the manual work of typing will eliminate.
This way, the whole process will become effortless. And as a consequence, you will see an increase in traffic on the respective links and more footfall in your events.
For example, The Temple bulletin of Louisville, Kentucky has a QR Code on it. Upon scanning, people can view the temple website.
So, these were some of the use cases of QR Codes in temples. Also see how churches are using QR Codes for diverse purposes.
Now let’s move ahead to see how you can create these QR Codes.
D. How to create QR Codes
To create QR Codes, you need a professional QR Code generator tool such as Scanova. Here you can Sign Up for a 14 day free trial. And then choose the category of QR Code according to the content you want to link.
If your use case demands you to create QR Codes in bulk, then you need a professional bulk QR Code generator tool. You can use QR Batch and create thousands of QR Codes in a matter of minutes.
With QR Batch, you do not need any subscriptions and you pay as you create.
So you just read a detailed guide on QR Codes in temples. Create QR Codes now and resolve the challenges you are facing.