Well, it’s no secret that we have become a society that appears unable to function without a phone in our back pocket, or gripped in our hand, regardless of the activity we’re pursuing. A recent survey has shown that more than 90% of consumers now use their smartphone while shopping in-store.

The customer’s opinion of your store is very important, as how they perceive it determines how long they’ll stay for and if they’ll ever return again. Customers are much more likely to positively rate your store because you offer free Wi-Fi, especially when taking into consideration the fact that not many other retailers have clocked onto this yet.

Social media has become an imperative part of society, and a lot of people find it necessary to update almost every moment of their life, every day. As a customer roams your store, it’s quite likely that they’ll want to enjoy free Wi-Fi as they do so, to let their friends and followers know what they’re up to.

Nearly half the respondents to the survey expressed that they also find it crucial to use in-store Wi-Fi to compare prices, read product reviews, and browse deals. Although this may seem initially scary when imagining they could find information that they don’t like and turn to a competitor, this isn’t the case. Embracing Wi-Fi in your store is the way forward and will only bring success in the long run.

Free in-store Wi-Fi also welcomes wonderful marketing opportunities, which is arguably the most important reason to provide such a service. Capturing consumer data allows you to retarget customers once they have left your store. To access free Wi-Fi, it’s often a requirement to log in via a social media page or enter an email address in exchange for the service. This will enable your business to contact your guests with related promotions or offers, making it just that little bit more likely that they’ll return again to spend even more money.

As well as information on individual customers, this process also gives you the opportunity to look at everything in a wider sense. You will gain valuable customer data such as demographic information and the length of time in which people remained in your store. This will help you grasp a better understanding of exactly who is walking through your doors, and from there you’ll be able to tailor certain parts of your business to meet the relevant consumer demands, which will, in turn, increase your success.

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Here at Konnectifi, we’ve put together five golden tips to help you to generate optimal revenue this Christmas.

1. Give WiFi a try…

They say the best things in life are free, and in the eyes of a potential customer, that couldn’t be truer if that something is free WiFi. With such a large proportion of the population texting, tweeting and Instagramming round the clock, you can safely predict that free Wi-Fi will be popular with customers. If your store provides free WiFi, the customer will feel inclined to stay longer and therefore become more likely to make a purchase. Here at Konnectifi, we can help to get you connected.

2. Deck the halls…

The public loves decorations. Why else would Christmas decorations in shopping centres and similar settings arrive earlier each year? This year, the Oxford Street Christmas light switch-on in London was held on 6^th November, startlingly early for a Christmas event. Still, the crowds were drawn in, proving it’s never too early to start Christmas in your store. Well, maybe October is a bit early. Otherwise, don’t hesitate to go all-out in your shop with tinsel, trees and all of the usual Christmas additions.

3. You’ll wish it could be Christmas everyday…

After decorating with pride, make sure you have a playlist that loops everyone’s favourite Christmas hits. By immersing your customers in the festive spirit, you can make it much more likely that they will end up doing a bit of much-needed Christmas shopping. Research has shown that when a customer experiences nostalgia, they are less worried about spending money. Press play on those Christmas classics of yesteryear and let the likes of Mariah Carey, Wizzard, Britney Spears and Bing Crosby deck your tills with their Christmas classics.

4. Offer a gift wrapping service

Offering a gift wrapping service around the Christmas season is a great way to increase your profits. Provided you source inexpensive wrapping materials, you can be practically guaranteed an easy boost in profits when tired shoppers would rather pay to have their items gift-wrapped. Everyone loves Christmas, but hates the stressful build-up beforehand. Customers will appreciate stores alleviating that pressure however they can.

5. Don’t forget about social media!

Social media is an ever-growing, very valuable platform for businesses that we can often take for granted in the world of selfies and likes. By promoting your business on social media, you can reach a broader audience outside the shop premises, which could easily help to increase the number of customers spending money with you this Christmas.

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WiFi supports independent studies

It’s undeniable that the Internet is an excellent education resource for students. Jisc’s student digital experience tracker surveys 8,000 students and their data reveals that 97% of higher education students find information online on a weekly basis during their course. This is especially the case for students who take courses that require a lot of independent research, such as English and History. Whereas in past years, students would have had to trawl through library books to find the relevant information for their essays, now they can simply type what they are looking for into Google search and immediately receive thousands of results.

WiFi gives easy access to online classroom tools

Many lecturers use online teaching tools that support interactive learning and student collaboration. These tools help to foster valuable employment skills in today’s society, such as communication and creativity. They also help to improve student attendance, making the class environment more fun and engaging.

Many lecturers also advocate the use of online tools to their students outside the classroom. For example, certain websites allow students to upload their coursework electronically, saving paper.

University libraries are becoming more and more popular

Data from The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) shows that for every full-time student studying at a university, there are around 55 visits to the library each year, and as student numbers increase, university libraries are seeing more people come through the doors than ever before. Students often prefer the social working environment that the library offers to the solitary working environment of their rooms. 

Social Media

Social Media is a vital tool in a student’s life. Students don’t only use Social Media to scroll mindlessly down pages and pages of memes during lectures – it is also used as a way of staying connected to their friends and family at home! They can use Facebook messenger to chat or they can give their old friends a window into their new lives by uploading pictures! Alternatively, Social Media can act as an important tool for helping students to settle into university life. They can add new friends on social networks and join groups to keep updated on social activities.

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Research has proven that many people actually base their choice of gym on whether they provide a reliable WiFi service or not. Customers enjoy listening to spotify music for motivation and entertainment as they workout at the gym. Indeed, many gym-goers create spotify workout playlists for this very purpose. However, without WiFi, many customers are forced to forgo listening to spotify, which leaves them feeling unmotivated and frustrated, and can lead to them having a negative gym experience and taking their business elsewhere.

There are many fitness apps on the market that allow users to track their fitness levels and help them to stay motivated while achieving their fitness goals. However, these fitness apps require a good WiFi connection in order to work effectively. A lack of WiFi connection can therefore act as a serious detriment to a gym-goer’s workout experience.

The average gym-goer also requires WiFi for their pre and post-workout activities. Whether its checking their facebook messenger to see if friends are on their way to meet them, or looking at their online diaries to check their availability in order to book fitness classes, WiFi is an essential tool for the gym-goers of today. Because many customers workout before work or during their lunch breaks, they also require constant access to their emails while they are away from their desks. If customers are unable to carry out these essential activities, they are likely to look for a gym which provides them with the WiFi service that will allow them to stay social and connected.

In the ferociously competitive market of fitness, you must make an effort to cater to your customer’s needs and desires. Many view a gym membership as a luxury and so it is essential that you provide customers with an experience that matches this, and in the digital age of today, that must include a reliable WiFi connection.

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However, for the customers themselves, frustration can too easily set in as they feel the seconds tick by in that waiting room. Fortunately, WiFi would let them occupy themselves more enjoyably.

Meet customers’ expectations for accessible WiFi

In many respects, offering WiFi isn’t just a good idea; it’s essential. This is because many consumers have come to expect the availability of such connectivity in a range of settings – including airports and dental practices. Your own firm’s waiting room should not be exempt from this list.

By putting both WiFi and its login details on ready display, you can incentivise customers to spend their time catching up on social media, replying to emails and doing other tasks to ease the delay.

Take account of the “instant gratification” culture

The speed with which customers can access products and services in the modern world has made these people less tolerant of waiting. For this reason, you could risk eroding your company’s hard-won positive reputation if you give customers too little to do in the waiting room.

These customers could become grumpier as they endure their forced wait. They might lack internet access until they return home, when they may register their displeasure on social media.

Complement the WiFi with a makeshift workplace

NewsOK reports that most professional customers are happy to work on the go – as long as the necessary resources are at their disposal. Therefore, as well as setting up WiFi for their ready use, you could add a small table, charging points and writing material to make a workspace of sorts.

With all of this in place, these customers would only need to open and start up their laptops before they could get to work and feel the time pass much more quickly.

Encourage positive word of mouth on social media

When your waiting customers do log into your WiFi network, they would be able to “check in” at this organisation on social media. In fact, you could encourage them to do so by offering an incentive such as a discount or free product.

At Konnectifi, we offer a guest WiFi solution through which you could collect a variety of customer data for fruitful use in highly customised marketing initiatives.

Calm patients’ nerves at a dental practice

In this kind of setting, patients often feeling uneasy during their stay in the waiting room. However, WiFi can assist in distracting their minds, says theyoungdentist.com. Furthermore, if you make that WiFi free, you will take away a reason for them to resist using it.

Our team at Konnectifi allow you to offer guest WiFi on a free or paid basis. You can see even more of the benefits if you book a free, 21-day trial of our WiFi solution that is well-suited to waiting rooms.

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Sadly, even keeping the food succulent and waiting staff polite might not suffice for keeping adverse critical reactions at bay. Here are some other techniques for helping to make customers happier.

Arrange your restaurant in a child-friendly way

When a family with kids enters your restaurant, both the adults and little ones should soon be able to sit down at a relatively large table. For example, for a family of four, provide a table for six, The Balance advises. Equipment supplied by your staff could include highchairs and colouring books.

If you have children of your own, you can probably easily attest to their characteristic impatience, but keeping various toys in a basket beside a table can help keep kids occupied in the wait for food.

Provide a friendly face of your own

You might already often encourage your staff to be pleasant and friendly to customers, but do you set a good example for them to follow? If not, don’t be afraid to mingle with customers – for example, by walking the dining room, introducing yourself and seeking feedback.

Customers are likely to be impressed by how attentive you come across. You should also provide them with an outlet for expressing their praise, a point to which we will now turn…

Set up social media channels

Through accounts on popular social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, your restaurant can get in touch with customers in especially enjoyable ways.

Of course, it is through social media that you can also gather plaudits from your customers. At Konnectifi, we can help you implement a WiFi solution which your guests can access. By letting them access it for free, you can make it easier for them to review the restaurant before leaving it.

Find creative ways to compensate dissatisfied customers

Unfortunately, your restaurant could occasionally attract stinging reviews – but you can cut the chances of this happening if you speedily compensate a customer before they start typing a review.

To that end, if a customer complains about a meal, you could discount its price. Similarly, if someone returns a steak that they claim is inadequately cooked, there’s the option of offering a free dessert or cocktail. Rest easy that customers are unlikely to try exploiting you when you make such offers.

Actively seek feedback on which you can act

Your tactics here could include providing feedback forms tailored to specific issues with which local people might struggle, implies CustomerThink. Consider, for example, the potential need for more parking in a crowded city or a more carefully-struck level of spiciness in Indian food, if you serve this.

By calling us on 0845 450 3427, you can book a free trial for a guest access WiFi solution that can ease collecting feedback.

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In supplying this Internet connection to your customers, you can also receive something even more valuable in exchange: data about those customers. Here is why and how you should analyse it.

WiFi presents an opportunity, but also a potential dilemma

According to a survey mentioned by ITProPortal, WiFi availability in a store can influence a mobile consumer’s decision to shop there. Women could be especially attracted to using this WiFi to improve their in-store experience. However, you could learn disappointingly little about your customers if you allow them to access this WiFi by simply filling personal details into an online form.

This is because these customers might fear seeing a torrent of unwanted marketing messages enter their phone and email inboxes. Therefore, they could be incentivised to type false details into that form and so connect to your firm’s WiFi without you receiving accurate and reliable data in return.

A remedy for the risk of harvesting unreliable data

At Konnectifi, we allow you to set up guest access WiFi for your customers delightfully easily; no technical knowhow is necessary on your part. Furthermore, once everything is all set up, you can require customers to log in through our intuitive portal. Crucially, its interface will give customers the option of signing in using their social media account on Facebook, Twitter or Google.

Hence, when a customer logs into this portal, your company can safely, securely and legally receive not only their email address but also their age, gender and Facebook “likes”. This can all add up to a thorough and, vitally, accurate picture of the customer’s demographic and preferences.

You can have faith in the data, but what should you do with it?

If you have only recently started your business and seen promising earnings and revenues, keep in mind that this bright start could quickly fade. Many customers might decide against regularly returning to your business, leaving you with a business model that won’t stay sustainable.

One way in which you can help increase your likelihood of amassing repeated revenue is creating “buyer personas” from the data that you collect. Let’s assume that this use of WiFi analytics reveals your typical customer to be a female in their thirties who logs in using Facebook. You could react by running a Facebook campaign that targets people in this specific demographic.

This can help you to develop a more cost-effective promotional drive. If particular people keep returning, you could offer them special discounts and rewards, suggests Women on Business. This tactic could encourage these people to become even more loyal to your business.

It all starts with the implementation of Konnectifi WiFi in your business, so we would welcome you booking a 21-day free trial. You can reach us by phone on 0845 450 3427.

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However, we shouldn’t play down the need for you to distinguish your coffee shop’s offerings as much as possible in the bid to stay afloat. A blog could provide a valuable differentiating factor…

It’s the people that make a place

In a marketplace largely populated by soulless behemoths, you can draw attention to the more personal touch that your own cafe can bring. Gabe Shohet of Black Sheep Coffee told The Guardian: “Our typical customer cares about the quality of what’s in the cup, the expertise of the barista, and consciously avoid large chains that are unable to deliver the same attention to detail and quality.”

You can especially effectively fuel faith in your coffee-making methods by maintaining a blog on which you regularly show your company’s expertise in these methods. As content marketing guru Corey Wainwright has pointed out in an article for HubSpot: “If you’re consistently creating content that’s helpful for your target customer, it’ll help establish you as an authority in their eyes.”

Regular blog posting can create publicity in itself

No matter how many impressive things you say about coffee on your blog, you can’t necessarily expect to see its visitor numbers soaring if you don’t ensure that the blog is actively promoted. Fortunately, simply keeping that blog periodically updated with fresh content can largely do that job for you – especially if the blog is tied to your cafe’s social media channels.

With each new blog post, Google has another page of your site to index and so bring to the attention of people who use the search engine. Furthermore, by focusing those blog posts on topics not directly related to the cafe itself, you can help garner attention and interest from people who may never have otherwise come across that blog or even learned of the cafe’s existence.

You could also set up your blog in such a way that, whenever a new article is published there, this new content will be advertised on your eatery’s social media pages – such as those on Facebook and Twitter – as well. This strategy, too, can help you reach out to a new audience.

Allow people to easily access the blog even at the cafe

A genuinely interesting and informative blog could also help you keep current customers returning. You could use our own guest access WiFi solution to let people readily access your blog as they eat and drink in your bricks-and-mortar outlet. Don’t make them sing for their cuppa… or Internet access, for that matter.

You could also urge those customers to use this Internet access to post an online review of the cafe, as coffee-making equipment maker Handground advises.

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The frustration of being left without a readily available Internet connection on-site could lead you to leave the premises and perhaps even post a negative review of that site on a customer reviews portal like TripAdvisor. However, offering WiFi can halt disgruntlement in your firm’s customers.

Say the word – word of mouth, that is

In your drive to spread positive publicity for your company, you mustn’t overlook the value of gushing customer reviews. This is because, when other people unconnected with your business speak on its behalf, flattering testimonials of their provision can foster word of mouth.

This shouldn’t be ignored, as word of mouth surpasses all other forms of advertising in effectiveness, the trivago Business Blog reminds us. However, it remains crucial that this word of mouth spreads favourable messages about your business; otherwise, you could have a reputation management challenge on your hands. You can cultivate the right reactions by going beyond guests’ expectations.

From WiFi to review…

When someone walks into a business building, they can feel as though they are entering a cold corporate world, where chasing tough targets for revenue and profit are the highest priorities for the business in question. For this reason, you can make a very positive impression on a customer if you employ a simple but heartfelt gesture showing how much you care about them.

This human touch can help to perceivably melt the icy shackles of this corporate world; however, any such gesture that you employ must remain genuine. In ensuring this, you can catch the attention of people who may then be driven to tell other people about their pleasant experience.

Of course, they could tell their story through casual, face-to-face interactions with friends and family. However, they might want to spread the message much further – and, if you offer them WiFi and thus they can already easily get online, they could plausibly decide to post on a reviews site.

Get your guests connected via Konnectifi

There are various technical means through which you can make WiFi available for your customers. A range of the options are outlined in a Guardian article; however, if a lack of technical knowledge on your part leads you to fear a struggle in setting up that WiFi, we can step in to help.

We can take this step by sending your business a dedicated Konnectifi router compatible with the WiFi and network infrastructure your company already has in place. You can book a free, 21-day trial of Konnectifi WiFi – the login interface of which you can customise to reflect your company’s own branding. Our website provides additional details.

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