How Offering Free WiFi Affects Your Customer Experience
Posted by Joe Stanton on
December 15, 2014
Whether or not to offer free
WiFi has been an ongoing issue in the foodservice and hospitality industry for
many years, although a clear-cut winner in the debate has yet to emerge. Some
argue that providing this service is a great way to attract customers, while
others don’t like the lengthened stays that may result and the impact on a
business’s ability to turn over tables in a quick and profitable way.
There are a number of pros
and cons. Looking at how other businesses have handled this issue may help you
to determine how offering free WiFi can affect your customer
experience.
Why to Avoid Free WiFi
Restaurant owners who claim
that adding free WiFi has increased their traffic and overall business might be
right – at least according to recent data reported
by Small Biz Trends. According to their analysis:
• 61% of customers actively look for free WiFi in restaurants
• 45% of customers feel it’s important to have access to WiFi
while eating or drinking
• 27% say they visit restaurants offering this convenience more
frequently
Judging by these figures, it
would seem that an enterprising restaurant owner would be well-served by adding
free WiFi to their off-menu amenities. However, there are plenty of reasons to
discontinue or limit free WiFi access at your business as well. Adding public
WiFi to your cable bill can be expensive, and the hassle associated with
needing to have a person on hand to deal with outages and help customers
connect can be frustrating.
But the biggest concern
business owners have are the squatters who take up tables and work for hours
without placing extra orders to account for the table turnover they’ve prevented.
Dine-in restaurants and their quick-serve counterparts have two choices: either
cut off service entirely or limit access during certain hours.
Luigi Di Ruocco, owner of
San Francisco’s Coffee Bar,
took a middle-ground approach. Throughout the lunch hour, about a third of the
cafe’s tables are designated as express seating with visits limited to 30 minutes
and laptops prohibited altogether, resulting in a 15-20% increase in sales. In
a San Francisco Chronicle article,
Di Ruocco says:
"One of the unforeseen problems was that people stayed a really long time and others who came in couldn't find seats. As a business owner, it broke my heart to turn away business. But at the same time I couldn't chase off the existing patrons because they might not come back."
Anna and Kenneth Zankel,
owners of Grove restaurant, also in San Francisco, discontinued WiFi service
entirely – a move that they say resulted in losing a few customers. But in
the same Chronicle article, the husband and wife duo said that offering
internet service had an impact on their customer experience that wasn’t worth
the extra revenue:
“In short, over time a trend grew that ultimately began to dull the ambience, drive away new (and existing) guests, cause tensions, and ... well, the exact opposite of the signature experience we endeavor to provide."
If your restaurant prides
itself on offering an intimate, personal customer experience, you may find that
the loyalty from your regular guests who prefer the ambiance you’ve created
trumps any losses you endure from eliminating free wireless access.
The Business Case for
Offering Free Internet Access
On the other hand,
restaurants like Starbucks, Buffalo Wild Wings, and even McDonald's are seeing
a different side to this story. Offering free WiFi gives restaurants a promotional tool they
can use to distinguish themselves from others, helping them to attract the
customers referenced in the statistics above who proactively seek out
businesses that provide this service.
A perfect example of this
is Panera Bread.
Nearly all of their U.S. locations offer free WiFi – a fact that they highlight
in marketing materials and on their website. They even have a restaurant
locator on the wireless access section of their website to help drive
digitally-demanding customers to their locations. Panera Bread is one of many
such restaurants: Chains such as Applebee's, Arby's, Bob Evans, and Barnes and
Noble coffee shops are joining the many businesses that offer and advertise
free wireless internet.
But before you make a final
decision on whether or not to offer free internet access at your restaurant,
there’s one final consideration to take into account.
Today’s increasingly
high-tech and connected generation loves being able to instantly check in to
new locations, post pictures of their food, and leave their feedback on
review sites in the moment. And while data plans associated with digital
devices allow some consumers to undertake these activities without connecting
to a wireless network, plan bandwidth limitations and overage charges make
customers more likely to promote your restaurant for you if they can do so over
a free WiFi connection.
Ultimately, as a business
owner you want to offer your guests the customer experience that keeps them
coming back again and again, making your business the most money in the
process. There’s no doubt that the decision to offer free WiFi affects this
experience in both positive and negative ways. As a result, it’s up to you to
take the atmosphere you’re trying to create into account when determining
whether offering free WiFi contributes to or takes away from your ideal guest
experience.
Image: Flickr
Topics: customer
experience, WiFi
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