How free WiFi can delight customers and drive sales to your small business
WiFi might not seem like it has much to do with enticing people to buy tacos or schedule a mani-pedi. But in today's mobile-driven world, free WiFi is an important selling point for your service-based business. We get it. It's been a hard year for small businesses and offering people free WiFi might feel like an unnecessary extra. The truth is, good WiFi can connect you to more than just the internet—it can connect you to your customers. From restaurants and cafés to nail salons, barber shops, and dental offices, here's how offering the right WiFi solution can help build your brand, boost your customer relationships, and take your small business to the next level.
Boost customer loyalty
Everyone likes free perks, right? WiFi is no exception. Customers have come to expect and appreciate businesses that offer free WiFi access. It doesn't just mean they can stay connected to friends and family while they're waiting to be seated at your restaurant or for their deep-conditioning treatment to work its magic on their hair. It also makes it easy for them to interact with your brand in other ways, including searching online reviews and comparing prices. Plus, WiFi is a great tool for bridging the gap between you and your customers. When they log in to your network, you can prompt them to share their email or check-in via social media. You can then use this contact info to strengthen the relationship through customer email campaigns like daily specials, insider discounts, and loyalty programs.
Entice your customers to stick around
How much time do your customers spend at your business? The longer they hang around, the more money they tend to spend. Free WiFi is one simple way to boost your customer dwell time and increase sales—62% of businesses reported that customers spend more time in their shop if there's free WiFi. Whether they're standing in line, waiting for their latte, or having their toenails painted, customers are used to reaching for their phones to keep them busy, answer their questions, and connect them to friends. And free WiFi makes that quick and convenient. Creating a welcoming environment is especially important for small businesses like cafes and restaurants where people often come to read, socialize, and work for extended periods of time. Businesses that make it easy to access WiFi are more likely to attract customers who will stay longer—and keep coming back.
Drive customer engagement and sales
Small businesses, especially in the service industry, rely on strong customer connections to build lasting relationships. Free reliable WiFi isn't just a nice added perk—it also creates opportunities to engage with your customers directly through branded marketing. WiFi marketing lets you connect with your customers the moment they walk through the door. For example, you can brand your network with a custom name like "Joe's Bar & Grill Free WiFi" and greet your customers with a polished branded landing page (such as the main menu or daily specials page) when they log in to your network. Free WiFi also makes it easier for your customers to market your business for you by "checking in" to your location on social media, sharing pictures of their experience (such as a #newhaircut selfie or #foodie meal shot) and rating their experience online. Since 81% of customers trust recommendations from family and friends over those from companies, creating these opportunities to connect and share with others will boost your customer engagement and your sales.
Unlock key customer insights
Connecting with customers isn't just about creating a seamless branded experience (though that's important, too). It's about anticipating their needs and exceeding expectations. WiFi helps you do that by taking a core strength of small businesses—building direct customer relationships—and helping you make those connections online too. One of the best ways to build connections is through personalization. The right WiFi solution will let you level up your customer experience by tapping into their behaviors while at your restaurant, café, or salon and noting where customers spend time and how long they stay. If your customers log in to your network through Facebook, you unlock access to a trove of customer insights you can use to target your marketing and optimize the online and offline experience. Add that data to your CRM applications so you can track your customer history, interactions, and touchpoints, and deliver personalized ads and experiences—from coupons for their usual coffee order to secret menu items for "VIP" clients.
A simple, intuitive solution for small business
In order to offer great free WiFi, great reliable connectivity is crucial. But imagine if you could go beyond that and plug into a platform that unlocks productivity, security, and marketing superpowers and puts them in the palm of your hand? Built specifically for small businesses, Plume WorkPass is an enterprise-grade tool that allows you to do just that. With its simple setup, troubleshooting, and 24/7 support, you can wave goodbye to IT headaches. Adaptive WiFi ensures a strong, reliable connection throughout your space, while mobile-app network controls allow you to see, manage, or fix things from anywhere. And with Concierge, customers access your free WiFi through a personalized, branded portal on your dedicated guest WiFi network. The resulting guest analytics then turn into opportunities for you. React to visit frequency, data usage, length of stay, and more. Learn more about WorkPass.