what are the benefits of restaurant wifi?

A study from BT shows approximately 87% of consumers connect to WiFi when in a bar, pub, or restaurant. So how important is having guest WiFi in your hospitality venue? Bottom line, very important! Find out in this article the benefits of providing guest WiFi and how to use it to your advantage.

So what are the benefits?

• Recent studies have shown that people are considering factors such as free guest WiFi when choosing where to go out, in fact up to 41% of millennials wouldn’t go to a pub that didn’t have WiFi.
• People will stay longer, it is estimated that 60% of customers who connect to freeWiFi end up staying longer, and up to 50% end up spending more money.
• If you are a more casual venue (cafe etc…) it will allow people to work remotely from your venue and spend money at your business.
• There are so many marketing/advertising benefits of having guest WiFi.

Is your WiFi up to speed?

So as we can see, having guest WiFi is definitely a good idea, but what’s worse than no WiFi at all? Slow WiFi! Bog-standard broadband you’d use at home will just not perform the same in a hospitality venue. Business-grade WiFi is essential and providing a reliable network is definitely worth investing in.

Getting a business-grade WiFi is actually easier than you might think, there are hospitality IT support specialists who can upgrade your domestic network to the real deal so you can start reaping the rewards straight away.

For best results, having multiple wireless access points across your venue (including outside for those who prefer to soak up the sun!), this is not only beneficial for your customers who can have a strong connection from wherever they are in your venue, but also beneficial for you and your team. Contactless payments not going through, POS systems not sending orders and other common issues hospitality businesses face can be easily solved by having a reliable network.

To find out more about common IT issues businesses face and how to resolve them read one of our latest blogs here.

Can it help market my business

Social media is a powerful tool, and the hospitality business is no exception! One of the ways free guest WiFi can help market your hospitality business is by making it easier for your customers to share their experiences with their friends and followers on social media. The phrase ‘Foodstagramming’ is an actual thing, and food-related posts are the single most popular amongst Instagram.

Although the typical user of Instagram is mainly between 25-34 years old, let’s not forget the one auntie we all have who updates her Facebook status with continuous updates, including checking into restaurants, bars, etc… So in simple terms, providing free guest WiFi gives you the benefit of free advertising!

Another great benefit of having Purple WiFi, in particular, is that it allows you to collect extremely valuable data about your customers, by asking them to sign in via social media platforms such as Facebook and allows you to collect personal data including their age, gender, interests, etc… This will allow you to tailor your marketing to your customers as well as making any changes to your business to appeal to your target market even more.

One of the key benefits of having access to your customer’s personal data is sending personalised offers for their birthdays, selected deals you think they may like, 2-4-1, or happy hour. This kind of promotion feels personal (studies show a personalised email is 26% more likely to be opened), therefore the customer is more likely to act upon it.

So start investing in your WiFi, learn about your customers, and get creative with your marketing approaches!