WiFi is just another point of engagement for the modern business. Managing a physical space means you are now challenged to blend the digital and physical world and create an experience that people remember, and then tell their friends about.

Whether you manage a rural library or a 5-star hotel, you are expected to please guests and reach back out to them. Communicating the advantages guests gain by connecting to the WiFi can be difficult. We’ll teach you a few basic strategies to improve engagement and respect the privacy of your guests, ranked from easiest to most involved.

Additional Signage

By far the most efficient way to get more people to connect to your WiFi is to remind them! Even unlimited cell phone data plans can be slow or unreliable in buildings, which makes free WiFi a welcome blessing.

The problem is the inconvenience of connecting. Taking the step to ask for the WiFi password, or even open settings to find the guest network is friction that will cause you to lose users. Just like websites are optimized to increase cart fills and email captures, your location can be optimized to increase WiFi logins.

Start by adding signs around your building. Focus on choke points with high traffic. Entry-ways, gathering areas, and display racks are all great places to gently remind people that free WiFi is available.  Areas that have increased dwell times like customer service sections or areas where you’ve placed a seat or a couch are also good choices.  You don’t need to be too pushy with this.  All you need are prominent and simple displays with the SSID and password. It’s a cheap and easy way to improve your guest WiFi usage.

Rewards Programs

If you want even more sign-ups, consider incentivizing them with a reward.  Fortunately delivering promotions via WiFi is easy, you just have to start planning to use it as a promotional channel. The idea is to showcase a unique feature or benefit your visitors will get after sharing their contact information over the WiFi.

For retail businesses, offering discounts is a simple way to implement a WiFi rewards program. After signing in to the WiFi, guests can be directed to a QR code or coupon on their phones which is then redeemed at checkout.

Hospitality businesses can offer perks to sweeten a stay, such as extra spa time or a free coffee at the cafe.

Libraries are a little different, but they have an advantage in that all of their patrons have a library card. Offering WiFi that requires library card sign-in is a great way to measure your patrons total experience.

Blazing Fast WiFi

The most ambitious method of improving WiFi usage is to offer customers solid, blazing fast WiFi.  Once you know how many visitors are using your WiFi on a daily or hourly basis, you can calculate what it would cost to give your visitors an incredibly fast WiFi experience. 

No one enjoys slow, sluggish internet.  There can be multiple reasons for slow WiFi speeds.  The location might not have enough high quality access points.  The location might not have enough bandwidth for the number of visitors using the WiFi.  Whatever the cause of the slowdown, it can be worth it to find out.

Although it’s not a simple or inexpensive change, we’ve had customers increase their WiFi usage statistics dramatically by changing to the highest available speeds in their public venues.  Giving guests a high quality WiFi experience is a good way to have them come back.  It also helps them tell their friends and recommend your location over others.

If you’ve like to learn more about how WhoFi is empowering real world communities and venues, please click here to Schedule a Demo.