Wi-fi Hotspots

All the major Cafe’s in Sydney and Melbourne now have WiFi Hotspots including Starbucks, McDonalds, Panera Bread and Arby’s along with many more. Apart from being the place where business people have a coffee or bite to eat, it’s also a location where they like to carry out their business using their technology devices. If you a small business owner in the city, Wi-Fi is definitely something you should consider as it is a great selling point to your business.

Advantages of WiFi Hotspots

  • Increased Revenue – All revenue from providing the service is kept by you.
  • Attract more customers – Offering High-Speed wireless internet access will increase your appeal especially to business users.
  • Promotion – Example might be offering 10 minutes free access with every coffee & cake
  • Marketing – Showing your services such as menu and outside catering.
  • Gain a competitive advantage over your competitors – The larger chain Cafés such as Starbucks and Gloria Jean’s already have Wi-Fi, but many of the small businesses do not.
  • Data Capture – Great for capturing people’s email addresses. Getting customers to like and follow you on social media pages.
  • Encourage Repeat Business – Customers will want to come back to use your services.

High speed wireless access is now expected to be available in most public areas by 2014. Most hotspots come standard with a built-in and accounting system that allows you to sell access to the internet by the minute, hour or day. You determine the rate, you sell the time, and you collect the money. See diagram below:

Customize your WiFi

The only issues you need to be aware of are obviously you want to offer free Wi-fi to your customers. But you do not want your network to be abused, with your customers simply using your business as a place for all their internet needs, you are able to restrict this. For example, you can block adult sites or Social Networking sites such as Facebook or any other sites you wish. You may even decide to put a time limit on each session. For example, if you are a coffee shop owner you don’t want a customer to just buy one coffee and sit there all day using your free Wi-Fi taking up one of your tables! You also to take into consideration the range of your Wi-Fi service.

After setting up your network, be sure to advertise the fact that you have free WiFi Hotspots. Even putting a sign in the front window of your shop will advertise the fact that you have free WiFi available for your customers.

For more information on Hotspots, please contact us.