Business establishments nowadays, may it be doctors, dentists, mechanics, hospitals, salons, accounting, law firms, and others have something in common. They normally have waiting areas.
The technological advances have come so far that in almost all walks of life, things are interconnected somehow. During the times we are idle and waiting for something, some people read magazines, books, and some take time to take snack or drink beverages. But with the portability of tech devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops, customers can either entertain themselves or do something productive using these devices while waiting.
Wi-Fi is the thing that connects all of the tech devices. This is the same thing that guests expect from your house. House guests, same as with customers, one of the first things they ask is the wireless network information to connect their Wi-Fi capable devices.
Customers would expect a more reliable connection than their mobile data plan to connect their phone, laptop, or tablet. As mentioned earlier, this would either be their form of entertainment or something used for productivity while they wait. A solid and stable connection is what they would expect when they get to your establishment.
With all of those things discussed earlier, your internet bandwidth and router should be able to handle the number of users you expect to have and be online at any given point in time. In most instances, location of the router affects the over-all performance or degradation of the internet connectivity.
Here are a few factors that might have an effect or result to poor connectivity:
1. wireless router placement
2. walls and its composition
3. other electronic devices (e.g. cordless phones, microwave oven)
4. other wireless routers, access points, repeaters within the vicinity
Once the Wi-Fi is strategically placed, it is just as important that the internet speed is more than enough to provide everything your employees and customers needs. The more bandwidth you have the better.
Ideally, 3-4Mbps should be allocated per user. With the cost of internet becoming more and more affordable, internet connections become faster and faster which leads to the idea that there is no such thing as too fast.
Most of the time in these establishments, they offer free internet connectivity. It has become a standard norm and most of them do provide them. It sometimes is a key determining factor which establishment they chose to go with. Providing fast free internet is an advantage over your competitors.
Even review sites such as Yelp would show if your business has free Wi-Fi. Businesses that do not provide them most likely doesn’t show up as much during online searching which leads to lost business opportunities.
Customers tend to stay longer and are more comfortable in spending more money when they are offered this amenity. Most importantly, you can use your network sign-in to your advantage. You can do this by including an opt-in to contact your customers in the future.
Majority of people ignore the contents of the registration page when you sign in to a wireless network since it has been a common practice before getting Wi-Fi access. It would be a good idea to keep records of the devices who have accessed your network so you can use it later to create an email campaign to drive your sales up and hopefully bring back repeat customers to your establishment. You’d be surprised that you would eventually have a mailing list you can use later on which can be used in combination with automated marketing in order for you to offer promotions and discounts that can increase foot traffic thus improving awareness of your business establishment. In some cases, your business will be featured in a blog article, social media, location check-ins while they are in your establishment.
Customer is always King and Queen. Besides the free internet service. a television can also help drive sales up. The more comfortable customers are, the more money they spend on your business.
Not everybody would rely on just internet connectivity as a form of entertainment while waiting. There are still some things that only a television can provide. Nobody wants to be stuck in a waiting room while their favorite team is playing a championship game, their favorite artist is up for an award, or an important news situation is breaking live.
Your waiting room sometimes makes or breaks it. Some people already have the feeling of inconvenience while waiting. A good waiting experience would make a lasting impression to get more returning customers and clients.
It does not take much to give customers a lasting impression. Give excellent service to why they are there in the first place and make their waiting time relaxed and enjoyable.
