Providing free Wi-Fi in your business is always a sure-fire way to attract customers. They can avoid using data on their phone plan, and the connection is faster and more reliable. But did you know that a hotspot provides more for your business than a reason for guests to linger?
When customers use your Wi-Fi, their device connections supply data that allows you to adapt your business to their interests. Further, it can help you organize the goings-on of your business from a managerial standpoint. Here are four data points that you can get from your Wi-Fi to improve your customer experience and business operations.
1. Customer Traffic
On any given weekday, you may receive an expected number of regulars in your store. On a nice summer weekend, the overall numbers may rise dramatically. The number of visitors could also change based on the time of day or season. Of course, there are obvious reasons for this — the workday has ended, your business is geared toward warmer weather, etc. All of these are common causes of traffic fluctuations.
Still, it’s always important to take stock and ask yourself, how can I bring in more people at this time? How can I attract more returning patrons? The key to this will be found in customers’ device data. With your network analytics, you can monitor the number of connections at any time as well as location data. Small business Wi-Fi services such as Plume Work pass capture this data for easy viewing.
These figures will help you assess your busiest hours and sections and allow you to make experience-enhancing changes. For example, if most people shop after work on Fridays, you could prepare by scheduling more employees at that time. If there is a certain area of your store that people tend to frequent, you can expand it and make it more accessible. Combined with the next data point, this knowledge will make the customer experience much more fulfilling and inviting.
2. Consumer Demographics
The products or services you provide may be geared toward certain demographics, and it is essential that you know them well. How old are your customers? Do they skew male or female? What are their common interests? What would make them feel more welcome? It is easy to underestimate the importance of feeling welcome to a patron’s business experience.
When customers use social media credentials to log on to your Wi-Fi network, you can access demographic data about them. Designing your business around this information will allow you to take likely customer preferences into account.
If middle-aged women form your primary customer base, for example, you probably won’t want death metal blaring from your store’s speakers. Similarly, they’ll be more apt to see your social media promotions on Facebook or Instagram than on TikTok. If your audience is largely young and male, though, you’ll want to take a much different approach.
Don’t be afraid to customize the in-store experience for your target audience. It is highly advantageous to show customers that you have a focus on their interests. By analyzing the data extracted from their social media activity, you can better determine what might catch their attention.
3. Engagement With Marketing Campaigns and Promotions
However you choose to promote your business, keeping track of your campaign’s success becomes easier with direct access to consumer engagement data. The analytics you can explore include coupon and sale participation, response to ads, and involvement with the business on social media.
Ask yourself some questions. What is the prevailing sentiment toward your brand online? Which campaigns have resonated more with your audience? This information is perfect for gauging how well your promotions work and contemplating what you could do to improve them. You might try a promotion that combines the best-received components of past deals.
Another tried-and-true tactic for increasing customer retention is to start a loyalty program, which will yield further data. If consumers engage more on social media than in person, they may respond well to a social media-based program. You might find that they enjoy the consistent, personal benefits of a loyalty program over public sales and discounts. If program participation is tied to their Wi-Fi sign-in credentials, then program benefits can be communicated each time they connect.
4. Employee Behavior
Remember that customers aren’t the only ones who use your Wi-Fi — employees do, too. Though not as immediately fruitful as customer data, data on employee behavior is important to understand to maintain the efficiency of your workplace. A good example of this is network connections and disconnections, which can be tracked to determine arrival and departure times.
This method may prove more convenient and straightforward for shift tracking than other forms of timekeeping. Further, it allows leeway for time to be made up exactly. Using this information, you can build relationships with your employees by rewarding employees for punctuality. The specificity of the data can be used to accurately allocate overtime pay as well.
Using employee-related Wi-Fi analytics will also be particularly useful for workplace safety as the world recovers from Covid-19. Even if employees are vaccinated, many workplaces have strict guidelines in place to protect workers and customers and prevent further virus spread. With Wi-Fi tracking, you can monitor the number of people in the building at any time to keep everyone safe. The network connections will also prove crucial during any needed contact-tracing events and can reveal social distancing violations.
These days, consumer data is a commodity. As a business owner, using Wi-Fi analytics to your advantage in this manner could be the reason your business succeeds where others fail.
Collecting this data with permission gives you the chance to improve your offerings in all of the right ways. It can be utilized to create foolproof retention plans, market to your chosen demographics, and offer attractive opportunities for customers. Ultimately, you can analyze this information in any way you like. However you wish to gain a better understanding of your customers, their Wi-Fi analytics is the perfect guide.
