My friend Craig Plunkett “posted a pointer”:1 to a “Daily News article”:3 about how some cafés are having trouble with their free wi-fi service. “With laptop users hanging out in cafes all day, latching on to free Wi-Fi and air conditioning in return for a few paltry coffee purchases, it’s no surprise cafes are cracking down on freeloaders.”
Now, while I certainly won’t dispute what these cafés are claiming, I do think their owners don’t understand the phenomenon taking place, and I am sure their reaction to turn off the free wi-fi is the wrong move.
There are a number of reasons why:
# Free wi-fi is a commodity. If you decide to offer wi-fi for pay or turn off your free wi-fi during certain times, then just wait until the café down the street starts offering free wi-fi and takes your customers.
# Turning off free wi-fi does nothing but discourage people from coming into your café.
# This kneejerk reaction won’t solve the problem and causes collateral damage. Yes, customers will stop using the wi-fi. But many will just not bother to come in at all (lost sales) and they won’t recommend the café to their friends (lost future customers).
If your customers are camping out using your free wi-fi and not purchasing enough to cover their costs, then this points to a fundamental problem:
*You are not offering them anything that they want*
Yes, they may want free wi-fi, but they can get that in any number of places, especially in NYC. If your key selling point is your free wi-fi, then you’ll soon have other, bigger problems and will likely go out of business.
Free wi-fi isn’t valuable. If you are a café owner, the things you sell–your food and drink–are what’s valuable. If you offer tasty and irresistible food and drink (or maybe other things) then the more time that a customer spends in your store, the more likely they are to purchase. Period.
These café owners are blaming free wi-fi for their problems. I see this differently:
*The free wi-fi has brought a captive audience into the store. If you can’t sell them stuff, then that’s your fault.*
By turning off free wi-fi and electricity, you’re driving good customers away. Now that’s something to worry about.
[1]http://www.cedx.com/2007/08/the-death-of-ar.html
[2]http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/food/2007/08/03/2007-08-03_sit_but_dont_stay-1.html
Filed under: News
I’ve posted a follow up to your entry on my blog:
http://www.cedx.com/2007/08/strategies-to-d.html
There needs to be balance between offering amenities and table campers, a kind of gently enforced civility and common sense.