Stalk Me On:
Wi-Fi Worries
Recently, I have been reading about some of the problems that coffee shops and internet cafés are having with Wi-Fi freeloaders. Some of these problems include insufficient seating, overwhelming noise from Skype calls, increased electric costs, and reduced internet speeds for the actual paying customers. Of course, there are many benefits to offering free Wi-Fi at the shops but in overpopulated and high-traffic areas it can become a really big problem.
Some, such as Panera, offer free Wi-Fi but limit you to only 30 minutes of use during peak lunch hours. Starbucks used to require a loyalty card to access but now they offer free unlimited wifi, but with a twist. They are offering completely free Wi-Fi access to all customers as well as subscriptions to the online versions of USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and even iTunes. This is part of the Starbucks Digital Network that will push customers to move to subscriptions in which Starbucks can take a part of.
All sounds great Starbucks, but with one big problem. You aren’t solving ANY of the problems that I mentioned above. Sure, it provides a way to monetize the freeloaders, but what are we going from here? Is there more profit potential from subscription commission or from paying customers buying Starbucks products? I feel as if the latter is where the focus should be but with all of these unsolved problems it makes it unpleasant for customers.
Paying customers are the ones that deserve the free internet, a good seat, an electric socket, or a somewhat quiet place to meet a client. So here is a proposition. Move back to the loyalty card model but take it a bit further. When a customer spends a dollar, they get some minutes for free internet via their loyalty card. This will ensure that only paying customers are getting the free internet and their free time is a direct relationship to the dollars they spend. Taking this one step further, the coffee shops could analyze the browsing behavior (as part of the network access policy) of the customers to custom target them with advertisements and offers.
For smaller shops who are not able to compete with the larger companies, Mike Elgan said it best: “Make good coffee.”
