If you always thought free WiFi provided in outlets is nothing but the value addition to the customers, its time you rethink it. As the saying goes 'all that glitters in not gold', all that says "I'm free" is not free either.
What if I say you, free WiFi comes with a cost?
Obviously its a cost to the providers, be it restaurants or cafes, supermarkets or retailers they will have to pay for it to the network providers. What about the customers? Did it ever strike you (customers) that you also pay a hidden price for it. Not through the amount you spend in that outlet but through the information you surrender. And that includes your WiFi usage and also your location at times that's detectable by local routers in the outlets. This helps to keep tabs on you, as you move along or visit the store. For Example, if you spend more time before a rack in the supermarket, the store can know it.
How does customers' information help to monetize business?
To understand this you'll have to stand in the marketer's shoes. If you take a closer look, the customers are not sharing just some random information but the information at a very granular level. This helps organizations to build a customer profile and the general customer behavior inside the store. Following each one of the customers inside the store to see things through their eyes is impossible. Meanwhile asking about it through surveys will not give you exact results either, as people and their decisions tend to change momentarily. All these challenges lead to tracking customers at a subconscious level, the only solution. For example, the following insights were obtained from WiFi pings inside a chain retailer store.
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The average wait time at the back register is two minutes.
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Half of the customers have been in the store twice in a week.
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Ten percent of the people who come to the store never come near a register, meaning they don't buy anything.
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There are a lot of people not finding what they want.
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The big promotion on the east side entrance of the store was more successful at bringing people to purchase than the promotion on the west side of the store.
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Here's the WiFi hot spot in the store that draws the most users.
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The typical user comes in and purchases one thing.
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Ten percent of the users have been at more than one of the chain retailer stores.
That is way more than what you thought right? Just remember one thing.
The right offer at the right time to the right person in the right location is like hitting the bullseye!
Its what we call as
TARGETED MARKETING and that is what the organizations too spend millions for.
Now let's switch back to the customer's shoes. With these insights, outlets can profile you and send you real time offers. Fashion retailer Kohl leads with the real time offer strategies by sending you a promo offer to your mobile at the very same moment as you stand starring at a boots in a dilemma to buy or not. Starbucks tracks the less frequent customers and sends them offers to convert them into regular ones. How cool is that?
The next time when somebody says "its free", read between the lines to spot what are you leveraging. Because nobody gives free donuts. Especially when it comes to business!!
Image source :
Androidcentral,
Insights source :
Huffington Post,
Glossary source:
Entrepreneur
