7 in 10 customers choose pub with free WiFi
According to the free WiFi service provider’s recent survey, if restaurants, cafes, hotels and pubs want to attract customers, they have to offer free WiFi.
The study consisted of six questions about WiFi, answered by 355 respondents through a series of face to face interviews of randomly selected people on the streets of Dublin in the second half of 2014.
The survey reveals that 90% of customers expect a free WiFi service in these businesses. What’s more, not only do they expect free WiFi, they’ll vote with their feet between those locations with free WiFi and those without, with 67% saying that they’ve chosen one of these destinations based on whether or not it offered a free WiFi service.
The survey, which was carried out in Dublin, also revealed that the vast majority (70%-plus) rely on free WiFi either often (28.73%) or very often (41.97%), indicating how important free WiFi services are for those people trying to obtain an internet connection.
The majority of respondents (61.62%) also claimed they were willing to provide basic information about themselves such as age, gender, e-mail address etc in order to get free WiFi services.
Importantly, these findings demonstrate the importance of free WiFi for tourists. 41% of the respondents were tourists in Ireland and they reported an almost universal expectation with regards to the availability of free WiFi. The fact that two-thirds of all respondents indicated that they’d chosen a destination such as a pub, hotel, restaurant or cafe based on whether it had free WiFi should be a wake-up call to any in the tourist industry.
“The results of the survey demonstrate the link between free WiFi and growing your business,” explained Peadar Gormley, Chief Executive and Founder of MyPlace Connect, “Hassle-free WiFi which is easily accessible plays a key role in attracting customers for businesses in the service industry. Free WiFi is no longer ‘a nice optional extra’ to have to offer customers but an essential element of the marketing and sales strategy.
“Businesses that don’t offer free WiFi are missing out on an opportunity to maintain and grow sales by building a relationship with customers.”
MyPlace Connect’s system has no need for staff members to give out passwords or logins.
MyPlace Connect’s free WiFi services are currently used by customers in England, Germany, France, India, Ireland, Luxembourg, Scotland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the US.
