Should You Offer Free WiFi Connection in Your Cafe?

Many cafes offer WiFi connection, but is it truly the best choice?

You enter your favorite coffee shop. It’s full of people working on their laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Sounds of fingers hitting keys and texts notifications popping up are subtly camouflaged by the cashier’s voice taking orders, the espresso machine doing its magic, and the mild conversations taking place in some of the tables. Does this sound familiar to you?

It’s already been many years since technology made its way into our lives and our everyday activities. Around 2010, coffee shops started offering free WiFi connection to their customers. It worked wonderfully for franchises like Starbucks. Because of it, and ever since then, this practice has widely spread and many cafe owners started thinking of it as a competitive rule. They think you should offer free WiFi because that’s what everybody wants.

Well, what if we told you that’s changing? Many cafés are actually starting to ban Internet usage in an effort to encourage face-to-face interactions and provide an environment free from communication technologies. It might seem a little hipsterish at first. After all, it’s true that offering free WiFi can attract many potential customers, such as freelancers, to your store. The problem is: it also implies the risk of turning your cafe into an office.

No one stays in a coffee shop for five hours straight, but if they got a report to finish and free connection to use, they might. So offering free WiFi can encourage customers to stay longer, but that will only be useful if they keep ordering. And that’s not one hundred percent bound to happen. That's why you’ll probably feel the need to keep your customers coming and going.

Do you remember when cafés were about meeting with your friends and having conversations? Yes, that still happens. But does a workplace environment inspires that feeling? Probably not. That’s the reason why so many cafés are changing their approach around WiFi connections and are trying to offer something that can be seen as unique nowadays: a place to talk and engage in real-time human interactions.

This does not mean that you shouldn’t have free WiFi. It depends on what your close competition is doing, your customer's needs, and which kind of experience you’d like to offer them. Many coffee shop's owners feel like offering this service is a true perk that inspires their visitors to choose them over other places.

But you should unquestionably think it thoroughly and not do it only because you feel you have to. There are many costs associated with a stable WiFi connection, and if it starts to fail because of lack of maintenance, it can turn into a reason for your customers to complain and get angry. It’s better not to offer it at all if it’s barely going to be usable.

What do you think? Do you feel like coffee houses' mystic aura has been lost due to technology? Do you prefer to have a place where you can rest from the digital world and engage in meaningful conversations while enjoying your favorite cup of coffee? Trends are always changing, so it’s important to keep a record of what customers prefer! At That Coffee Roasters, we’re always looking forward to giving our clients the very best. If you have that in mind, you’ll probably succeed no matter what your choice is!

It will all depend on your customers' needs.

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That Coffee Roasters

Phone Number: (305) 821-8811

2697 W. 76 Street, Hialeah, Florida 33016

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