This blog post was originally posted on October 26, 2018 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
A modern horror story: You've been traveling for over 12 hours, you're tired, hungry and you still have some work to do before tomorrow. You check into your hotel room, open your laptop and...the Wi-Fi doesn't work. Dun, dun, dun!
People spend more than 50% of their time on Wi-Fi, yet, for several reasons, many businesses still struggle to deliver great guest connectivity. A guest network must be able to not only handle this growing traffic, but also to identify and engage your loyal customers. Here are 3 of the most terrifying guest Wi-Fi mistakes and how to avoid or remedy them:
Mistake #1: Leaving your guest Wi-Fi experience to chance
The unfamiliar can be scary. From signature brand scents to a particular brand of coffee, customers like to know what to expect when they show up at one of your locations The same goes for Wi-Fi. Nobody enjoys having to figure out how to get on the Wi-Fi, but more often than not, it's the first thing your customers do when they step foot in your doors. Make it easy on them by ensuring they have a consistent experience. Some tips include:
- Form a naming convention for SSIDs across all locations
- Create a captive portal template for consistent branding
- Standardize access plans including device counts, speed, etc.
Mistake #2: Focusing just on more pipe without first optimizing existing bandwidth
It used to be that guest Wi-Fi was all about speeds and feeds. Having a big enough bandwidth pipe to support your customer's needs is important, but it’s really just the beginning of delivering great guest Wi-Fi. Check out our Hierarchy of Connectivity blog post to learn what comes after reliable & fast Wi-Fi access in terms of guest needs.
Throwing more bandwidth at the problem isn’t always the answer. In fact, many businesses have plenty of bandwidth, they just have no way of managing or even seeing how that bandwidth is utilized. A guest Wi-Fi platform, like ElevenOS, enables business owners to easily manage and optimize bandwidth and performance. Monitor bandwidth usage in real-time and save time by optimizing performance across multiple locations and providers from a simple, cloud-based dashboard.
Mistake #3: Failing to incorporate Wi-Fi into your loyalty & personalization strategy
Wi-Fi is a crucial touch point between you and your customers. It is at the point of authentication that we are able to move beyond what device is connecting to who is connecting to serve up a more personalized experience. A central authentication platform allows you to recognize not just the device that connects to the Wi-Fi, but the person using it. By rolling the Wi-Fi experience up into one dashboard, you can better integrate other data to tell a bigger story. For example, you can connect social profiles and CRM data to get a more complete picture of your customers.
Central management enables you to leverage Wi-Fi to make better connections across systems. Leveraging Wi-Fi data for even richer guest profiles allows you to deliver a better, more personalized Wi-Fi experience that truly delights customers and drives loyalty.