John, aged 23, from Manchester. He’s a repeat customer. His last visit was on 10/02/2019, and he has an average dwell time of 30 minutes.
Capturing customer data online is something that we are very good at. We know how many people visit our website, how much time they spend on-site, their demographics, whether they convert, how much they spend and how frequently they return.
Offline is a little different. We do not know who is visiting our venues.
There are technologies out there such as point of sale systems (PoS) and bluetooth tracking that give businesses insight into how many people visit their stores and which customers make a purchase. However, these technologies are somewhat limited and do not give businesses a holistic view of their physical spaces.
Take PoS for example. It only collects data on people that make a purchase. What about the people that don’t, and then leave? You don’t know who they are and you have no way of connecting with them in the future to encourage them to return.
There’s a black hole of data that is just sitting there waiting to be exploited.
Enter, WiFi analytics
Understanding customer demographics and how customers move around your venue, whether they make a purchase or not, presents a huge opportunity for businesses that many are currently missing.
So let’s run through how WiFi analytics can help. Starting with…
- What is WiFi analytics?
- How does WiFi analytics work?
- How can you use the data collected?
- What return can you expect to see?
What is WiFi analytics?
WiFi analytics involves using your guest WiFi network as a means of capturing customer data. This data can include name, contact details, date of birth, interests, hometown, footfall, dwell, frequency of visits and much more.
You can then use this data to build better customer profiles and improve personalized marketing campaigns.
Remember how I said John was a repeat customer?
That’s because he was encouraged to return with personalized email communications based on his demographic and behavioral data; increasing brand loyalty and the amount he spends in-store.
How does WiFi analytics work?
WiFi analytics is a software solution that ‘sits’ on top of your existing guest WiFi network. When guests connect, their data is collected via a captive login portal, and their movement is tracked whilst in your venue using their devices’ de-identified unique MAC address.
Now we sometimes get a little push back here.
“Not every customer will connect to WiFi.”
And you’re right, they won’t.
But let me tell you what we tell everyone else.
As a WiFi analytics company, we have a lot of data. We have analyzed this data and can tell you that on average 20% of customers (this does fluctuate across industry) connect to WiFi.
So let’s imagine you are a large restaurant chain, and you see on average 1,000 visits per day, per restaurant. You have 10 restaurants. That’s 10,000 customers. Assume that 20% of those 10,000 customers connect to WiFi, and you have collected 2,000 new customer records in a single day.
That’s a lot of data.
How can you use the data?
All of the data captured is stored within a centralized reporting dashboard.
You can segment and filter this data in a number of different ways to get a very granular view of your customer demographics and behavior.
On a quick side note, whilst we are on the topic of capturing customer data, I think it is important to address data privacy.
We’ve got that covered. The solution is compliant with global data regulations. Terms and conditions are presented to users during the login journey with the option to accept or decline.
Users also have full access to the data that has been captured on them via a My Data portal that allows them to manage their own marketing preferences and if they wish to do so, request that their data is removed.
So, how can you use the data?
- Use location data to understand how visitors move around your venue. What are you most popular entry and exit points? Do customers use the customer pathways you have in place, or do they cut corners? What are your busiest times of the year, month, or day? Where do customers dwell? You can use this data to adjust venue layout and manage staffing requirements to improve the customer experience and drive spend.
- Combine demographic data with your existing CRM records for customers that have made purchases in the past. You can then send them personalized messages based on their demographics and recent purchases; increasing engagement and future spend.
- Use the data collected to market to new customers that logged onto your WiFi, but didn’t make a purchase. Do you have a sale coming up? Let them know. You could send them a ‘10% off your first purchase’ voucher to encourage them to return. Similarly, you can reward your loyal customers with offers and promotions based on previous purchases to keeping them coming back.
What return can you expect?
Results vary across industry – and what elements of the solution are utilized – but here are a couple of examples of how we have helped other customers. Follow the links to read the full case studies.
- Data compliant solution that improves the customer experience
- Branded and simple customer access journey
- Supported a large phase of digital transformation
- Significantly reduced the need for on-site IT technicians
- Splash page redirects to advertise new offers and promotions
- Increased customer database
- Encouraged app downloads
- Improved the in-game experience for fans
- Promotion of their app
- WiFi supporting new ticketing system
For more information on how Purple can support your offline data needs, get in touch.