WiFi data and analytics have been around for several years, but it’s only in the past couple of years that businesses have started to utilize their potential for improving their guest experience, staff efficiencies and increase the return rate of their customers.
What is WiFi data and analytics?
WiFi analytics is the process of gathering data from customers/visitors/guests via your guest wifi. Using this data gathered from devices, businesses can optimize the space and layout of their stores/venues, which can determine things such how long their customers dwell in an area or place popular products in heavy traffic areas
Picture this, you’ve entered your local megastore for the essentials such as milk and this product is placed at the furthest point of the store, meaning you have to walk through all the other aisles, causing people such as myself, to impulse buy (I’m not the only one, I’m sure of it!).
How is Data Captured?
Guest data is collected in two ways:
-
Authenticated Data
-
Presence Data
Authenticated data
The primary and most effective method of collecting data is via associated devices. Associated devices are customer devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops with WiFi capabilities) that have signed into your public/guest WiFi network. Data is collected from customers during the access journey that requires them to fill out their details, this is usually done via a form or social sign-ins (Facebook, Twitter, Google).
With authenticated data, businesses can begin to understand the personal details of their customers, which ultimately can be used to make data-driven business decisions. These details can include:
- Name
- Age
- Gender
- Place of residence
- Contact information (Email, Telephone, Social Media)
Presence data
Presence data enables you to understand how many visitors have entered your store/venue/restaurant, but no personal data about the guest is captured.
When a device enters the proximity of an AP (Access Point) it is captured by the unique MAC address without the visitor having authenticated via social sign-in or web form. Using this information, you can track raw visitor numbers and overall guest behavior trends.
How can this WiFi data improve my business?
There are a variety of different ways that this data can improve your business. Cloud-based WiFi analytics and its tools introduce a centralized reporting dashboard that helps you make sense of collated data.
WiFi analytics allow you to:
- Customize your marketing based on guest behaviors
- Obtain valuable customer feedback
- Increase average spend
- Reduce customer churn rate
Customize your marketing based on guest behaviors
When it comes to strategizing any marketing campaign, you’re only going to produce an effective campaign with precise and up-to-date data.
When a visitor logs in to your guest wifi using their email address and/or mobile contact number, they are giving you a direct means of contact them once they leave your venue.
Here is a good example of how you can leverage this data in your favor:
Joe Bloggs enters your store, upon looking into the data later you realize they spent 75% of their time in the men’s suits section of your store. This provides a very clear indication that they are in the market for a new suit.
Because they signed up using their email address, you can then send them product-specific discounts, promotions, and deals in an effort for them to return to your store.
Obtaining valuable customer data
You can direct customers to feedback splash pages during their visit, allowing you to gather information about customer experience.
You can then use this data to ensure that customers’ voices feel like they are being heard, whilst gathering a consensus about how your business and staff are performing.
Increase the average spend of each customer
Using marketing to get that little bit extra out of every customer that visits your venue over time can have a hugely positive effect on revenue.
It’s one of the most effective ways of increasing revenue because the customers you are targeting are already familiar with your brand and they’ve bought into it as they are currently in store.
There are several ways that you can do this:
- Advertisements
- Feature things such as video ads, images, and written content during the customer’s login journey.
- Trigger marketing messages in real-time
- Set up automated marketing messages/communications that trigger when customers enter a certain location within your venue (product-specific, deals, etc.) prompting and enticing a purchase.
- Location analytics
- Using data gathered, you can identify customer high traffic areas, dwell time and pathways. This data will allow you to optimize your venue layout and product placement.
Reduce customer churn rates
On average, 75% of customers do not return to a venue for a second time, in some cases, even higher.
It’s always proven difficult for a business to lower this figure and increase the return rate of its customers, given that without WiFi data their customers remain elusive and anonymous.
Capturing visitor data is imperative to the increase in the number of guests that return to a venue as it provides an opportunity to build better customer profiles as well as being able to contact them in the future.
Summary
Technology, you simply have to be amazed by its endless possibilities, especially in marketing, where now you can interact with customers in a way that seemed science fiction just 5 years ago.
Utilizing a visitor’s smartphone can and will make your store a much more personalized experience for consumers; allowing you to develop an almost personal relationship with each and every visitor.
It’s a valuable opportunity to understand your audience on a more in-depth level, don’t waste that opportunity!