One of the key things you can do to drive people into your store – not to mention give them something special once they are there, help your staff be more informed, offer mobile payments, generate a marketing list, track consumer behaviour and generally make yourself super-popular – is to offer wifi in your shop.
But its not as simple as just plugging in a router and away you go: you have to offer a good service, make that service work for you and you have to make sure you don’t fall foul of the law.
“Customers expect free online access at venues and businesses wherever they are, and today businesses can offer this service for free,” says Gavin Wheeldon, CEO, Purple WiFi. “The international wifi market is expected to be worth more than $93 billion by 2018, but it has offered little in the way of value for the venues that provide wifi,” he continues. And here is what he thinks can be done to make it work for you – and to keep you on the right side of the law.
Make wifi useful
• Make your in-store wifi access free. Crucial and probably the most important way to make wifi useful for consumers
• Ensure consumers actually know that you have WiFi in the first place (using the appropriate signage)
• Make connecting to your network minimal effort. Easy and fast. No passwords to remember, no long winded multiple steps to log-on etc.
• Make sure that you maximise your branding and marketing opportunities via your WiFi: encourage engagement with your brand via social login options; brand up the the page people land on after they login; and continue the conversation and offers with email marketing after they leave.
Make it secure
• Don’t make the mistake of putting a router in and handing out the password! Retailers need to use software from reliable providers such as Purple WiFi, to ensure that their wifi is a) secure and b) legally compliant
• To provide a secure service, you need to be sure that your WiFi has the ability to separate internal traffic from public traffic, and has a secure log in process
• To be legally compliant, you need to store data in line with data protection and retention laws, and also be able to demonstrate that you have taken the necessary steps to prevent inappropriate downloading and file sharing
• In addition, the use of content filtering, although not a legal requirement – yet, ensures that only appropriate and IWF approved public access to internet is given.
Make it legal
Businesses which give out their wifi password are putting their network at risk and ideally should provide a separate and secure system for guest WiFi. Purple WiFi not only provide a secure login process but also separate the business WiFi from the guest WiFi, thus protecting your private network and EPOS systems.
There are also various obligations of being a public wifi provider, which we have summarised as follows:
• Data protection – Public wifi providers need to be aware of their obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998, whenever personal data is collected or processed about individuals. Purple WiFi stores this data in line with the requirements of the act and are registered with the Information Commissioners Office.
• Data retention – The Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations 2009 assists in the prevention and detection of organised crime and terrorism, by requiring service providers to retain certain communications data. Purple wifi stores this data in line with the requirements of the regulation on secure 3rd party Amazon web servers.
• Illegal online activity – The Digital Economy Act 2010 targets online copyright infringement by end users, covering illegal or inappropriate downloading and file sharing. Purple wifi helps you to prove that you have taken steps to try to prevent copyright infringement, as users have to both register and accept terms and conditions which cover inappropriate use. In addition, our Premium product provides content filtering.
Speak Your Mind