Free Wifi in your coffeehouse
I currently do not have my own shop, but hope to someday. I do like the idea of offering free wifi. However, I would get annoyed with those who sit for hours upon hours with one cup of coffee surfing the net, day trading, or illustrating their next comic strip etc, etc.
To all the shop owners out there, how do YOU personally deal with the wifi squatters?
To all the shop owners out there, how do YOU personally deal with the wifi squatters?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leo Li on
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1 cup of coffee for 2 hours...make a password for the customer only with time limit.
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Permalink Reply by Jay Caragay on
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WiFi? Don't do it.
Simple solution.
The new place we're about to open will not have wifi - at all.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Hammond on
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I sell coffee. I sell a few other tid bits. That's where I make my money. I don't sell wifi. It's free, and as long as you bought something from me, and treat me and my staff like we're human beings, don't annoy my other customers, don't look at anything that isn't family friendly, your good. Stay as long as you like. I've watched movies on Hulu at coffee shops in the past. I'll do it in the future. I feel like you'll drive more people away from your shop to the other guy if you ask them to leave. And I already have enough on my plate than to add the time spent with password software, and kicking people out of my shop.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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What part of camping for hours using the network do you find objectionable? Is it camping but not buying anything more than one cup? Is it them being in the seat for 4 hours? Is it them being on the network? Answer that and you'll know how best to address the situation.
Personally, I think the problem you are anticipating has nothing to do with wifi. Regardless of whether or not you offer access, if you design your space to be comfortable you'll have campers. People will have meetings, sit and read for hours, take a nap, whatever. You need to define your cafe's philosophy on this and make a policy to address it - whether that is just allowing them to camp, telling them to leave, or something in between. Apply this policy across the board and the whole wifi thing becomes irrelevant. With the growing popularity of mobile broadband, you'll need this kind of policy anyway.
Us? We offer free wifi for customers. We have a network code that doesn't change. We use network management software to allow or ban individual computers from the network. You must be in our store and have purchased something to get network access.
Assuming they've bought something and we don't have a capacity crowd, we don't really mind people "camping". We designed a space that people would want to spend time in for a reason. We have "camping" readers, workers, people having meetings, you name it. We see most of them daily. They call us "their office" or "their other home". We know their names. That's just the kind of place we run and it works for us.
Overall, I encourage you to look at this from a more general standpoint and decide where to go from there. Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by victoria fallon on
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Thanks for the reply Brady. I am more concerned than offended by the campers. Concerned about how shops afford to have people sit for hours on one cup. I do like the idea of offering free wifi. I guess I have to consider the consequences that will come with it. I like the idea of one cup for two hours posted by Yang Li. I think that seems fair. I do want a coffee house that is inviting and comfortable but not so comfortable that one would take a nap!
thanks again for posting a reply to my discussion.
Brady said:What part of camping for hours using the network do you find objectionable? Is it camping but not buying anything more than one cup? Is it them being in the seat for 4 hours? Is it them being on the network? Answer that and you'll know how best to address the situation.
Personally, I think the problem you are anticipating has nothing to do with wifi. Regardless of whether or not you offer access, if you design your space to be comfortable you'll have campers. People will have meetings, sit and read for hours, take a nap, whatever. You need to define your cafe's philosophy on this and make a policy to address it - whether that is just allowing them to camp, telling them to leave, or something in between. Apply this policy across the board and the whole wifi thing becomes irrelevant. With the growing popularity of mobile broadband, you'll need this kind of policy anyway.
Us? We offer free wifi for customers. We have a network code that doesn't change. We use network management software to allow or ban individual computers from the network. You must be in our store and have purchased something to get network access.
Assuming they've bought something and we don't have a capacity crowd, we don't really mind people "camping". We designed a space that people would want to spend time in for a reason. We have "camping" readers, workers, people having meetings, you name it. We see most of them daily. They call us "their office" or "their other home". We know their names. That's just the kind of place we run and it works for us.
Overall, I encourage you to look at this from a more general standpoint and decide where to go from there. Good luck.
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Jay,
Tell me why so strongly against wifi. I need the pros and cons.
thanks
Jay Caragay said:WiFi? Don't do it.
Simple solution.
The new place we're about to open will not have wifi - at all.
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Victoria-
I am against wifi because I've seen what it does even to the shops serving "the best" coffee. Squatters sit all day long using the computer. Sure you might think that a few are okay, but if you've ever seen customers leaving because they couldn't find a place to sit because of the squatters, it's not okay.
The computer puts up a barrier that's not present in other forms of self-entertainment. I've seen literally shops filled with computer squatters and it's just a waste. Turn the tables. Let the newcomers have a seat with their latte instead of that guy who's been sitting there with his computer taking up a 4 top nursing his cup of drip since 8am.
But let me add: the decision to offer or not offer wifi should be well thought out and part of your vision for the shop. We will not have WiFi in our new location because that's not our focus. We're not interested in you surfing the Internet and updating your Facebook account. We want our customers experience our coffee and everything in our environs is focused on that goal.
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Permalink Reply by Java Gem Coffee Drive Thru on
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What I did is I purchased a router that comes with a little printer, it auto creates usernames and you can set each button up on the printer (has 3) for how ever much time you want the login to be good for, I did 15min, 1 hour and forever. You just press the button it prints the ticket with login info on it and you give it to the customer, each sale = 1 hour, stops all that nonsense and has worked perfect, and I always secure the WiFi so people outside cant sit on the curb and suck up all the bandwidth.
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Permalink Reply by mo'joe on
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Might you know the brand/model of this router?
Cyber Infusion Internet Cafe said:What I did is I purchased a router that comes with a little printer, it auto creates usernames and you can set each button up on the printer (has 3) for how ever much time you want the login to be good for, I did 15min, 1 hour and forever. You just press the button it prints the ticket with login info on it and you give it to the customer, each sale = 1 hour, stops all that nonsense and has worked perfect, and I always secure the WiFi so people outside cant sit on the curb and suck up all the bandwidth.
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Permalink Reply by Mark on
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Good article in the SF Chronicle today on this:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/08/DDKR1B2...
Seems like the way to go is to offer free wifi and do 1 of 2 things:
1) Charge for extra time or place a sign saying $5min purchase for wifi
2) cover up outlets, which will restrict users to battery life (1-3hrs)
I like #1, then if you get really full, I'd start covering up plugs and most of all, always communicate with your customers. Let them know what you are doing and why. My biggest pet peeve is when businesses never tell me what or why they do things.
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Permalink Reply by Sean on
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I've been looking for a similar solution and I came across this today...
ZyXel
Same router with the receipt/access code printer at Amazon
mo'joe said:Might you know the brand/model of this router?
Cyber Infusion Internet Cafe said:What I did is I purchased a router that comes with a little printer, it auto creates usernames and you can set each button up on the printer (has 3) for how ever much time you want the login to be good for, I did 15min, 1 hour and forever. You just press the button it prints the ticket with login info on it and you give it to the customer, each sale = 1 hour, stops all that nonsense and has worked perfect, and I always secure the WiFi so people outside cant sit on the curb and suck up all the bandwidth.
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Thanks for the link Mark, good article.
Mark said:Good article in the SF Chronicle today on this:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/08/DDKR1B2...
Seems like the way to go is to offer free wifi and do 1 of 2 things:
1) Charge for extra time or place a sign saying $5min purchase for wifi
2) cover up outlets, which will restrict users to battery life (1-3hrs)
I like #1, then if you get really full, I'd start covering up plugs and most of all, always communicate with your customers. Let them know what you are doing and why. My biggest pet peeve is when businesses never tell me what or why they do things.
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