Why Bars Should Deliver a Strong Wi-Fi Network for Free

If your bar isn’t offering Wi-Fi for free, you might just be missing a trick. It might sound odd to encourage internet use in such a social environment, but getting online isn’t just about checking Facebook and watching cat videos.

Here are just a few reasons why it makes sense to offer Wi-Fi for free in your bar.

Increases Time Spent at the Premises

Probably the most compelling reason to offer free Wi-Fi in your bar is to increase the amount of time people spend there. It might not seem like offering Wi-Fi would make much of a difference, but studies have shown that 62% of establishments found customers stayed longer when they offered free Wi-Fi.

Encourages Workers

Most bars don’t have much trouble filling themselves to bursting when the night comes around, but it can be much harder to encourage people to visit earlier in the day. If you offer a fast Wi-Fi connection, you’ll find that more and more people, particularly students and remote workers, will be using your bar to work. They probably won’t be drinking shots at the same time, but you can offer bar food, plus those much-needed caffeine injections in the form of coffee and tea.

Provides Flexible Payment Options

It used to be that customers would almost always pay for their drinks using cash. Next, people started using credit and debit cards more frequently thanks to the wonders of chip and pin. Nowadays, plenty of customers will enjoy being able to pay using their mobile; applications such as Apple Pay can connect to an online account, so payments can be made simply by pressing the smartphone to a contactless payment machine. Such quick and easy payments are perfect in a bar, but your customers will only be able to use that technology if they are connected to the web.

Helps You Connect

If you connect with your customers online, you can offer them promotional deals and other incentives to return. Of course, this is going to be much easier if you offer free Wi-Fi. You can even request that customers provide their email addresses in order to gain access; you’ll then be able to market to them more easily and effectively in the future.