With a clear view of post-pandemic life finally beginning to emerge, businesses of all kinds are making big plans. Those that have scaled back during the pandemic are getting ready to resume full operations while businesses that have completely shut down are working out a strategy to reopen.

For most kinds of businesses, regardless of how “shut down” they’ve been, there will be a common element to recovery: effective customer data capture.

This article will explain the critical role that customer data can play in a reopening strategy, discuss the reasons that guest WiFi is such an effective data capture tool, and look at WiFi-enabled data capture in action across a range of industries.

Keep reading to learn how using guest WiFi as a data capture tool can be instrumental in successfully reopening your business.

Reconnect with Your Customer Base—Their Mood is Changing

Part of reopening your business will be reestablishing communication with your formerly active customer base. But things have changed—you cannot simply dust-off old marketing messages and resume campaigns from the past. You’ll need to create new messages that address how people are feeling.

Over the coming months, consumers will be experiencing a range of feelings, from tentativeness to unbridled enthusiasm about the prospect of returning to normal life. In re-establishing a connection with their customer base, business owners must be sensitive toward pandemic-based mood shifts.

Profile data is crucial in understanding and responding to the customer’s viewpoint. If a business has a complete customer profile, it’s possible to create precisely targeted outreach that aligns with peoples’ current state of mind.

A database of customer email addresses is not sufficient. You need the customer’s first and last name, plus demographic data like gender, age, etc. Luckily, your guest WiFi network makes it easy to collect any kind of customer data, from basic contact info to details that will help you build a complete customer profile. In the next section, we’ll go over what makes guest WiFi such an effective data capture tool.

Guest WiFi—the Ultimate Data Capture Tool

Wherever it’s offered, people love free guest WiFi, and they’re willing to provide contact info to get it. As valuable as that basic customer contact info is, it’s just the tip of the iceberg when you look at the data capture capabilities of a managed guest WiFi network.

Here’s a snapshot of just some of the ways guest WiFi can be used to collect the customer data your business needs during the reopening phase and beyond.

• A guest WiFi network simplifies the collection of contact info. Initial WiFi network access may require the user to provide their email address or phone number. A post-visit thank you message could help you collect social media contact info. Having multiple forms of contact info is important because it allows businesses to use the best platform for different kinds of messages and focus heavily on their customers’ most-used communication channels.
• Offering guest WiFi facilitates the collection of demographic data. In providing this highly valued service, businesses have multiple chances to prompt users for customer profile data.
• Businesses can leverage their guest WiFi network to collect visitor metrics like Last Visit and Time Spend, then use that intel to send customers messages that tap into their current relationship with the business. Broader WiFi analytics like Peak Hours allow business owners to optimize daily operations.
• Live customer data enables real-time marketing. By focusing on presence analytics and other data that reveals customer behavior, WiFi marketing facilitates precisely timed outreach for improved loyalty programs, carefully targeted digital ads, and more effective customer communications in general.

Increasing personalization and adjusting your approach to match customer attitudes is crucial for your reopening, and both require customer data, no matter what business you’re in. In the next section, we’ll look at the value of guest WiFi as a data capture tool across a range of industries.

WiFi Data Capture in Action

Guest WiFi provides numerous opportunities to gather customer contact info and capture data that can lead to valuable marketing insights. By leveraging their guest WiFi network, a business can collect multiple forms of customer contact info, plus, the presence analytics used in WiFi marketing makes it easier to collect, consolidate, and analyze customer data.

Below, we’ll examine how guest WiFi facilitates data capture in a variety of industries and then look at ways that data can be used.

Business Type	Data Collection Opportunities	Use Cases for Collected Data
Retail stores	While on the premises, customers and casual store browsers alike will see a branded splash screen that prompts them to log into guest WiFi using social media, email, or phone number. In addition to customer contact info, business owners can capture metrics like the date, time, and duration of each visit.	With personalized outreach that’s timed and targeted based on WiFi analytics, retailers can present customers with customized messages like discount offers and prompts to join the loyalty program.
Concert and sports venues	Before and after an event, concert and sports venue owners have a captive audience that’s in dire need of internet access. They’ll provide their social media, email, or phone number to get it.	By analyzing who connects to their guest WiFi, venue operators can compile lists of people to retarget with email marketing. Outreach can be customized by factoring in the recipient’s age, gender, and the type of events they’ve attended.
Hotels	While hotel owners collect baseline customer info as part of guest registration, they can leverage their guest WiFi network to obtain additional forms of contact info and gain real-time insights into the customers’ behavior.	As guests enjoy hotel amenities, they’ll be presented with marketing messages in context. Business owners can refine the timing and content of their outreach, as a means of maximizing loyalty program signups, for example.
Gyms	When accessing the WiFi network, gym members can be prompted for valuable contact information—data to augment the info provided when they signed up as a gym member. Presence analytics allow gym owners to collect data about the frequency and duration of each members’ visit.	A juice-bar discount or a prompt to post a review needs to be carefully timed and delivered over the right communications channel. That’s possible with the contact info and metrics that can be gathered using guest WiFi. Gym owners can gain insights into member behavior to refine outreach, plus, the intel can be used to optimize staffing and service offerings.
Restaurants, bars, and nightclubs	With no built-in customer registration step, prompting patrons to log on to guest WiFi is especially valuable for restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. The result is a database of customers to retarget—a list that would otherwise not have been captured.	When logging on to the WiFI network, patrons can see a custom, branded splash screen, perhaps with a discount offer. A thank you message delivered at the end of the evening can boost social sharing and positive reviews. Customer metrics provide insights that allow restaurateurs and bar owners to fine-tune operations and tailor customer outreach for maximum effect.
Salons	A salon owner can get extremely useful customer data and contact info using their guest WiFi network. While a salon can leverage its appointment database and POS data in tracking customers’ behavior, presence analytics can reveal much more and make it easier to gather and analyze customer data.	A detailed view of each customer’s Date of Last Visit, Number of Visits, etc. allows salon owners to engage customers based on their recent and long-term history with the salon. Contact info can be used to encourage post-appointment social sharing, send discount offers, and prompt customers to join the salon’s loyalty program.

WiFi Marketing—A Path to Successful Reopening

As businesses slowly recover from the downturn caused by the pandemic, they’ll be serving a world of eager customers, long starved for entertainment and hospitality. Whether your business has been partially shut down or you’ve been completely out of commission for months, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. 

WiFi marketing creates channels for customer engagement, letting you use email, text, and social media to optimize communication. It also takes advantage of metrics and presence analytics to model customer behavior, giving you the chance to further refine marketing outreach and fine-tune business operations.

Detailed customer data will be important in your reopening strategy and guest WiFi is a remarkably effective tool for capturing that data. We hope this look at WiFi-enabled data capture and the role it can play in your reopening has been helpful.