{"id":1899,"date":"2009-08-09T21:03:24","date_gmt":"2009-08-09T15:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thirdeyesight.in\/blog\/?p=520"},"modified":"2009-08-09T21:03:24","modified_gmt":"2009-08-09T15:33:24","slug":"wi-fi-in-coffee-shops-win-win-or-win-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myechoproject.com\/TES\/wi-fi-in-coffee-shops-win-win-or-win-lose\/","title":{"rendered":"Wi-Fi in Coffee Shops – win-win or win-lose?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of 2006, in an article about market segmentation, I’d\u00a0proposed a\u00a0customer segment called “Cafe Workers”\u00a0who look at coffee-shops as inexpensive real-estate to work out of.\u00a0\u00a0These include professionals, start-up entrepreneurs, small businesspeople and travellers into a city. (Click here to open the PDF file of the article “Slicing the Market<\/a>“.)<\/p>\n

But now, amidst the recession, apparently it is one positioning that some coffee shops don’t want to buy into. The Wall Street Journal reports that there is a backlash from many coffee shops towards customers who enjoy the use of free wi-fi and spend hours occupying tables that should be turning over more. (No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users<\/a>). Many of the comments on the article are sympathetic towards the cafe owners, calling such customers “moochers”.<\/p>\n

While the dismay of cafe owners over customers who abuse the facilities is understandable, could they be doing themselves harm by actively discouraging laptop use? Wi-fi is just one of the sticky aspects of a ‘hanging-around’ culture that the cafes have encouraged in the first place as part of their business model.<\/p>\n

By and large, wi-fi enabled cafes around the world are more expensive than the ones which are not. Wi-fi goes along with the more premium positioning, and they should be able to balance the space premium lost on long-term wi-fi users with the grab-and-go customers who are paying higher prices without using the facilities.<\/p>\n

That said, in specific cafes or at specific times of day or days of the week when there is a bottleneck, they should be able to limit the length of the IP-lease.<\/p>\n

All it takes is a bit of thought and a tiny application of technology, not total disruption of\u00a0the business model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amidst the recession, some cafe owners are actively discouraging laptop users. Does wi-fi availability in coffee shops allow customers to abuse or overuse the facilities? Or are the cafe owners doing themselves harm, given that wi-fi is just one of the sticky aspects of a ‘hanging-around’ culture that the cafes have encouraged in the first place as part of their business model?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[212,286,215,62,37,43,46,1],"tags":[381,382,326,65,232],"class_list":["post-1899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer","category-customer-relationship","category-food-grocery","category-market-research","category-marketing","category-retail","category-strategy","category-uncategorized","tag-coffee","tag-coffee-bars","tag-customer-service","tag-retail","tag-usa"],"yoast_head":"\nWi-Fi in Coffee Shops - win-win or win-lose? - Third Eyesight<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index,follow\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/myechoproject.com\/TES\/wi-fi-in-coffee-shops-win-win-or-win-lose\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wi-Fi in Coffee Shops - win-win or win-lose? - Third Eyesight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amidst the recession, some cafe owners are actively discouraging laptop users. Does wi-fi availability in coffee shops allow customers to abuse or overuse the facilities? 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