Networks and wireless networks especially are becoming ubiquitous in our businesses, schools, airports, and even uptown business districts.
We expect WiFi available and use it to make sure our mobile devices don’t exceed their data plans. When thinking about providing Guest WiFi or internet for your clients, we fall into the trap of either using a canned Internet Service Provider (ISP) solution or going out and purchasing a low cost home use wireless device. The question we ask is how do we most economically allow customer’s internet access forgetting that our applications should be driving the network. The real question should be how do my current and potential clients see my business in a digital mobile lifestyle.
Marketing and IT leaders should ask themselves the following questions:
- Do I provide my clients and guests a rich easy to use method to access the internet and at the same time advertise my business products and services?
- Can I leverage the investment in my network to send a potential client a coupon if I was going to loose their business?
- Can my my clients and guests find their way around my business to the products they are looking for?
Industry trends show that providing guest internet access isn’t just a convenience for business clients. Its now a way to market your products and provide brand awareness. Utilizing an ISP’s solution leads to users seeing marketing from your competition much like a store front using broadcast radio. Imagine a client of Company ABC hearing Company XYZ’s advertisement in Company ABC’s store. A business would never allow that to happen, so why do we use generic Guest Captive Portals with no control over content. Keeping the technology in house provides for a rich accessible method for clients to get securely on the internet while determining what products and services they see.
Is discounting an extra 25% off an item worth it if your customer was going to walk away from the sale originally? Here’s a quick case study, imagine you are the marketing manager for a county hospital. You have a cafeteria with your prices set based on your market research. As family members come down, before going into the cafeteria they read the menu on the wall. After standing there one or two minutes they decide to leave the hospital and go out for a quick bite. You lose the sale. What if you had analytics in place to see that user standing there trying to decide their options, and your system pushed a 25% discount coupon to their smartphone hospital app. Retail already does this through end of year and holiday sales to prevent excess inventory and keeping employees utilized, and maintaining margins.
If its too hard to find, customers wont look for it. We all take the path of least resistance. Rolta-AdvizeX utilizing Aruba Networks technology has a great story to tell. Not only for the real world needs above in this document, but also in geo-location tracking and Bluedot direction assistance. Going back to the hospital, what if a patient could utilize their smartphone hospital app to give them turn by turn directs to radiology or any department around the hospital. The medical industry is more competitive now than ever, and getting an edge on patient surveys increasing profits due to the Affordable Care Act.
Its never too late to think about how the next generation secured unified access can accelerate your critical business applications. Talk to us about how to engage your clients in a digital mobile world. ▪