Today’s retail and enterprise environments are filled with an ever increasing set of automation choices that maximize customer value through the use of a tech savvy workforce and connected machines. At NCR, we are leading the way in omni-channel solutions and this blog will focus on the wireless ‘backbone’ to enable these solutions for mobile customers. 

Research shows that the availability of guest WiFi access influences customer purchasing decisions, satisfaction and loyalty.  Consider that over 60% of customers have longer dwell times inside a venue, and 50% spend more money after they access a guest WiFi network (source: iGR).  Now, imagine as a business leader you have a real-time analytics platform configured within your company’s WiFi network that allows your workforce to better understand each customer’s on-premises behavior and engage with them at the moment of truth based on social, environmental and emotional factors.  Immediately, you could impact the buyer’s purchasing decision and, in aggregate, shape future shopper experiences to maximize ROI. 

Maximizing your ROI with WiFi analytics starts by looking beyond the IT-centric key performance indicators of your wireless network.  When supporting an increasing number of mobile shoppers and smart building systems, your WiFi network and analytics platform can serve as an extension of your marketing organization by providing interactive capabilities across a web of interconnected customers and machines – from point-of-sale and digital signage to sensors and beacons.  Aggregating event data, at the “moment of truth”, becomes an even greater challenge when information must be communicated, analyzed and acted upon across a vast number of physical sites, or even countries.  Therefore, it is critical that marketing organizations enable a platform capable of taking automated autonomous action to help influence consumer decisions.

The trend of offloading user traffic to a guest WiFi network will not fade anytime soon!  Today more than half of the traffic from mobile devices is offloaded to WiFi.  This will only increase over time as it is projected by 2020 that 60% of all devices connected to the network will be “smart”, and 75% of all mobile data traffic will be video (source: Cisco VNI).  This will result in greater usage of guest WiFi to avoid 4G cellular data consumption.  For businesses, this presents a major omni-channel opportunity as connected customers interact across physical and digital channels while on-site.  Connected customers accessing a guest WiFi network will provide businesses with insight into social interests and shopping behaviors, thus allowing them to customize the in-venue experience with real-time social engagement and marketing campaigns, while also better understanding usage and traffic patterns throughout a venue with location-based services, such as:

• Digital signage and audio tailored to social interests
• Immediate SMS with special offers
• Predictive heating and lighting adjustments from external data such as weather
• Ideal product placement based on customer heat mapping and zone flows
• Aggregated demographic data and social interests to optimize sales strategies
• Personalized surveys and coupons following the transaction

Regardless of the business you are in, building a guest-friendly WiFi network with a rich analytics platform is the backbone to an omni-channel experience and, as discussed in a previous blog, this can result in 16% higher NPS on digital only and 22% higher NPS on physical only customer channels (source: Bain & Company).   Take, for example, 61% of customers seek out WiFi when eating and drinking (source: British Telecom) and through WiFi analytics and The Information Value Loop a Food & Beverage provider could immediately offer custom content based on their patron’s profile. This could include personalized eating options based on purchase history, electronic service Q&A, displaying featured meals on signage, expediting the order process and efficiently closing out a transaction. 

Although many businesses often consider their WiFi network as an IT cost, it is also a gateway to greater ROI in an omni-channel environment. This trend will continue as mobile data traffic grows, customers demand guest WiFi access privileges, and analytics create a path to real-time social engagement, marketing tools, location services, and a web of connected humans and machines. 

Don’t know where to start?  NCR Telecom & Technology can provide advisory services for your next-generation WiFi strategy and deliver a fully managed service offering.

Click here to read more about our strategic agreement with Purple.