One of the most frequent questions we get from customers online and offline relates to our in-store WiFi internet policy. We thought it was high-time we tried to explain our position.
To those who don’t know, WiFi internet access isn’t enabled in any Coffee#1 store. This in essence means that you can’t logon to the internet from your laptop or phone while sat at one of our tables.
For a company that is an enthusiastic supporter of social media, this may seem like a strange decision. And apart from anything else, it could well make financial sense for us to introduce wireless in-store and so attract the people who currently go elsewhere.
But we firmly believe our policy is both complementary with our support for social media and the right decision for Coffee#1 and our customers.
Let me outline our thinking.
Firstly, once you stop being a traditional coffee house and become a wired coffee house, you risk alienating the majority of people who have no interest in going online while having their coffee.
Studies have shown that people spend much longer at their tables, and in an independent chain like Coffee#1, that inevitably means less space for customers.
If you implement some kind of time limit for users, all you’re left with is a kind of unhappy compromise that nobody likes.
Our stores are generally busy anyway, and given the space we have available, a slower turnover of tables means that there will be more people unable to enjoy the Coffee#1 experience.
Secondly, as New York coffee houses have found, the atmosphere changes when you allow wireless access. Instead of popping in because of the quality of your coffee, more people pop in primarily because of the availability of your bandwidth.
The coffee house experience that we try so hard to foster, one that’s founded on creating not only the finest coffee but also the best surroundings and environment, would suffer. It’s reasonable to believe then that the community of passionate supporters that we’re lucky enough to have at Coffee#1 would not value us in the same way they do now.
We’ve always strived to do things differently at Coffee#1, but this isn’t just a case of us stubbornly going out on a limb. We want to continue growing Coffee#1 in the style our customers love, not change simply to fit in.
We’re not saying our policy will never change. But for the time being, we want to preserve Coffee#1 as the fantastic coffee house experience it is. We’d welcome your thoughts.
One of the most frequent questions we get from customers online and offline relates to our in-store WiFi internet policy. We thought it was high-time we tried to explain our position.
To those who don’t know, WiFi internet access isn’t enabled in any Coffee#1 store. This in essence means that you can’t logon to the internet from your laptop or phone while sat at one of our tables.
For a company that is an enthusiastic supporter of social media, this may seem like a strange decision. And apart from anything else, it could well make financial sense for us to introduce wireless in-store and so attract the people who currently go elsewhere. (more…)
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