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You’re in the middle of a particularly busy day…barely able to keep up with your customers, and employees are unable to speak to a single guest long enough to tell them about the fantastic new items, products, or special offers.

These guests inevitably reach for their phone to check emails or catch up on social media. What they receive instead is your store’s logo with coupons, special deals, or the ability to order items and read about products right from their own device. All while still in your location.

Whether we are talking about shoppers being students, families, or business execs, having the ability to interact with your guests via wireless and mobile is becoming the standard. Why miss the opportunity to further engage with customers while they are still in your store?

Build Your Business with Secure Wireless

Secure mobile is the future.

There is no question that consumers are more intelligent, or at the very least, more informed. The use of mobile devices for more than merely texting or social media is ever increasing and buyers today are also relying more on mobile devices for assistance deciding where to spend their money.

Studies involving shopping analytics and the role that smartphones play in mobile paths to purchase is irrefutable. 75 percent of mobile users shop with their phone (non-exclusively), with 52 percent of adult smart phone owners use their device while in a store to assist with purchasing decisions, and smart phones are influencing shoppers who did not buy anything after entering a store 39 percent of the time.

MarketingLand.com goes as far as to report that:

46% of shoppers rely on mobile devices exclusively while conducting research and making purchasing decisions.

Therefore, the real question is how do business owners use this potential marketing channel to increase revenue?

Understanding new trends early on, being proactive and incorporating wireless into your business is not only profitable, it is also necessary to stay relevant. Savvy business owners are learning to utilize and welcome new programs to drive efficiency, productivity and consumer satisfaction, which in turn, builds revenue.

While these new programs are exciting, they could also be dangerous if not managed properly, thereby opening up your business to wireless initiatives that could mean opening up your network to hackers.

Network Security

In the aftermath of most breaches, investigators inevitably find poorly configured firewalls that could have prevented the data loss if they had been configured differently. Stopping unwanted traffic while allowing business critical communication is difficult, and with the ever-changing security concerns that come to light after new exploits are discovered, it is understandable why many organizations cannot keep up with the criminals.

When providing Internet access to the public, you have the option of directing users to initially land on a specific web page (regardless of the page they originally attempted to load). This provides you with the means to inform people of daily specials, marketing initiatives, or other important information that you want your customers to know.

Basically, when first accessing your wireless environment, you are in charge of what they see before allowing them to browse the Internet freely. This first page, also known as a splash page, can most likely be customized with your logo, designed to match the look and feel of your existing web pages, and could be used for future marketing.

Furthermore, wireless communication coupled with the use of beacons (more on beacons soon), opens up the possibility of gathering retail analytics regarding the presence and specific activities and behaviors of guests in a way that has never been possible using other technologies.

With a fully managed service, if you need to make a change, there are methods to implement your requests from an offsite operations center, without having to physically change each access point you may have managed. This allows you to have a quick control process while maintaining a constant wireless environment throughout your brand. Some key benefits of utilizing a securely managed network are:

  • Facilitate the reduction of costs and normalize balance sheets and cash flow
  • Minimize resource constraints to allow you to focus on managing and growing your business
  • Provide peace of mind that your vendor is focused on managing your security network
  • Fill current gaps in your managed security programs

Leveraging Wireless to Work For You

With this in mind, could your employees, and in turn your business, operate more efficiently placing orders or processing payments directly on the floor with your customers and not behind a register?

Could you leverage your wifi to work towards promoting loyalty programs, customer events and special offers, and even provide visitor feedback in real-time?

These are the types of questions more businesses are asking as they evaluate the latest technology trends in loyalty, analytics, mobile point of sale (POS) and payment processing. While all of these trends are becoming more affordable, and remaining easy to implement, they do require a secured network environment.

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