Captive Portals: The Perfect Recipe to Build Your Customer Database
Restaurant owners are often good at many things—like service, hospitality, and ingredient sourcing—but marketing-savvy is one area where they sometimes come up short. I am continually amazed to hear both owners and managers talk about how they service hundreds of customers a week but have no way of keeping in touch with them after they’ve have exited through the front door. If only these establishments could maintain a list with customer contact info, then they could send special offers, invites to events, heads-up on new menu items, or information about following the restaurant on social media.
To a restaurateur, the thought of embarking on marketing efforts like creating a website, building a customer database, and putting together campaigns can seem as daunting as performing open-heart surgery. But the good news is that there’s an easy solution for capturing valuable customer contact info: captive portals.
What the heck is a “captive portal,” you ask? In short, it’s a customized login page that serves as a gatekeeper to your WiFi network. You may have encountered this type of page at a train station, hotel, or other business. A captive portal is a simple and effective way to boost both your marketing opportunities as well as the security of your network.
If you’re already offering public WiFi, you’re more than 75% of the way toward implementing this easy solution that will help you create, maintain, organize, and leverage a list of customers. And it’s easy for your customers too; they’re already used to these kinds of login screens in other settings, and you can streamline the process by letting them use credentials from social-media sites like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Plus, you can get creative with your portal; customize it with ads, offers, or other content about your brand—or even mix in third-party ads.
In addition to documenting each person’s name and email address (and whatever other pieces of data you require on your login page, or glean from users’ social-media credentials), the captive portal will also keep track of the date and time every user signs on. Knowing who’s on your system, and when, is always a good thing. This data provides you with useful information on customer trends (when they are at your establishment, how often they are returning, how long they are staying, etc.) and is also valuable on the off chance any shady behavior pops up on your network.
Once you implement a captive portal, your customer list will keep growing with each new user—and the ways in which you can customize emails and other offers to this list are endless. In no time, you’ll be much better (and painlessly!) equipped to communicate with your customers and stay top-of-mind with them.
Want to learn more about captive portals and how they could benefit your restaurant, bar, café, or coffee shop? Visit Dutchess Network Solutions or drop Micheal Justice a line today.
About the Author: Michael Justice has been building software and running IT departments since he was a teenager. He is the Founder of Dutchess Network-a local technology company focusing on business solutions for businesses, home offices and homes throughout the area. No one client has the same needs and making sure your IT structure and set up is correct the first time will save you time and money. Learn more here.