We’ve recently moved into a new neighbourhood, and I’ve been checking out the local spots. I love the record store here (apparently there’s a better website on the way) – and our local pub is a fantastic venue for all sorts of great live gigs – the sort of international calibre stuff you wouldn’t expect at a local pub.
One great thing about Kings Heath is that there are also some cool cafés around, and I thought I’d check one or two of them out. The one above looked really promising – nice coffee, and the menu’s pretty good… but unfortunately – no wireless internet.
I spoke to the woman behind the counter, and she said that the boss wasn’t keen to install it, as it would only encourage people to just hang out with a single cup of coffee for ages – instead of eating and then leaving.
I do get the thinking behind that, but I just don’t think it makes good business sense anymore. I told her that their competitor just a couple of blocks away does have wifi, and on that basis alone, that’s where I would always choose to go.
She suggested I tell that to the boss.
So… I was going to write them a note to make the case for installing free, open wireless internet – but then it occurred to me that this is a broader issue. There are lots of good cafés not providing wifi, and potentially losing out because of it. So I wrote a more generic, general purpose letter that anyone can use.
Feel free to copy and paste the letter below, amend as required – and give it to the people at your local café. Not having wifi in a café should be as unusual as not having sugar.
Dear café owner,
This note is to encourage you to please install free, open wi-fi internet in your premises.
We do understand why you’re reluctant to do so. You don’t want time-wasters taking up table space for hours, sitting on one cup of coffee. And that does sort of make sense (though only if you’re actually turning away diners at the door because we’re here).
But we’d like you to consider it.
We are mobile workers, self-employed people, consultants, academics, authors, web developers, events planners, film-makers, composers, software engineers, knowledge workers and bloggers – and we rely on spaces like these to meet, write and make things on the internet.
Yes, we take up space, but we are also, importantly, repeat business.
We may only have a cup of coffee this time, but we will come back, and we’ll bring our friends. We are potentially enthusiastic and vocal advocates of your business, and we are very good at spreading the word. We are, we like to think, your target audience.
And we’ll eat. You’ll see us for breakfast, and we may still be there for lunch. In between, we’ll probably have a coffee or a juice or two. Not every time – but we’re the sort who become regulars. You’ll get to know us by name, we’ll be part of your community – and you’ll become part of our routine.
Most of us live nearby – and those of us who don’t come through this way pretty often. We’re nice people. We think you’d like having us around. What’s more, we feel sure you’d enjoy having a regular buzz of activity in your cafe – creative people having ideas, inventing things, writing the next Harry Potter or designing the next Facebook… even if that means there’s only a trickle of revenue at times.
And of course, if you do get to the point where there’s no room for diners, then feel free to review your policy – or ask us to leave.
For the sake of around £40 a month you’ll get fast, reliable broadband wifi – and you’ll also get us, the people we do business with, an ever-widening circle of clientele – and a steady stream of free, online, word-of-mouth marketing.
And of course, if there’s no wifi at your cafe, but there is at a nearby competitor – that’s where we’ll be every time. We know their coffee’s not as good, the staff not as friendly and the food not as hearty. But we can get things done there, and it’ll do.
Simply put – we genuinely believe that installing wifi in your cafe will contribute positively to your bottom line. We’d like to help with that – but at the moment, we’re being turned away. In fact, not having wifi feels like a big sign over the counter saying “we don’t want your sort in here”.
We really like your place. We like the atmosphere you’ve created, the friendly staff, the menu and the coffee. We love finding places like this, and we’d really like to make this our default go-to coffee and food spot.
But the wifi thing’s a deal-breaker.
Thanks for giving it some thought.
There’s another, similar letter to be written for hotels.
Charging for wifi in a hotel is like charging to use the electricity. In fact, one place I stayed in gave me a voucher for 10% off my next stay when I checked out, but charged me £20 for using the internet.
I explained that the voucher wasn’t enough encourage me to stay there again – but that the charge for the wireless internet (which was actually a smaller amount of money) would guarantee that I wouldn’t.
It seems like such a simple and obvious thing – but there’s a shortsightedness and pettiness that seems to go hand in hand with businesses that are public spaces, and charging for the internet (or not providing it at all).
I hope this helps a little, and that you find it useful. Do let me know if you use it…
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13 Comments
Great points, Andrew.
The UK and Europe are way behind the US here (though outside NYC & SF, many parts of the US need help).
The other thing I’d add is that wired ethernet in hotels just doesn’t cut it anymore. Will be in Paris with family in a few weeks and just found out my hotel has wired only. We are a 3 people, many devices (2 iPad, 1 iPhone, 1 laptop) family and now I have to bring an Apple AirPort to create my own WiFi. And that’s at €18 per day for the wired connection.
Barry,
if you bring a MacBook you can use Internet Sharing to create a local wireless network to share the wired connection with your iPhone and iPad. Just enter “internet sharing” in the search field in System Preferences.
Wow this is so true. Here in the US, it would be unheard of to have a cafe without wifi. You make many valid points; I love the part about it feeling like theirs a big sign saying “We don’t want you here!” when artistic folk like us find a cafe without wifi. Definitely true and that would absolutely mar my impression of a place and make me not want to go back… as well as tell all my friends not to try it. The owner should consider all the BAD word of mouth he’s likely to get by turning people away.
How about just get your own wireless internet? This generation wants everything for free…..
Living in Montreal, I often wish the team behind ilesansfil (wireless island) found a scalable way to help other cities “get” the value of a large network of free wi-fi, and get the project started. http://www.ilesansfil.org/welcome/
Perhaps there is also a strong case for cafes that declare that they have no wifi, that is cafes where people go to enjoy coffee and company. I find it somehow off putting to see a place populated with single people staring into laptops. But then again i’ll happily sit there with a newspaper, so what the hey.
@M – I have my own wireless internet. It’s in my house. I also have my own coffee. Chairs too. But I’m talking about going and spending money and time in a cafe, where I can’t bring those things. Good places to have meetings with other people. Not sure what you mean by “this generation”. I’m in my 40s. Do you mean people in their 40s?
@Kevin – I could be wrong, but having no wifi doesn’t seem like a selling point. To my mind that’d be like putting a sign out the front saying “we have no toilets” or “parents with young children not welcome here”. I can think of people who would prefer those things to be the case – but they’re not necessarily good marketing ploys.
Having wifi is not an alternative to enjoying coffee and company. People using wifi are often with other people as well.
Every face to face meeting I have these days absolutely requires that I have access to the internet. It’s not something you just read instead of talking to people (like a newspaper) – it’s part of working or socialising.
My point is not so much “I want wifi”. My point is primarily that it doesn’t make commercial sense for a cafe not to provide it.
“parents with young children not welcome here”
I wish I could find such a place.
Nice letter Andrew. Can I use it and change the ‘free wi-fi’ to ‘filter coffee’? It’s the only coffee I drink, but nobody serves it any more. It’s flat whites, espressos and all those milky concoctions. The final straw was when I went into the local Robert Harris Coffee Shop, which only had filter coffee when they first opened, and asked for one the young man serving reached under the counter and pulled out a thermos flask. I have a filter machine at home but now I’m finding it very difficult to buy filters for it. None of the supermarkets stock them any more. I’m reduced to using paper serviettes. What’s society come to if one can’t buy a decent cup of coffee any more?
Certainly in Central London, I’ll always seek our a Starbucks or Pret, since both have free wifi; and rarely, if ever, bother with a Caffe Nero (even though their coffee’s better).
But. Hotels. Free hotel wifi, in my experience, can be hideously abused; it only takes a few people running BitTorrent or iPlayer and the whole thing grinds to a halt. In a hotel, wifi usage isn’t monitored by “being in a public place” as it is in a cafe. I’ve been in many hotels with free wifi, but few that have any decent sensible speeds.
It’s a simple economic equation.
Cafes with wi-fi tend to be fuller – with people sitting staring at screens. They may be busy, but people may not be spending. The full tables may crowd out paying customers – especially those without computer.
If small cafe owners ran their businesses the way larger companies do, they’d probably look at something like the average spend per seat per hour and ask if wi-fi helps maximise this.
The smartest strategy from a purely money-making point of view might be to offer free wifi during the non-busy hours, but to switch it off or restrict wifi use to people buyng meals during lunch (or other crowded peak times).
Of course this might annoy lucrative customers.
Like I said, it’s a simple economic equation, but one cafe owners have to crunch for themselves.
I used to live above this particular KH Cafe and would definitely have appreciated having free wifi! You should definitely speak to the owner – a quirky guy named Buttons – who may or may not listen to you. I lasted 2 months in the flat. ;-)
And then today this article made it onto the interwebs: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/blog/page.aspx?post=1790990