There are a lot of reasons that people frequent small businesses over larger ones.
It might be that they like the personal attention, or that they want to support local businesses, or maybe it’s that they prefer the service they get from a small business.
That last point is especially important.
Big businesses have all sorts of advantages over small ones (money, resources, personnel, etc.), but one area where small businesses stand out, and one area where we tend to beat the bigger competition, is with regard to customer service. That personal attention I mentioned has traditionally been one of small business’ true advantages.
But, like everything else, the Internet has changed customer service too and these days it turns out that knowing a customer’s name and giving them some personal attention is not enough.
Today, you have to offer great Wi-Fi too.
According to a recent survey by NETGEAR of more than 1,000 small business with 50 or fewer employees across 40 different industries, a good Wi-Fi network turns out to be a critical tool for customer retention because it enables better customer service.
Customers today expect to have Wi-Fi available, and having great Wi-Fi is clearly an important issue:
- Nearly 44% of respondents said that their network performance had been impacted lately by increased congestion, and
- About 20% of the respondents also stated that their current Wi-Fi network doesn’t provide enough coverage for their business needs.
What did people complain about most with regard to small business Wi-Fi? Not surprisingly, “dropped connections” and the Wi-Fi being “too slow” were among the chief complaints.
The good news is that small business gets it. Nearly 70% replied that making Wi-Fi available for their clients “improves customer service.” Other reasons mentioned by these smart small businesses as to why they have an increased emphasis on having good Wi-Fi included, “meeting customer expectations” and “helping to attract new customers.”
Maybe even more importantly, by offering Wi-Fi, businesses fostered a sense of community and made it easier for customers to spend more time at their establishments.
And it’s not just for surfing the Web and checking email, small business customers used Wi-Fi for a variety of needs such as streaming, point-of-sale orders, and conferencing.
Given all of that, what sort of Wi-Fi make sense for small business?
Needless to say, I am very partial to NETGEAR’s Orbi Pro, having recently installed one in one in my small business. The NETGEAR Orbi Pro Wi-Fi system provides a mesh Wi-Fi network, which is the first purpose-built Wi-Fi solution specifically designed for small business owners to install themselves. It provides secure, reliable, and super-fast Wi-Fi with no complex wiring or a need for professional installation. We love it.
So yes, customer service indeed looks different today. The good news is that now you can offer good WiFi to your customers too with an Orbi Pro system, and how about this: Go here and you can enter to win one of 10 Orbi Pro systems!
