Many small cafes are rethinking free wi-fi in a bid to keep afloat – that is the question asked this week by BBC journalist Dougal Shaw.

Watch his report at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37443649

Many of us take free wi-fi in cafes for granted. But there is a trend for smaller ones to experiment with switching it off, in a bid to beat the laptop table-hoggers.

The report features a 2020Media Wi-Fi customer, Tamp coffee in West London.  Owner Dorian picked 2020Media as his supplier for Wi-Fi for the reason he lists to Doug Shaw – customers spending too long on their laptops, and so losing seating space for new customers wanting to sit and eat their food or enjoy their coffee. He experimented with turning off the service completely, but faced a backlash on social media.

The Wi-Fi service from 2020Media is ideal for cafes with busy periods where they need to turn tables quickly.

Our service allows the cafe to set up times of day when the customer Wi-Fi isn’t available (but keeping any staff or infrastructure service running).

Another option is to use access codes – A code valid for 1 hour is given to the customer with their order, and once the hour is up, the customer would need to return to the counter to get another – and hopefully make another purchase. Our case study at a central london location gives more details on this solution. A less instrusive version of this can be setup with social media check-in or click through pages that pop-up after a preset number of hours or minutes, which act as a subtle reminder to the customer that they’ve been using the service for a fair period of time.

Most customers and cafe shop owners are in agreement – Wi-Fi is a must and with a properly setup service from 2020Media, it can be a benefit to both the customer and the shop that provides it.

Contact us for more details about our service. We can provide a free evaluation unit to all UK businesses.