Starbucks seems to be many home-based entrepreneurs' favorite "home away from home", as well as a popular place for meeting clients. They're ubiquitous, familiar, and a venti latte is slightly cheaper than a whole meal. But one drawback has always been that they charge for their wireless internet access. Until now.
Starbucks recently announced that they will offer free wi-fi, but there are a few catches:
- You have to purchase a prepaid Starbucks Card.
- You have to register your card online in advance.
- You're limited to 2 hours daily.
I suppose it's better than charging for it. But is this really customer-friendly? Will customers jump through their hoops? Or just go down to their local independent coffee shop that offers free unlimited wi-fi?
If you're already hooked on Starbucks, this may be good news to you, but as a general marketing lesson, matching competitors' offers with one of your own that is obviously less customer-friendly won't get you anywhere competitively.
On another note, what do you think about meeting clients at Starbucks or other coffee houses? We had a pretty lively conversation a while back about five places you should never meet clients. What do you think? Coffee houses -- yea or nay?
Panera Bread Company restaurants offer free wireless in every restaurant, the food is better, and the seats are more comfortable. BOYCOTT Starbucks!
Personally, I usually either go to Schlotzsky’s, which has free wi-fi, or an indy coffee shop near my house (and a lot of my kids’ activities), Genuine Joe.
That’s annoying, I sorta think people will still do it, but I agree that Panera rocks and the one I go to in Shrewsbury, MA has a fireplace and unlimited wi-fi.
It’s amazing how businesses as successful as Starbucks just don’t seem to get it sometimes! It must be obvious that more and more people will want to use wi-fi in cafes. Setting up hoops for people to jump through in order to get the (limited) service is SO bad for a company’s image. Good on Panera etc for exploiting a gap in the service.
Here in Japan cafes are very popular places for business and of course private English lessons!
David Hurley
Grasp-The-Nettle.com
I like the suggestion about Panera’s. There’s a billboard here in Denver showing a woman casually writing on a tablet with a cup of joe and one of those little suffles. The capition is “the un-rush hour”. That alone is a draw for me.