If you are planning to open a coffee shop, a fast-casual restaurant business, craft brewery or a retail experience store, you will need to make a decision about offering a guest WiFi amenity. This handy guide will walk you through a few essential tips to think about when choosing the right wireless cloud access points for your business. Access point placement best practices are also covered.  The post has been updated with the latest information about WiFi 6 technology.

What Is A WiFi Access Point, anyway?

An access point is a hardware equipment that creates a wireless local area network. Access points are typically used when several people on different devices need to connect to a single WiFi network. They are commonly found in homes (as part of a telecom service provider's Internet package), schools, offices, and, of course, restaurant-type businesses.

When choosing an access point for your business, it is important to consider the type of hardware network that you select. Your choice should ultimately depend on some or all of these factors.

• Layout of the physical space and guest usable space
• The foot traffic and other potential sources of interference
• The number of devices you expect to connect at any given point in time
• What is your guest WiFi policy? 
• Are you going to allow access to your guest WiFi without any limitations?
• Are you going to limit guest WiFi connectivity with a required purchase and/or ask for a guest's contact information with the intent and permission to reach out for marketing purposes in the future?
• The allowed applications (Will you allow video streaming? Gaming? Software downloads)

The implementation of a guest WiFi policy is influenced by factors such as the guest experience and business priorities, which can sometimes conflict with each other.  If you are unsure about the advantages of providing guest WiFi, it is recommended to consider the pros and cons in order to make an informed decision for your business.

7 Tips on how to choose the right Access Points for your business

Here are some of our top tips on how to choose the right cloud access point for your business, as well as some of the things you'll want to think about when implementing your guest WiFi:

Ease of use

User experience is central to how we design and build products at GoGoGuest. When we evaluate hardware that works with our WiFi marketing solution, user-friendliness is high on our list.

If you're a local business owner or franchise operator who does not have any network technician to lean on, the task of setting up network connectivity for your physical store can be daunting. ISP (Internet Service Providers) offer a variety of options and we've made a decision to support two types of cloud network hardware devices that is prevalent in the retail and restaurant industry categories. 

At GoGoGuest, Cisco's Meraki Wireless Access Points score highly on ease of use. Here's why:

• The plug and play steps are super easy to follow. Even the most non-technical individual can accomplish the task of setting up a Meraki cloud access point, provided that the main ISP router is already installed and set up
• A single Meraki wireless access point can support a physical storefront with less than 1,000 square ft and up to 4,000 square ft of usable space. Larger spaces typically need a wireless mesh network which is technically super easy to configure in the cloud dashboard.
• Already have an existing WiFi network infrastructure? Setting up a new Meraki does not require you to rewire your existing network infrastructure. As long as you have one ethernet port in your ISP router, adding a Cisco Meraki hardware using a PoE (Power over Ethernet) is simple.
• If you're a brand with multiple locations across the country, it is easy to install, manage and maintain the wireless connectivity needs of each site from one dashboard that can be accessed anywhere. Read our Ultimate Meraki Access Point buying guide for businesses.

If you're a business that prefers to lean on a local technician for all your network connectivity needs, then Unifi's wireless access points would work well too. The big difference is that you will need a technician to install and set up an Unifi access point on site. Unifi's access points are business-grade, just like the Meraki, albeit a bit more technical for installation, maintenance, and management.

Like the Meraki, Unifi can be maintained and managed across multiple locations, too, provided that your technician has installed the access points using a Cloud Controller or the new Dream Machine. The Dream Machine or a  Unifi Cloud Controller functions similarly to Cisco Meraki's Cloud License dashboard but requires a more technical and hands-on setup. 

About security and scalability

Every brand and business aims to expand and grow across markets. Security of your wireless network and scalability must be considered when choosing your wireless cloud access point.

Meraki and Ubiquiti both offer business-grade security functions and features for PCI compliance and network segmentation. We should say that Meraki has better documentation on these settings. Ubiquiti relies heavily on community feedback and Q&A (at least that is what we've observed).

Location size

Another obvious consideration, but the size of your location(s) will also influence which models you use. You'll want to keep your costs as low as possible without compromising network quality or speed.

Determine how much space you need to cover and which devices would help you cover this most effectively. A large area might need a slightly different solution, and you'll probably be looking at needing a mesh network, not a single access point. Depending on the size you need to cover, you'll probably need more access points. At the same time, you'll also want to make sure you don't order devices unnecessarily or that you have access points that double up WiFi where the reach of access points overlaps.

Businesses with smaller locations will need fewer access points, although speed and full coverage are just as important as in a larger site.

Collect anonymized data to understand foot traffic and journeys

This is where things get interesting for us here at GoGoGuest. Both Meraki and Ubiquiti offer anonymized foot traffic data and insights.

This information is specifically helpful for brands and businesses with physical storefronts to assess the viability of new markets. Meanwhile, you can also use it for audience engagement programming using various digital and experiential customer engagement channels.

When using GoGoGuest, you can gather anonymized data for specific sites or experiential events.

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Where to place Wi-Fi Access Points

Where you place your access device is critical for providing a seamless WiFi experience for your guests. In the right place, your guests will have great connectivity. In the wrong place, you won't be offering a strong signal or a good WiFi experience.  The chances are, you'll have lots of choices when it comes to places to put your access points. But where is best, and how will you know if you've chosen good locations? Let's explore.

Place Access Points in the most heavily-trafficked area

So, yes, this can seem a little obvious. But you'd be surprised how many businesses don't put their access point right where they get the most traffic.

The first golden rule of access points? Put the access points right where you will have most people trying to connect to your WiFi. Look around your location(s) and identify where most people will want to join your network. Where this will be will depend on your business and what you offer (a coffee shop might need access points in different locations than a craft brewery, for example). The higher the traffic in any particular area, the more you need to prioritize having an access point in that location.

Try to avoid coverage overlap

Quickly setting up access points without checking for overlap isn't always the best idea. It might seem like an easy way to make sure busy areas get a lot of coverage, but if you're just guessing where you need access points, you may well be doubling up your network. Usually, this happens when the WiFi from one access point overlaps with the WiFi offered by another access point. Doing this, you make your network less efficient and more expensive to run.

Always check to see if there's any coverage overlap. You want to make sure all busy areas will be able to access WiFi, but not that you're spacing access points so close together that multiple access points are covering the same area.

Test signal strength

You've made sure you have access points in key areas, but you'll still want to test signal strength carefully. These days, customers expect to be able to access WiFi, and many will come to your business to consume content, work or socialize online while they purchase from your business. Nothing will annoy your customers more than being offered free guest WiFi, only to find they can't use it because the signal isn't good enough where they're seated.

Test the signal at different locations and make sure all key areas are covered. For the small business geeks out there, here's a more technical deep dive.

Automated firmware updates

To help ensure consistent high-performance of your WiFi access points, automate your hardware's firmware updates. Top of the line cloud access points like the Cisco Meraki MR product line include automation settings for firmware updates. Meanwhile, a local technician may need to set this up for you should you choose a Unifi access point.

How it works with GoGoGuest Wi-Fi Captive Portal technology

GoGoGuest Captive Portal Technology supports and works well with Meraki and Ubiquiti access points. Here's what you should know:

• The GoGoGuest captive portal is 100% branded to your business and is super responsive. You may choose to use our captive portal technology with email and SMS marketing automation or choose to use our partner integrations including Mailchimp, Klaviyo, My Emma and more. Learn about our integrations.1
• Wireless access points are not included.
• Our support team can help transition your current network settings to a secure and scalable environment, if desired.
• We can go live within 7-business days per location or across multiple locations with a Cisco Meraki access point. When using an Ubiquiti access point, the schedule of your local technician will be incorporated into our onboarding process.
• Learn more: Read our Essential steps to implementing a GoGoGuest Wi-Fi captive portal.

Using either wireless access points with GoGoGuest supports guest WiFi policies that require a purchase before connecting or a simple capture of an email address, zip code or phone number with permission.

Captive Portal Technology Is An Excellent Point Of Customer Acquisition

Once you have your WiFi access points in place, customers will enjoy seamless and fast WiFi. WiFi marketing offers some great opportunities for businesses like yours. Here are some ideas you can implement to get more first party data with permission, learn from insights and grow the value of your customer.

Let's dive in and look at three uses of a guest WiFi captive portal technology that are great for customer acquisition and increasing customer engagement:

• Require a Purchase. Better manage your guest usable space by requiring a purchase with your guest WiFi access. This strategy focuses on your high-value customers who are willing to spend an appropriate amount on food and beverages while using your beautiful space to work, create and be productive. The average purchase increases to 7x per visit for users who utilize guest WiFi.
• Raise Brand Awareness. One effective method to increase local brand recognition is by utilizing a prominent physical billboard or sign, as well as a guest WiFi captive portal, which can reach beyond the immediate vicinity of your storefront.
• New Customer Acquisition. As a new retail or restaurant business or an existing one, you're constantly striving to attract the attention of potential customers. Establishing a connection requires obtaining their consent to receive updates regarding new product offers, events, and special promotions. A branded captive portal technology can serve as a channel to grow your subscribers organically.
• Guest Engagement. Every customer logging on to your WiFi will see your captive portal, so this is a fantastic place to place key information about your online ordering, catering services and eCommerce store. 
• Visitor Surveys. In return for providing free guest WiFi, you can ask your customers to participate in quick surveys. Surveys or questionnaires are a great way to collect useful information, data, and insights to understand your customers better. You could do something straightforward, like collect feedback on the service customers experienced. Alternatively, you could gather data on demographics, customer preferences or other information to help you with your marketing or operational decisions.
• Event Promotion. Events are a great way to promote your business or build brand awareness. If you're running an event, you could think about promoting it through WiFi marketing. Put a notice or more information about the event on your captive portal. As customers log into your WiFi, they'll also learn more about your upcoming special occasion, party or gathering. WiFi marketing. Put a notice or more information about the event on your captive portal. As customers log into your WiFi, they'll also learn more about your upcoming special occasion, party or gathering.

Next StepsAre you ready to optimize your guest WiFi network to help expand the local presence of your business, capture guest information with permission and automate email and SMS marketing channels? Book a demo.