CHENNAI: Raghav Verma, co-founder,Chaayos, launched free wifi in his showroom for users to log in and probably share updates on social sites. Little did he think that Wi-Fi can be a channel to grow customer connection.

Wi-Fi analytics – that consumes data from users log in to free Wi-Fi arranged at cafes and big retail stores to push in offers and enchances growth – is utilized by brick and mortar organizations.

“When a customer signs in through free Wi-Fi, we get some of his details, including phone number, email and possibly his occupation. We also get to know the kind of phone he has used and understand when he last signed in and what he purchased. We roll out offers through the details he gives when he signs in the next time and that ends up increasing customer engagement and retention,” stated Verma.

Chaayos gives real time SMS warning in the periphery of preferred cafes as publicity to users in local area tracing the area if they have Wi-Fi in search mode. Satyam Darmora, founder, I2E1, a company that gives Wi-Fi analytics states that brick and mortar dealers are warming up to getting real-time analytics, compared to e-commerce players where it is convenient to track users conduct.

“Customers can use free Wi-Fi and the retailers can get a profile of people who walk in – including where they have last used free Wi-Fi – and send targeted offers. For instance, if one has used the free Wi-Fi in McDonalds and Shoppers Stop many times, one can gauge the preferences,” he stated.

Wi-Fi sign ups, as a mode of calculating steps, is still used by NBFCs to judge the business efficiency of restaurants, salons etc, to whom they give money. Caste, a fintech startup, that guess the quantity of the business for payment of the loan, uses Wi-Fi as means to evaluate step and therefore the average billing per day and in turn the health of the business.

Atreya Rayaprolu, co-founder & COO, Tribe, stated ,”We work with the NBFCs in the Aavishkar-Intellecap group to keep track of the restaurants in Mumbai and Bengaluru that offer free Wi-Fi. A week after demonetisation, a restaurant that used to record an average footfall of over 500, suddenly dropped to 88 and we were able to find that their business was slow, with the data.”

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