Your WiFi Network and Your Customers

How many times has this happened to you? You sit down in a restaurant, whip out your iPhone and try to log on to the network titled, say, "Joe's Restaurant" only to be rebuffed for lack of a password?

OK, how many times have you bothered to ask for that password? How many times have you been told, when you asked, that either they don't have a network or that it's not for customer use?

There are a lot of reasons to have a WiFi network in your business. First and foremost amongst them is to help you conduct business, using it to connect your back office systems, printers, registers and the like without the installation of hard wiring. It makes sense that if you're using your network to support your business tools, you don't want customers or others accessing your network.

But, as more and more people utilize devices with WiFi capabilities, such as smartphones and tablets, those networks that you've created to serve your business needs become visible to your customers and visitors. Rightly or not, once your customers know you have a network, they're going to expect to be able to utilize that network. If you fail to provide a service that customers receive from at least some of your competitors and your customers know that it is possible for you to provide that service, you've created an unmet need amongst your customers. Unmet needs lead to dissatisfaction and, over the long haul, can significantly hurt your business.

So, what should you do? Should you offer up your network to your customers? Should you share your potentially finite or costly internet bandwidth?The answers depend on factors that are unique to you and your business.

If you're only using your network to access the internet and you have sufficient bandwidth to share, then share away. Make sure that your computers and devices on the network have firewalls to protect them from intrusions. If you're in an area with other businesses nearby, utilize a password system to ensure that use of the system is limited to your customers and not to your neighbors and their customers. Even though slow connection speeds can frustrate you, your customers will likely give you a pass for problems, cognizant that it's something beyond your control (if they even notice).

If you need your network to be secure and completely private, you have other options. First, you can add another wireless router to your network, attaching it to your existing router. Set up your first router (or cable/dsl modem, if it has a built in WiFi router) to be open and then add the second router after the first, making it protected and available only to your devices. Name you first network (the open one) something like "Joe's Restaurant - Guest". For the other, private, network, follow the steps below.

If you can't or don't want to provide network access to your customers (such as closing off your private business network), you have a couple of options. The cleanest is to turn off SSID broadcast for your network. Although you can still connect devices to the network and it will run normally, customers' devices won't "see" the network and, therefore, they won't know you even have one. The downside to this is that you'll need to manually enter your network information into your devices to connect them, which means more work for you on the front end.

Another option is to give your network a name that doesn't create a false expectation amongst your customers. "Joe's Restaurant" leaves no doubt as to whose network customers are seeing. On the other hand, "DFF-63LK-Secure" could be anything. Customers seeing this have no idea whether this is your network or not, thus it doesn't create that perception of an unmet need.

Whether you take these thoughts to heart or not, know that your customers are judging you on them. Their perceptions are your reality. Embrace that or suffer the consequences.


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Richard Mendell is a marketing expert with more than 15 years of customer marketing and brand management experience in the restaurant industry. He is currently consulting for restaurant, retail and CPG clients in the Oklahoma City market, but is open to long term marketing roles throughout the United States.

Why not a Series Hybrid Engine Swap?

So, I've been thinking about this for a while. As some of you may know, I have an ongoing fascination (some might say obsession) with Full Size Jeeps (FSJs). That's the classic full size Wagoneers, Cherokees and Pickups built between 1962 and 1991. In my opinion, these are the original SUVs and they're damn near indestructible.

Unfortunately, they came with some engines that just don't cut in the modern world. Over the years, they came with an assortment of Buick, Kaiser and AMC engines. Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with any of these motors. At the time, they were competitive (well, except at the end), but, by today's standards, they're underpowered, inefficient or both.

Up to now, there's really only been two options...

1. Spend lots of money upgrading the existing drive train by adding things like fuel injection, headers and exhausts,  overdrive transmissions, etc. It's all possible and gives you the satisfaction of keeping the "soul" of your Jeep true to it's mutt roots.
   
2. Swap in a modern drive train from another vehicle. Traditionally, small block Chevy V8s have been a common choice for this, but the current range of LS and Vortec engines are about as easy and deliver a heck of lot of both efficiency and power for what's not a huge investment.

Now, I've spent a long time vacillating between these options. For me, I like the idea of having a "modern" AMC V8 with fuel injection and the like. On the other hand, the Vortec is a great truck engine, it mates up cleanly with a modern overdrive automatic and, perhaps most importantly, junkyards are full of them.

But because I'm always trying to figure out what an optimal solution could be, I'm thinking outside the box. I put together a list of things I'd want in a dream SUV.

• Off Road Performance
• Reliability
• On Road Performance
• Economy
• Comfort

Now, out of the box (or in it, if you like the wood grain tape) these FSJs do well off road and, modern features like automatic climate control notwithstanding, they're pretty comfortable. They aren't terribly reliable though (to be fair, the newest ones out there are 20 years old), they struggle to cruise at 75 and they might get 15 MPG downhill with a tailwind.

So, all that tedious set up aside, here's what I'm thinking...

Why not take a page from the diesel train locomotive book and do a series hybrid system?

Pros:

• Smaller diesel engine (such as a VW TDI) will provide ample power and, running at more consistent loads, will be ultra efficient and reliable.
• Electric motor has huge torque from zero RPM and can run at high speeds.
• No need for a traditional transmission, saving about 250 lbs.
• Supercapacitors can take the place of batteries, since they'll be used to bridge load variation between current engine output and electric motor needs, such as during acceleration or hill climbing, rather than for primary power storage.

Cons:

• Massive amounts of custom fabrication.
• Needs custom control systems and software to run said systems.
• Will still be a 20 plus year old vehicle with associated concerns.
• $$$$$$$

Now I'm guessing that's the main reason no one's done one of these already. I don't think any of the issues are insurmountable. Essentially, what I'm suggesting is a variation on what Fisker is doing with the Karma without the pesky "plug in" part that's great for being green but doesn't really add value to what I'm proposing. It's meaningfully different from the Chevy Volt because in my approach, there's absolutely no connection between the diesel engine and the drivetrain except for wires.

I'm not sure if this is something I'll ever get around to doing, but I thought I'd throw my hair brained idea out there. I'm open to suggestions and criticisms.

Cell Phone Voicemail Scam

I happened to read a great article by David Pogue in his Circuits column in the New York Times about cell phone voicemail and those annoying mandatory voicemail instructions you seemingly can't avoid.

Based on his math for Verizon's profits off of this and then accounting for the other three of the "big four" in cell phones (AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) and then the other players, the industry, in the US alone, is raking in about $2 billion a year.

Now I'm all for making a buck and if there were an easy way to skip these, then I'd be all for it. If you're able to not pay for something and you do anyway, I can't feel too sorry for you. On the other hand, if you make someone pay for something they don't need or want in order to get to a basic function, then that's just not cricket.

So, I suggest the following. Unless you have something really important to say, don't leave a message. When (or even before...if they're going to pick up, it doesn't take seven rings) the voicemail picks up, hang up. The other person can see you called and they can call back. Easy as pie and pretty much what we did back in the dark ages of pagers.

Just my 2¢.

Getting Serious About Fuel Efficiency In the USA

So, I just finished reading a recap of "Maximum" Bob Lutz's News Conference yesterday (7/15).

OK. No surprise we're not getting the small, fuel efficient Chevrolet Beat (Spark?). It's not designed to meet US safety standards.

Here's a novel thought though...let's change those standards. Let's stop forcing auto makers to make cars designed to protect people too stupid to wear their seatbelts. It's funny that conservative American politicians criticize the Europeans as running nanny states and then vote for regulations in the US that are so abhorrent to the idea of personal responsibility.

If I want to drive a small car with limited crash protection and no airbag in order to pay less for it and get better mileage, isn't that my call? Apparently not.