Next time you pop down to McDonald’s for a Big Mac remember to take your laptop with you, as the popular Illinois based fast food chain are now offering Wi-Fi for free in most of their restaurants.
Some 11,500 of McDonalds outlets out of the 14,000 locations in the US already had Wi-Fi available but you had to pay somewhere in the region of $2.95 for a couple of hours use.
Hey let’s face it folks, who is going to, or would even want to, sit in McDonalds for two hours and pay for Wi-Fi?
Not many I would imagine, so basically charging for Wi-Fi wasn’t exactly brining them in the dosh and certainly wouldn’t attract new customers. No, free is a much better way.
McDonalds said last month they were going to make Wi-Fi free and maintained it was in response to customer demand.
“One thing our customers have told us is: ‘We like your Wi-Fi, but would you make it free?’ This is one thing they’ve consistently asked for. It’s just another reason to come to McDonald’s” said David Groom chief information officer for McDonalds USA at the time.
The McDonalds Wi-Fi service is provided by Dallas based AT & T who already offers free access at McDonalds for their subscribers as well as at other locations including Starbucks.
Starbucks offer free Wi-Fi too but pretty soon you’re going to have to buy a certain amount from Starbucks before you can get the benefit of the free Wi-Fi, something that McDonalds are not doing.
Now McDonalds is one of the largest providers of totally free Wi-Fi hotspots in the whole of the US and are surely hoping that offering Wi-Fi for free might encourage more customers in through the door or else why bother. So will it work?
Well it just might; you know they may even pilfer a customer or two from Starbucks.
Customers don’t have to buy anything to use the free Wi-Fi service at McDonalds and apparently McDonalds own research has shown that people will spend more on food and drink if they don’t have to pay to surf the web.
It’s true though, if you make Wi-Fi completely free with no exception, it does have greater appeal.
Given the choice of totally free Wi-Fi with no strings attached or free Wi-Fi provided I buy a certain amount first, I know what I’d rather choose.
