Small and medium businesses are suffering wi-fi issues that have the potential to undermine their customer relationships and deny them the chance to retain and grow their user base, according to a new report from Netgear.
Most SMEs realise they need to offer customers access to decent wi-fi huge numbers but are finding the task too tricky. More than 90 percent of UK SMEs had some problem with wi-fi. Those issues included poor coverage, dropped connections and problems with speed. But the majority of SMEs quizzed by the networking vendor (82 percent) viewed it as essential to be able to offer a good wi-fi connection, with half needing it for customer retention.
This makes for an opportunity for networking resellers to sort the problem out.
Ollie Randall, UK regional director of Netgear, said that UK businesses recognise that customers expect a good Wi-Fi connection, and many SMBs rely on Wi-Fi for critical revenue-driving functions.
The vendor is talking up mesh wi-fi as the option for customers to go for because it solves the connectivity and reliability issues.
For the channel, there is plenty to talk about with the increasing number of SME customers that are relying on wi-fi to run a wireless point of sale system as well as providing a ‘guest’ network for visitors.
Randall said that they way it was promoting mesh technology was not just as an answer to the immediate problems but as a springboard that would provide other benefits that, “not only meet customer needs but can drive additional revenue through improved customer acquisition and retention”.
