You have got a band on Friday. You have told Instagram, which showed it to eleven people. You have written it on the A-board, which faces the wrong way. You have put a card on every table, which is now under a plate. Meanwhile, every customer in the room is staring at a phone.
An email waits in a crowded inbox. A post waits for an algorithm. A poster waits for someone to look up. None of them catch a customer at the moment they are actually deciding what to do next.
There is one moment that does. A customer joining your Wi-Fi is giving you their whole attention for a few seconds — more attention than your A-board, your table cards and your last four posts put together. Most venues waste it on a password.
Put a promo screen in front of the Wi-Fi sign-in. It appears on the customer’s own phone, before they get online, so everybody who connects goes through it.
It is not competing with anything. It is on the phone of somebody already sitting in your room, deciding what to order next.
A photo, or a short silent video with a still frame behind it.
A headline, a few lines, a short list of details, and one button with wording you choose.
It arrives switched off. Turn it on for the week of the event and off again afterwards, or leave it up permanently with your opening hours. Changing it takes a minute and involves nobody but you.
The thing you keep having to explain. The Friday band. Two-for-one on the terrace until seven. The new menu. Kitchen open until eleven. The quiz. Anything currently relying on a chalkboard and a hopeful glance.
Customers already in at lunch are your best audience for this evening. “Live music from 8 — stay for it.”
Every question the screen answers is one your staff do not have to.
The screen is in their hand.
The promo screen works on today’s customers. For last week’s, you need their email — and the same sign-in page collects it.
When customers tap Google or Apple or leave an address to get online, and tick the box saying you can write to them, you have a list of people who have actually been in. Send them the event on Wednesday; they are fifteen minutes away and deciding what to do on Friday.
In the room now. The promo screen, before they get online.
In last week. The mailing list the same sign-in built.
Neither needs a printer, a designer or an algorithm.
The promo screen is included in the Café plan at $30 a month per venue after a 14-day free trial, along with the branded sign-in page, time and speed limits, and the mailing list.
Set it up this week, or send us a photo of your Wi-Fi box and we will tell you what is involved.
You cannot email a card payment. The four seconds when a walk-in tells you who they are.
Reviews are written by the annoyed unless everyone gets asked.
One coffee, one laptop, the best seat, nine till five. Let the equipment have the awkward conversation.
Put a promo screen in front of the Wi-Fi sign-in. Everybody who connects sees a full screen on their own phone before they get online — a photo or short video, a headline, the details and one button.
No, it arrives switched off. Turn it on for the week of the event and off again afterwards, or leave it up permanently with your opening hours.
Yes — a short silent video with a still frame behind it, or a photo if you would rather. Both sit above a headline, a few lines of copy and one button whose wording you choose.
A poster waits for somebody to look up and a post waits for an algorithm. The promo screen appears on the phone of a customer who is already sitting in your room and deciding what to order next.
That is what the mailing list is for, and the same sign-in page builds it. Send them the event on Wednesday, when they are deciding what to do on Friday.
