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Take for example
Dreamcones, a take-away ice cream parlour. It is not an
eatery per se, but its two branches in Kiulap and Gadong
have seats and tables which customers can use to go
online while waiting for their others.
Leslie Lai, Dreamcones
owner and marketing executive, said Dreamcones customers
always use the free Wi-Fi access, but most tend to spend
less than an hour.
Providing free Internet
access to customers has its perks, said Leslie. "Within
that one hour they may decide to order more than one or
two products," she said.
"If they overstay,
there is nothing much we can do. It's the customer's
choice."
Sulaiman Mohammad Shah,
manager of D'Other Office Cafe & Bistro, said it is
definitely a value-added service for the customers. "For
us here, there's good and bad things associated with
providing free Wi-Fi access to our patrons.
"On one hand it will
make the place look busy - and that's a good thing here
- but on the other hand, because we consider ourselves
more of a restaurant than a café, it can be
inappropriate at times for customers to stay on for too
long.
"We do encourage the
use of Wi-Fi, hut it's got to create a win-win situation
for both the customers and the owners," said Sulaiman.
Whilst it can he a
major inconvenience for a busy restaurant if a customer
orders one drink and stays two hours just for the
Internet access, what about the cafes whose patrons are
meant to stay for long periods of time, for example
watching a 90-minute football match, hanging out with
friends, or meeting with clients?
"It definitely keeps
the customers in and it helps with the business too,"
said Kamariah Kamwahi, assistant outlet manager for
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. In some cases, she said the
longer a customer stays, the more products he will end
up ordering.
"People who come here
are usually not in a hurry. It's mostly to relax, work
and even play. So for us it's definitely not a problem,
just as long as they buy our products," she said. --
Courtesy of The Brunei Times |
