Starbucks has announced they are rolling out about a dozen wireless charging tables at each of their 7,500 locations over the next three years. Says Adam Brotman, Chief Digital Officer at Starbucks,
Starbucks believes this is another step in staying ahead of the curve when it comes to in-store technology…it’s all about figuring out new ways to appeal to its techie, often young-ish clientele. Battery depletion ranks among the top stress-inducing frustrations for cellphone owners. Not only is Starbucks eliminating the stress, it’s giving customers a cool reason to linger and buy another $4 cup of its designer coffee.
We’ve always mentioned how valuable it is to offer cell phone charging stations to customers, and we’re pleased to announce that after several months of development, our wireless cell phone charging technology is just about ready to be released as well. So take a leaf out of Starbucks’ book – provide additional value to your clients and give them a reason to linger by offering a free cell phone charging service.
What makes power stations highly desirable?
The power stations are built with the latest technology have replaced the traditional lithium-ion batteries with titanium dioxide gel. This gel is highly safe and can be found in soil. Moreover, it has the capacity to speed up the chemical reaction, which enables the phone to charge at a faster rate. This would prove highly convenient to the customers face issues while finding charging points for their phones when the battery gets drained.
These batteries offer high performance and are better than the ones that contain lithium-ion. People prefer these batteries due to two major reasons, i.e., they have an excellent shelf life, and they help in reducing the risk of toxic decomposition of dead batteries which can be harmful to the environment. This latest technology has proven to be highly effective in terms of being cheap and environment-friendly at the same time. Once in a while, you just need to replace the gel in the batteries when you find that it is not working effectively. However, you would not need expert guidance to do so as the gel can be replaced easily within the batteries without any heavy changes in the equipment.
What Make Phone Charging Stations Useful?
The phone charging stations are becoming highly popular as they tend to provide charging facilities whenever and wherever one is in an emergency. Another important factor that makes them highly desirable is the fact you can instantly charge the phones. Not only the phones, but you can also charge other electronic devices such as tablets and laptops on these stations. This is one of the best advancements in the tech industry and is suitable for people in all matters. Several service providers have started venturing into the technology and have benefitted from this in terms of customer engagement
It has been observed that several service providers have started venturing into this technology in order to provide convenience to people wherever they go. Some of the biggest advantages of using these charging stations are listed below:
Easy to use: These stations do not require any complex understanding as someone who is not technically equipped can operate them easily. You just need to install the stations, and it would be easy to charge the devices instantly without any wire engagement.
Accessibility: The charging stations are highly advanced and come with multiple ranges of solutions that are perfect for use in the public. You can easily access these stations, and you would not need to depend on people and pester them for the charger. You just need to enter the premises, keep your phone at the charging with the pin attached and the just relax.
Fast Charging Capabilities: The charging stations are equipped with technology that helps in charging the phone at a faster rate. You would not need to sit for long hours to charge the battery in case it gets drained completely.
Why Should You Use Charging Stations at the Coffee Shop?
Here are a few things that would enable you to opt for charging stations at your coffee shop:
Customer Engagement
Introducing a charging station would provide easy access to the charging spots in your coffee shop, and they would not have to keep on asking the employees to look after their phone if its battery got drained. Keep would find the charging kiosks an innovative idea to provide convenience to them.
Boost the Sales Quotient
The charging stations in coffee shops would attract people automatically and would help in boosting sales to a great extent as they would want to unwind for a while and pick up a coffee in between, and there are chances that they would spend more on your services if you provide this convenience facility to them. If the customers get more engagement at the coffee shop, then they would probably want to come back to your outlet.
Go-to destination for customers
If you make the customers feel welcomed and take care of their things such as providing them with a convenience to charge their phones while sitting for convenience, they would surely feel that you are doing a bit extra for them. With this, they would surely want to come back to your coffee joint again and again.
Improved Customer Experience & Loyalty
The customer starts to become loyal to your brand when they start seeing that you are doing something extra for them to make them feel special and provide the services that would provide them with accessibility in case they forgot their chargers behind.
These would give you a competitive advantage
Installing charging stations would certainly give you an added advantage as you will be able to attract the customers. People would prefer coming to your coffee shop rather than going anywhere else as they are being provided convenience.
Different Types of Charging Stations that Can be Used in Coffee Shops
Considering the cell phone charging stations, there are multiple options that you choose from depending upon the requirement of the place. Here are a few of the varieties of charging stations that you can consider installing in your coffee shop:
- Floor stand station
- Wall mounted station
- Power tables (large and small size)
- Table top charging hubs (small size)
- Mobile phone charging lockers
If you want the customers in your coffee shop to stay, then power tables are one of the best solutions to attract instant attention. If you have access to these stations, then even if there are multiple coffee shops and restaurants around, your outlet will be favored as this is one of the most common needs of people today. It is observed in consumer psychology that when people find a reason to stay, they would be more inclined towards buying food and coffee from you.
Another idea that you can adopt at your coffee shop is to make use of cell phone charging lockers if your shop is centrally located in the shopping center. This would help in securing the cell phones of the people in case they want to explore the shopping arena nearby. People would feel safe for their phones, and the lockers would save them from any theft.
If you are considering using wall-mounted charging stations, then make sure that your shop is equipped to hold these up. The rental potential of your shop will increase if you use such stations. Not only do these keep the customers engaged, but they also help in marketing your services along with the custom technology platform.
Why are phone charging stations the need of the hour?
The phone charging stations are clearly game-changers as they help in promoting the brand and will engage more and more over the course of time. Here are a few of the things that you need to know about charging stations and what makes them highly useful for the customers and brands who want to promote themselves:
These help in boosting sales
Installing the phone charging station in your store would surely drive traffic in your store which would otherwise not be that effective on a daily basis. It has been observed that people tend to enter the customer stores and ask for charging stations located in the store. If you have one, they would want to stay at your outlet for some time and might even look at the goods and services that are provided to them. Several retail outlets have been benefitted from the traffic of customers would otherwise not want to come to the store. In research conducted on the outlets have charging stations, it was found that:
- Customers tend to stay 2.27 x longer if they want to charge their phones
- 54% of the customers convert if they tend to charge phones at their outlet
- Customers who charge their phones tend to spend 29% more in the shop than the ones
- 11% of the people end up spending the money out of the ones who visit the store to charge phones
These help in gaining actionable insights
Retailers want to capture data so that they can integrate the information for their marketing strategies. With these charging stations, you will be able to garner a lot of such information. The stations can bridge the gap between the user and the service provider by providing the latter with details that would help in improving customer experience. You can add surveys, contact information fills up, along with other things so that you can keep yourself engaged with the customers and provide them with deals regularly.
Build an omni-channel presence for your website
The charging stations can serve as an omnichannel marketing platform for engaging the customers both in-store as well as outside it. By garner user information, the retailers can promote brand messages to the customers and inform them about the deals and offers. As the store name reflects in the customers’ phone, it would help in promoting the brand name at no extra cost.
If you plan to install these cell phone charging stations at the retail spaces in your shopping centre then you can collect consumer data and introduce them to the market products. This would help in building a name for your brand. There are several cell phone charging stations that follow a customized approach which would help in leaving valuable personal data. For instance, if a person is waiting in your store for charging your phone, you can keep some additional goods in your store or even open a small confectionary corner so that people would want to know more about your product and the advantages that you have with them. The store would also display deals for the clients for purchasing their product. Taking such marketing measures would surely prove beneficial for your shop and boost your sales.
Installing charging stations at your shopping centre would surely prove beneficial in the long run, and the customers will be highly impressed with you!
Source: NPR
