14 DAY TRIAL // McDonald's has just decided to do a great favor to all those burger-loving customers that drive their profits sky high. They will provide from now on free wireless Internet access in its more than 1,000 restaurants across the UK.
It looks like McDonald's would do just about anything to keep their customers in restaurants, chewing on the French fries and salads. The initiative follows the precedent set by some coffee shops and cafes, which provide Wi-Fi hotspots but charge users a fee. McDonald's offers the same connection for free, although customers can not be allowed to use a table unless they actually buy some of their products as well.
A hotspot user who pays to log on for just an hour a week in a coffee shop could have to pay as much as 260 pounds every year for premium Wi-Fi charges. McDonald's offers just the same thing, only that it's free. Moreover, the company claims that it has no problem in seeing people eat a burger for hours just to benefit from the Wi-Fi free service. Still, the number of such cases should be an extremely small one, while profits will surely be quite considerable.
"We hope that this will be a breath of fresh air and give greater choice for Wi-Fi hotspot users who have had little choice but to pay by the month or hour to access the internet on the move", said McDonald's president and chief executive officer, Steve Easterbrook.
With this free Wi-Fi offer, McDonald's has high chances of earning its customers' confidence even more and getting them used to spending a great amount of time in its restaurants. Moreover, there are high chances that people might see this as a generous act and accept this brand taking up a larger amount of time in their lives.