The real paybacks come from crunching the data you’ll be able to collect, whether you work for a hospital, retail store, museum, fitness club, sport arena, religious organization or any kind of facility that has visitors. If they “do things” while they are there, someone is (hopefully) trying to make that visit efficient or profitable or fun or productive or easy for the visitor.

Let’s think about data from three key areas: Access Points, Wi-Fi connections and your App.

Access Points—using the log files that have capturing MAC addresses, you can almost correlate logged devices with the actual number of visitors. This gives you access to how many people are there, how long they stayed, how often they came back and (in some cases with a little effort) where did they go when inside the facility.

A minor point is taking advantage of the exposure to bandwidth usage. By studying how the bandwidth is used you can keep users happy by purchasing more of it and by throttling back or blocking hogs and hacks.

Wi-Fi Connections—think carefully about the process people go through when they connect. There is a trade-off between getting people to join and collecting lots of data from them. You may be OK with the default info that the APs are logging and just want to make it as easy and streamlined as possible. Try getting a little bit more (zip code, e-mail address, or maybe a single question such as “why are you here today?”) and see if people play along in order to get access to a reliable, high-speed network.

Smartphone App—Your App should exist because it provides real value to the time the visitor is at your location. It might ALSO provide value away from your location, but in terms of data gathering and improving the experience, make sure you offer functions that really engage. You have all the info you captured when they signed up with your organization, when they downloaded the App from a store (both Apple and Android share some demographic information) and what functions they chose while operating the App. When linked to the MAC address of the device, you can now join the logs from the APs to all the other rich information to get a full picture of that visit.
When you know:

How many people walked past your door without coming in?
How long they stayed when they did come in?
What paths they normally take through your establishment?
Where they lingered and what they avoided?
How often people returned during the year?

You have information that can help you improve their experience. Areas of congestion can be reworked. Cold areas can be treated for improvements. Better signage means better information.

While the data can be easily captured, you’ll need to work with your DBAs and your wireless vendors to get the right reports and real intelligence from the data. Much of the canned report info is useful and can spur action, but you’ll want to really dig deep to answer the interesting questions: “Are our products priced correctly?”; “Is the furniture comfortable?”; “How much do they spend per hour?”; “Did the improvements result in more visits?”; “How many visits before they become a member (or renew or don’t renew)?”; “How long do they shop before checking out and does that matter to the over-all sale?”; “Do people who use the App purchase more?” and so on.
Use the intelligence gathered to continuously improve that customer experience and then reap the rewards of delighted customers.