McDonald’s Free Wifi

The Golden Arches are missing out on a Golden Oppurtunity with Free McDonalds Wifi

McDonalds: A worldwide fast food franchise who have been around for many years, revolutionising the fast food industry as we know it.

More recently, in Australia, the forcus has shifted away from just junk food, to offering healthy eating options, cafe style food and coffee, and yes, free wifi at all their restaurants.

I visited one such place the other day to grab a coffee and steal some wifi in between client meetings. I choose McDonalds because:

1. It was easy to find
2. I knew they were going to have free wifi
3. They make a reasonable coffee…most of the time

Upon logging into the McDonald’s wifi, you have your usual ‘I agree to all your terms…’ text, and after selecting a box, you have your free wifi (Limited to 50MB per session mind you, but I get that-I’m not after bandwidth, just a place to check my emails)

I checked, sent, browsed and after about 20 minutes, had finished my coffee, logged out, and was on my way to my next appointment-and McDonald’s had NO IDEA who I was. I was a wifi ghost, in and out without a trace.

The Opportunity

Now, being in ‘the SEO game’, I loath giving out my email, that is unless I get instant gratification with something for free. To accss free wifi, I would have no problem giving them my name and email-phone is another story, but the first two, no problem.

McDonald’s has a fantastic opportunity to build a fantastic list of mainly business users, which they could use appropriately to target offers relevant to a business user.

Things like:

- Buy One get one free coffee days
- New wifi locations
- Faster Speed Upgrades
- Auto responders  to the user as soon as they log on to encourage them to buy food…
McDonald’s is missing a golden opportunity to ask permission to engage in conversation with customers.