Following on from our earlier blog about the connected hospitality trend, we take a more detailed look at the part wireless charging will play in making this vision a reality.

Why wireless charging now?

Mobile devices are at the centre of our universe and power is a basic human need. We are reliant on mobile devices to stay connected in our work and personal lives. However, a major anxiety for any consumer is the lack of power to charge mobile devices – according to our recent survey, 58% of smartphone users typically run out of battery before 5pm daily, while 56% of consumers seek a phone charging facility outside of their homes at least once a week.

With Apple now integrating wireless charging capability into their latest iPhones we are at a tipping point for the technology. The Apple effect is such that consumer demand is driving the mass deployment of wireless charging, with immediate needs being seen across airports, hotels, venues and workspace; the result being that it will become as ubiquitous as WiFi.

What are the benefits?

At the heart of the connected hospitality vision is the smartphone, without convenient access to power this vision will never be realised.  There are many benefits for the business:

1. At a one level there is meeting consumer demand with convenient access to power; power is the foundational technology and without it the connected hospitality vision cannot be realised.
2. There is another level of opportunity that exists with wireless charging: it provides a way to deliver an impactful value-add, in terms of customer experience and as a competitive differentiator. Businesses that provide wireless charging are known to:
   1. attract greater footfall, increase hotel-to-guest interactions for example communicating useful information about special events being held at the venue for the duration of their stay
   2. drive repeat visits by communicating hyper-local messaging running loyalty campaigns, gathering essential demographic guest insights or simply pushing notifications to hotel app-users’ screens.
   3. increase user dwell time, with people sitting down to charge for 26 minutes on average.
   4. capture data – the bonus is contextual information, wireless charging provides hoteliers information on when guests are in their hotel and which areas are being taken advantage of, right down to the exact number of return visits to that area. It provides the opportunity to capture new leads in terms of CRM by requiring non-guest visitors to download the app to charge.

How does this work in reality?

The latest technology enables brands to monetise their investment in wireless charging by providing a connection between the business providing wireless power and the user as they charge. This translates to businesses being able to combine Chargifi’s hyper-local location data and blend that with other sources of data. This process carries many advantages as businesses can subsequently understand more about their customers, analysing their behaviour at a particular hotel location and contextually engage with them whilst they charge, for example in-seat ordering via wireless charging. Chargifi can pinpoint the exact seating location of any user in relation to the hotel’s network, in a way other wireless technologies such as beacons cannot, due to accuracy limitations.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the opportunities that wireless charging can create please contact our sales team on sales@chargifi.com or +44 (0) 20 3735 8784.