If You Offer It...

...they will come. After hockey this morning, I headed to a nearby Panera Bread to participate in a conference call. While downing eighteen, nineteen cups of coffee (free refills!), I noticed that about 60% of the crowd was on their laptops taking advantage of the free WiFi that Panera offers. The other 40% were senior citizen coffee klatches gabbing about their health problems.

I spent most of the morning there catching up on e-mail, before grabbing a sandwich to go and heading to the office. Free WiFi definitely appears to be helping Panera get customers in the door and encourages them to stay a while. And the longer you hang out in a Panera, the more likely you are to give in to temptation and sample their tasty menu. I'm far from the first to make note of this very savvy business move, but it's something that others would do well to emulate.