Several Reasons Why Internet Cafe Shops Lose Customers Very Easily

Putting up an Internet cafe business is no easy undertaking. To ensure its success, a feasibility study may need to be done first in the area where you want to run such a business. Without a doubt, a large capital investment must be put in to operate one. Securing a business permit alone requires around Php10,000 (about $230).

As an Internet user for years, I have been into many Internet cafes and have come to understand what a good and bad Internet shop is. Perhaps Internet cafe owners do not realize that the best way to market their service is through word of mouth. Among many other reasons, over restrictions placed by Internet cafe admins drive customers away from the shop for good unless they have no other option.

Attracting customers in the first place is not a trivial task, especially when one has lots of competition in the area, but keeping them is just as important. However, proprietors simply lose them without even knowing it. This may be because the first impression created by the Internet shop seems not enough to make loyal customers.

1. The Internet connection is very slow. The owner should somehow know how his competitors are doing in this respect.

2. Computer units hang or crash very often. If this is not corrected, customers would probably never come back.

3. Computer units lag behind because they are not optimized, i.e., the right balance between appearance and performance is not achieved. This is a simple tweak that is not applied to virtually all Internet cafes I’ve been into.

4. Cyber cafes have turned into gaming zones almost exclusively, driving away the Internet surfers.

5. Excessive noise from gamers, not to mention their utterances of flagrant words and expressions and their execrable behaviours, become a nagging headache for other users. What about those who are doing online jobs such as audio transcription?

6. Attendants do not know how to properly serve their customers. They tend to be more irritable than the users. They are simply not taught what customer service is.

7. On the other hand, cyber cafe owners like to portray a superior image by assuming a grim countenance instead of appearing friendly and approachable. Some even arrive at a point where they argue with users who have some complaints.

8. Mouse and/or keyboard are sometimes defective, significantly displeasing the customers. This is an example of bad maintenance.

1. Disabled right-click option. There is no need to place this restriction if computer units are frozen or running in a virtual environment. Most often, users need to access the contextual menu.

2. Inability to look at the My Computer. This limitation may make it difficult for users to open files in the hard drive.

3. Write protection of external storage devices. This is another irritation encountered by users of flash drives, or USB, rendering the saving of files very inconvenient or impossible.

4. Inability to install plug-ins and softwares without permission from the administrator. For instance, if you want to install an application, a dialogue box would appear asking a password to continue. Likewise, if you are downloading any file on the Internet (such as a pdf file), a dialogue box would pop up requiring you to input a password to open the file. This is overly restrictive.

5. Some Internet cafes do not even allow users to access the Options in Mozilla Firefox, by putting a password when it is clicked through the Tools menu. The problem is that some users cannot tolerate the very bright white background of Firefox. So, when the Options is password-protected, there is no other choice but to look for another Internet cafe.

1. Overcrowded and heavily cramped shops. This results when the isle is very narrow that the chairs touch each other, making it difficult for the users to pass through.

2. Most Internet shops are very dark, making it hard to type on the keyboard.

3. Air conditioning system is not cool enough to comfort the users, which can also have harmful health effects.

4. Many times, when you badly want to print something, their printer runs out of ink or bond paper. What would you feel in such a situation?

5. The installed antivirus software automatically deletes files in the removable disk without warning. You will end up losing important files or applications that are suspected as harmful files. This frequently occurs with Avast.

6. Google Chrome crashes very often, rendering it useless most of the time. Perhaps Internet owners do not know that this is the fastest browser today, even rivaling Firefox in speed and look.

7. Internet time displayed in the units does not match with the time in the server, which is often ahead one peso.

8. Other Internet time management softwares are configured to display payments in advance of the time the user actually consumes. For instance, for an hourly rate of Php12, the application displays a charge of Php12 even though you have spent only 50 minutes. So when you log out, you have to pay Php12 instead of Php10. This is cheating.

9. Other Internet owners disable the capability of users to log out using the Internet time management software. This makes users pay for the additional time wasted while waiting for the attendant to log the unit out in the server.

10. Internet cafe owners do not give importance to updating their antivirus software on a regular basis. This negligence makes the flash drives used by end users become infected with viruses or Trojans.

In my observation, customers put more importance on the performance of computer units than the appearance of the Internet cafe itself. This hub should help Internet cafe owners amend their ways of doing business to avoid being trounced by the rabid competition.

In operating an establishment for public use, Internet cafe owners would do well to put customers first before profit. Remember, the key to success in every business is no other than CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, which builds loyalty and goodwill.