Free Public WiFi More Important to Customers than the Drinks in UK Cafes

A new survey conducted by Samsung UK has found that 37% will choose coffee shops based on the availability of free WiFi rather the quality of the tea or coffee being served. So it’s no surprise to find that 69% of Brits work remotely from coffee shops at least twice a week. But apparently what cafes really need is.. a printer.

Indeed 24% of respondents said they wanted Printers to be available when they’re working away from the office and 42% would like to see a dedicated area for workers because 47% are put off by the noisy atmosphere in most venues. Sadly only 8% of coffee shops offer dedicated working areas.

Mark Ash, Samsung UK’s General Manager of Print, said:

“Through this research we wanted to get to the bottom of the technology issues of mobile working. The trend of working remotely in coffee shops has been steadily increasing for a while now, but our research found the availability of WiFi is no longer enough to satisfy customers. Despite it being important, customers want a more complete working experience.”

So there you have it, what that Starbucks down your local high street really needs is a Printer and guess what.. Samsung just so happens to make a whole bunch of those (read: vested interest). On the other hand if a lot of these suddenly started cropping up at coffee shops then before long it would start feeling exactly like your office.

The study also revealed that only 9% of mobile workers are currently using 4G (what about 3G?), relying instead on Wi-Fi available in coffee shops (90%) or public roaming Wi-Fi (15%). Also, Smartphones are the most popular device for mobile working according to the survey, with 71% of workers saying they use the device to work, while only 50% use a laptop and 49% a tablet.

Still we’ve always found Smartphones to be somewhat less productive than a Laptop for writing anything substantive. Unless “work” means checking Facebook and Twitter?