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Most customers nowadays expect free wifi as standard when visiting a bar, restaurant, hotel or retail outlet. As an alternative to simply giving away a wifi password to enable internet access, smarter businesses are now using what’s known as a captive portal. 

A captive portal not only restricts access to legitimate customers, but also captures the data needed to build detailed visitor profiles, which inform more focused and meaningful marketing.       

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What is a captive portal?

To put it simply, a captive portal is a web page which newly-connected wifi users see before they are given access to the broader internet or a network’s resources. Sometimes called splash pages, they can display welcome messages or login details, or inform users of the conditions of access. 

Quite often, a captive portal will deny internet access over open wifi until a web-based form has been completed. Until this is done, the user is ‘captive’, hence the name.

It is increasingly common for social media accounts to be used for a captive portal login, which is why this method of accessing the internet is sometimes known as social wifi.

How captive portal works

On entering a location, users will be prompted to access your guest wifi network. After that there are just three simple steps to seamless connection. 

  1. Visitors can log in by filling in a short form usually including their email address, or via their account on social media or even just accepting some terms and conditions via a tick box.
  2. If visitors have logged in using their social media account, such as Facebook, they can be prompted to like or follow your own social media pages.
  3. Visitors can be redirected to a specific page on your website or a customisable landing page where they can view your current advertising and promotions.

The benefits of our Supafi captive portal

From extensive data capture for marketing purposes to restricting bandwidth, raising brand awareness and understanding customer behaviours, there are many benefits to adding the Supafi captive portal to your guest wifi.

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Targeted marketing

Shape future marketing campaigns with greater accuracy by analysing live customer data such as location, telephone numbers and email addresses.

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Brand awareness

The splash page of your captive portal is the ideal place to capture user attention, highlighting your latest offer or new products, services or events.

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Customer insight

Gain a greater understanding of customer behaviours through analytics which will allow you to better meet user needs and create tailored advertising.

Supafi is able to detect active and recently active users, new users and returning visitors and the type of device and web browser being used. 

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Revenue generation

If appropriate, it is possible for you to charge visitors for accessing the internet via a captive portal, creating an additional revenue stream. 

If you opt to charge for internet access via Supafi, visitors can choose from a number of payment processing platforms, including Stripe and PayPal. Alternatively, payments can be made using a voucher system.

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Controlled connection

Some wifi users do see open access wifi as an opportunity to heavily download files. The Supafi captive portal can easily limit bandwidth to prevent a slow service for other users. It can also highlight individual users who might be impacting speeds.

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Network and data security

Protect your brand image as a responsible business by using a captive portal to restrict access to potentially harmful or age-restricted sites via our DNS filtering service, Supafilter.

As Performance Networks is a data processor, not a data controller, you will have complete control of the information gathered by Supafi. So you can rest assured your data will never be bartered or sold.

Features of the Supafi captive portal

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Personalised portal page

Personalise the guest wifi experience with a user friendly login page specifically tailored to your business, complete with your logo.

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Bespoke dashboard

We’ll provide you with your own bespoke dashboard, complete with infographics, charts and graphs to make your guest data more meaningful.

In addition to the standard features of our dashboard, we can add any number of custom fields your business may require. All you have to do is ask.  

Our captive portal solution has a simple and clear user interface that’s easy to navigate and provides full access in the shortest time possible.

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Simple data integration

We make it easy to integrate the data you’ve gathered into other software, without the need to change equipment.

Supafi can be integrated easily into marketing platforms such as Mailchimp and Dotdigital, plus a growing number of application programming interfaces.

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Installing the Supafi captive portal

Most of our customers start off with a demonstration of Supafi’s many capabilities and features. If they are happy with what they see, the next stage is usually a trial, where our technical experts will assess Supafi’s compatibility with a customer’s current systems.

As we use the latest equipment from leading manufacturers, our captive portal can be integrated into most systems. If not, we can certainly discuss ways of adapting the portal to accommodate other technology.

After a successful trial period comes full installation. But that’s far from being the final stage. As a Supafi client, you’ll benefit from a high level of customer and technical support. And, if your business grows, Supafi is fully scalable up to a global level.

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Captive portal wifi locations

Whatever the setting, wherever the location, whether indoor or outdoor, we’ve a captive portal that will enhance the user experience and provide you with valuable customer data.

Ready to connect?

If you’re interested in our Supafi captive portal solution, just get in touch with us via our contact page.

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We’re 100% dedicated to solving business challenges and enabling our clients to achieve their goals. Our case studies give you the inside proof on how we work and the successful results we deliver.

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