Our goal is to provide elegant and intelligent solutions that enable brick-and-mortar venues to thrive in the era of omnichannel customer experience (CX) and big data. 

Here in our blog, we dive into all aspects of WiFi guest access, IoT, big data, analytics, customer experience, and omnichannel marketing as it relates to the world of brick-and-mortar physical venues and smart cities. In this introductory post, we’ll tell you a bit about ourselves, the problems we are trying to solve, and how we plan on solving them.  

So, how did we get here? 

Our journey began in 2004 with the founding of Adaël Wireless in Paris, France.  For fourteen years, Adaël was a leading WiFi solutions integrator for world-class retailers and venues across France. Clients Adaël served included the Les Quatre Temps shopping center in Paris, all IKEA locations across France, and the world-renowned LADUREE tearooms. 

After Adaël was acquired, we relocated to Miami, Florida and founded Queentessence. The Miami region is fast becoming the next major tech hub in the U.S. and serves as the ideal launching pad for our global headquarters. It was here that we developed Andromeda our holistic, intelligent, and GDPR-compliant cloud-based analytics platform. 

Throughout our time serving as a WiFi integrator, we gained valuable firsthand experience regarding what drives value for venues. Thanks to our experience serving venues of all sizes, we know that all too often technology is offered as a solution looking for a problem. As a result, here at Queentessence we strive to deliver technology that elegantly solves real world problems. This solution-oriented thinking has led us to design creative and pragmatic solutions, such as our patented “Pre-roll” WiFi technology  (US Patent  7,734,283), that deliver measurable value to our partners and motivates us to constantly iterate and improve Andromeda based on customer needs. 

Simply put, our service provider roots continue to drive our collaborative, creative, and open-minded approach to developing solutions for our clients. 

What problem are we solving? 

While we know the term “paradigm shift” is overused in tech, it’s true that brick-and-mortar venues, particularly retailers, are in the middle of a paradigm shift. Today, almost every customer has a smart device in their pocket and a desire to stay connected. IoT, big data, and business intelligence offer brick-and-mortar venues a way to engage with customers on a personal level, extract detailed insights on consumer behavior, and optimize sales & marketing efforts. 

However, tying all the moving pieces together to something actionable can be a monumental task. That’s where we come in. Queentessence enables marketers to easily capture and make sense of the wealth of data IoT and mobile devices provide. As a result, venues can improve customer experience, increase sales, and get the most out of omnichannel marketing. 

Our Andromeda platform is the “how” that enables us to address the challenges brick-and-mortar venues face. There are a variety of data points that provide inputs to the platform including: smart devices connected to WiFi guest access, wireless beacons, and smart IoT sensors. Extensibility is a key aspect of Andromeda and it can integrate with all WiFI hardware vendors that offer a WaaS (Wireless as a Service) cloud architecture. 

After aggregating the data, Andromeda uses machine learning and analytics algorithms to curate it into a coherent, consumable, and actionable format for managers and marketers. With Andromeda, development skills are not a prerequisite. Marketers can leverage our portal editor, drag and drop features, and intuitive dashboards to deep dive into the data, learn more about their customers, and develop highly personalized and targeted promotions and campaigns. 

How much do digital presence and analytics matter for brick-and-mortar venues?

It’s easy for us to say a digital presence and analytics are important, and it’s even intuitive to understand. But, do the numbers back us up? In a word, yes. Consider the following statistics:

• A study of 46,000 shoppers showed that 73% were “omnichannel” shoppers (Source: Harvard Business Review)– Gone are the days of brick-and-mortar and the digital world being discrete environments. Consumers engage with brands at multiple touchpoints. Physical venues and brick and mortar retailers that can improve the customer journey by engaging at multiple touchpoints have an advantage. 
• 74% of firms indicated they want to be “data driven” but less than 30% believed they were good at making the connection between analytics and action (Source: Forrester). Most firms like the idea of being “data driven” (thanks Jeff Bezos!), but not everyone can execute. Those who can (see the aforementioned Jeff Bezos) tend to outstrip the competition and provide enhanced CX. 
• By 2022 66% of all CX projects will leverage IT (Source: Gartner)- Technology is becoming a part of all aspects of the customer journey. The trend towards IoT, big data, and analytics is far beyond the early adopter stage and is becoming the norm. 
• Firms that are “champions” of customer analytics are 2.6 times more likely to have an ROI that is significantly higher than the competition. (Source: McKinsey). This study from McKinsey helped further validate the hypothesis that sound analytics improve business outcomes. 

The numbers are clear, brick-and-mortar venues need to intelligently leverage a digital presence and big data analytics. At Queentessence we strive to ensure our partners are positioned to maximize the upside of the latest technology to stay ahead of their competitors and deliver value to their customers. 

What does the name mean?

We’re glad you asked! While there are a number solutions built around brick-and-mortar WiFi and IoT analytics, to date they have all fallen short of the ease of use and quality of insights found in other markets (e.g. online retail). We strive to create the quintessential analytics solution for brick-and-mortar retailers and bringing elegance, ease of use, and quality of insights that meet or exceed those available in other verticals. 

Going Forward

What does the future hold for Queentessence? In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out new features and further optimizing the Andromeda to meet our partners’ needs. We will also continue our efforts to protect consumers’ right to privacy while still delivering value to marketers by ensuring our solutions remain GDPR-compliant without sacrificing data quality. 

Most importantly, we’ll continue down the path of taking a collaborative, open-minded, and pragmatic approach to delivering quintessential to modern IT integrators and venues. If you:

• Are interested in in learning more about Queentessence
• Have questions about IoT for brick-and-mortar, psychographics, or WiFi guest access you’d like us to answer in this blog
• Want to take the Andromeda technology for a test drive
• Are an IT integrator or brick-and-mortar venue with questions on best practices

please contact us today!