by Samuel Warren, UK & Europe Sales & Marketing Director, technologywithin
Following our announcement that Samuel Warren is joining our team as UK & Europe Sales & Marketing Director, we tap into his in-depth knowledge and experience of real estate and workspace management software.
Operators face many challenges while managing flexible workspaces. From attracting, managing, and converting a constant pipeline of leads to elevating the occupier experience, and efficiently managing the space and amenities – the smooth running of the business doesn’t have to be a cumbersome process. Integrated workspace management software is a vital piece of technology adding enormous value to both sales and operations teams in the day-to-day running of the business.
Attracting and managing sales leads
If we consider the experience of prospective customer enquiring about your services. As new leads come in, addressing and following up with them quickly establishes positive interactions at the beginning of the customer journey. Issuing online agreements in a timely and accurate fashion makes for an excellent first impression. Signing members faster brings in more people to your space, reducing void times and spaces sitting empty. It also makes your prospects feel valued – regardless of whether they’re an individual looking for a hot desk or a large corporation enquiring about private office space.
Managing prospects and watching them flow through to become customers in your management system can be an efficient operational process, over separate separate systems or even manual spreadsheets. An integrated customer relationship management (CRM) tool centralises all your sales activity – this is ultimately more economically viable for your business.
Improving customer experience
A workspace management platform makes operational processes easier, but it also works to serve your customers. The customer experience encompasses how they achieve their daily tasks in your space. They’ll almost certainly be using desk space, but individual members may also want to use services and amenities – meeting rooms, phone booths, and AV equipment, or even check their accounts for invoices and billing information. Unifying all their day-to-day tasks through a single piece of software delivers a much more simplified customer experience.
Knowing that they can access all of these amenities at the touch of a button, customers will go to your flexible workspace software for everything. Equally, bookable amenities will attract more ad-hoc visitors when they require your services. But, it’s staggering that several larger operators still rely on manual processes that require people in the spaces to email reception or speak to an office manager when booking amenities. If a customer urgently requires a meeting room, it’s a missed opportunity for revenue generation when a team member can’t be located to provide that service (under this manual model). It also significantly contributes to negative user experiences, reducing the likelihood of members returning to your space.
Generating service revenue
If your management software can facilitate bookings, whether for a meeting room, flexible workspace, AV solutions, or another service, your customers won’t only come into your space more frequently, but they’ll have a better time there, and end up generating more revenue. They know what to expect from your space and services. Otherwise, members might as well work from home if they require a private space to take calls and have a home office setup that ultimately delivers better on their needs.
Of course, monetising amenities requires automating billing processes, backed by a charging mechanism. Integration with accounting software enables the system to issue payments and automatically add them to end-of-month invoices. Despite the ease of software, the number of meeting rooms in flexible workspaces that haven’t been made readily accessible with application simple software is astonishing. Equally, some managers lock meeting rooms to prevent misuse but when that space is required, users have to, again, locate a manager to unlock the space – adding friction to their experience. Integration with access management software is a two-fold solution, giving end users greater autonomy while providing data collection touchpoints as users move through your workspace.
From understanding enquiries, daily use, which spaces certain customer types are taking, or when people are using the same spaces – using your space management data to report on these insights gives you a greater understanding of what customers want from your space. Overall, the investment in workplace management software is made back through its ability to generate more revenue through monetised amenities, with some customers identifying that even a small percentage increase in meeting room bookings has more than paid for the cost of the software over the course of the year.
Reducing operational burden
Indeed, the entire customer lifecycle can be improved using workspace management software. Integrated tools have specific functions, such as CRM, billing software, integrated calendars, visitor registration, bandwidth allocation, and access management. To deliver enhanced user experiences, they need to talk to one another – this can only be achieved with a flexible workspace system.
Likewise, an integrated tech stack reduces the operational burden. For instance, if your brilliantly engaging team spends all their time doing manual processes (like booking & unlocking meeting rooms and managing data provision in a comms room), they won’t be empowered to deliver a high-quality community experience. While some operators think it makes sense for their front-of-house staff to make those bookings to form a human touchpoint, it restricts their teams from being more present in the space and human error can prevail. When the management software automates those tasks, it frees up their time to add the human touch to customer experiences.
In their day-to-day lives, your members require seamless tech-enabled experiences. On the other hand, they don’t want to walk into your flexible workspace and be greeted by a kiosk rather than a community manager. Technology enhances experiences and reduces friction, but a fruitful workspace experience is backed by technology, and facilitated by human experience.
A unified piece of technology
twiinworkspace is the workspace management platform that makes looking after clients easy and revenue growth a reality. Operate, manage, and grow your workspace all from one platform.
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