How to Design Your Retention Strategy: A Hospitality-First Approach to Member Renewals and Growth Within Coworking
Many coworking sales and marketing teams are focused on winning new business, getting more leads, and booking more tours. And while business development will always be a priority, it's easy to overlook your next best source for growth and activity: your members!
Your current members are champions of your brand and a window into your community and customer profile. Remember, they chose your space or platform from a vast sea of options, and trusted you with their business' security and productivity. Remaining engaged with their experiences and expectations is critical to sustaining that trust, and creating opportunities for additional growth.
Renewal and retention strategy implementation is one of many services we offer here at Archive, and we believe it should be a cornerstone of your operations!
So where do we begin?
1. Renewal and retention strategy begins on Day 1.
You've found a new member or filled another office. Yay! Celebrate that victory with them throughout the onboarding process, as this serves as the first opportunity to present a hospitality-forward experience.
What communication are they receiving when a new agreement is signed? What resources are you providing for your space, your surrounding area, your partnerships, and other members that might work in their industry? How is your sales team passing off signed agreements, and are they introducing new members to the operations teams? What does their first day look like in the office
These are good questions to ask yourself as you look at your onboarding process, and it's important to remember that first impressions are everything when it comes to coworking and any hospitality-forward brand. But let's go one step further, and translate these questions into action items.
Streamline your onboarding emails. The moment an agreement is signed, have a process in place that introduces the manager for your location, provides them resources for your location, shares details about the surrounding area (restaurants, lunch spots, parking info, local transit), and partnership information.
Consider adding a member survey to learn more about their work and how involved they want to be in the community with questions like: what industry are you in? Do you want to be introduced to existing members in the same industry? Do you want to be introduced to new members in the same industry as they join our community? How many events do you want to attend per month, and what do you want them to be? Are there any partnerships or amenities you think might be missing?
Create floorplans that specifically highlight the amenity spaces in your locations, with subsequent pages full of FAQs and best practices. This allows you to get ahead of questions or concerns that might come up along the way, and demonstrates that you've considered their experiences and feedback when drafting.
Think of small gifts to leave in their office on the first day, alongside a thank you note or other gesture to show appreciation. Fan favorites include wire organizers or concealers, small low maintenance plants, pre-installed (empty) frames or whiteboards, and monitor/charging adapters that everyone always needs more of.
2. Renewal and retention strategy begins on Day 1, Part Two: internal systems
A more technical next step to kick things off on the right foot is to make sure your data is organized and timely as new members are added, and that existing member data is backlogged and accurate.
Specifically, set up pipelines in your CRM dedicated to renewals, containing their contract start and end dates, rate, market rate if different, and office/membership. While this might already be present in a member management system, having it in your CRM allows you to pull reports on when specific contracts might be ending, helps plan rate increases, and gives a set of checks and balances against your rent roll and revenue. Consider adding stages that reflect each term type if you offer multiple.
Setting up this pipeline will allow you to create automated reminders and outreach as contracts approach their conclusion as well, which will be greatly beneficial in future steps.
This is one of the first steps we take at Archive when looking at a client's retention strategy, how well is your data organized, and are there tools at your disposal to engage with members as needed.
3. Design check-ins at regular intervals.
There isn't a one size fits all for this strategy, because it's going to depend on your team size, departmental division, and structure of your agreements.
Ignoring these limitations, set up your check-ins as open conversations that allow members to create feedback loops with your team. These check-ins are critical for keeping your members engaged, and provide a unique level of service that they might not have received elsewhere. Essentially, you're solving problems before they become bigger problems, and reaffirming that your team is focused solely on their comfort and productivity.
Structure your check-ins around their agreement end dates, and if they are on a rolling or Month to Month term, that flexibility creates an urgency to provide the highest level of service that you can. Always check in at least a month before the member would need to give notice. Avoiding the conversation until it's too late will only create more headaches for both you and the member, as you either scramble to sell their soon-to-be vacant offices, or have to start a dreaded contract renewal email with "sorry for the delay"... yikes!
Ideally, your check-ins would have in-person as well as virtual options. They would be facilitated by your sales teams to allow the member to be as honest as they'd like to be, and would follow this general cadence:
1-Month into their agreement: focus this conversation on amenity usage, frequently asked questions, their overall impressions of the space, and any ideas they might have about additional features or partnerships. It's important to remember that at this point they're still very new to the space. This meeting provides an opportunity to pass along additional education or best practices.
5-Months into their agreement: by now they understand how the space operates. They know what they like, they know what they might not like, and they've thought about how long they want to stay where they are. This is the perfect opportunity to really listen, respond, and solve for the feedback they're willing to provide. It's a great problem to have if there's no feedback at all, but you'll never know until you ask the question. Now is the time to also begin a more direct renewal conversation. Are they liking their office size or membership level? Do they envision expanding or contracting in the next six months? Do they like their specific office or do they want to look at other options that are similar?
Annual check-ins: these will be follow the same general script as the 5-Month conversations, but should include some celebration! They chose to stay for the past calendar year, and are likely considering staying for another. Similar to the move-in gift, consider including an additional token of your appreciation. These are also opportunities to ask for feedback and potential growth, and because this structure is in place, it's a question they can come to expect and might have an easy answer to. Now is also a great time to ask them to help grow the space even further, and to task them with thinking about any friends, colleagues, or other that they might know in the market for space. Introduce referral programs (more on that later in a future write-up), and encourage them to leave Google Reviews.
Bonus tip: add a "space birthday" section to your newsletter, celebrating each anniversary that a member stays with your space. This can include an opportunity for the member to introduce themselves to others they might not have met, sell their service or platform, and inspire collaboration amongst members. Pair this with special accommodation or shout-outs at your next happy hour or town hall.
4. Automate, automate, automate.
This all sounds like a lot of work, right? If you've followed the advice in section two to build your renewal pipeline into your CRM, it's easier than it sounds.
Leverage the power of your selling platform to manage your renewal process from start to finish. As new contracts close, have it create new Deals or Opportunities with their start date, end date, term, and details. Use those start dates and terms to automate emails or tasks that prompt scheduling your check ins. Set up dedicated Slack or notification channels that keep everyone up to date on who needs a check-in, or whose contract might be up for renewal soon. Create workflows and automatic emails that go out with resources and onboarding information the moment someone signs their agreement.
Creating a process and system to manage your existing members and clients will pay off tenfold when it comes to renewal and retention, invest the time and resources now to save yourself the loss of potential revenue later!
And if this all seems like too much, or if your team wants help setting up and managing your renewal pipelines, the team at Archive is here to help! With over 10 years of coworking operator experience ourselves, we know how important and intensive running a space can be. We're here to help, and to create the best experience for you and your members that we can!
