How to Improve Member Engagement with Coworking Software

TL;DR

• Member engagement fuels retention and revenue and can be tracked through check-ins, purchases, messages, and event attendance.
• Automations centralize communication, personalize touchpoints, and can save up to 53 percent of admin time for operators.
• Simple trigger and action workflows welcome newcomers, send reminders, reengage inactive members, promote events, and collect feedback at scale.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to get more people into our coworking spaces. We create strategies for more community members, better space utilization, and higher occupancy rates.

But if your members aren’t engaged and seeing maximum value from their membership plans, they’re not going to stay for very long. In time, your business will suffer.

After close to a decade in the coworking industry and working with 1,000+ clients, we’ve learned that the secret to increasing member engagement without significantly increasing effort lies in one thing: automation.

In this article, we’ll share how to improve member engagement and get your members more involved in your community with the magic of coworking software.

What is member engagement?

Member engagement is the level of involvement, interaction, and participation of your members within your coworking community. It is often an indicator of the health of the community and can be a leading indicator of the viability of your business.

Why does member engagement matter in coworking spaces?

Coworking member engagement is highly correlated with member retention and overall revenue. If your members are happily engaging with your offers and services, then they are more likely to remain a part of your community for years to come.

Spaces like Salon22 in New Orleans have built their brand around this idea, using events, their coworking app Community Feed, and networking opportunities to bring their community together in a meaningful way, knowing that this in turn will drive more revenue for their business.

How can I measure member engagement in my coworking space?

To measure member engagement, you could look at key performance indicators (KPIs) like:

• Number of check-ins
• Number of purchases (plans, passes, etc.)
• Messages sent
• Events attended

Messages sent is a big one that we see our clients use as a metric for member engagement. The idea is the more messages that are being sent between members, the more likely they are to be building relationships.

What are the biggest member engagement challenges coworking space face today?

In a recent Optix webinar on building community, Tessa McLoughlin from KWENCH and Chris Pereira from Suite Genius shared what their biggest member engagement challenges were. 

Event attendance and participation

Events are a popular (and effective) tactic for community builders, but driving consistent attendance isn’t always easy. People need a clear reason to take time away from their work, and figuring out what events people actually want to attend can be a process.

Maintaining personalization at scale

Creating a personalized experience is a great way to make people feel like they belong in your coworking space. However, when you have hundreds of members and only one or two community managers, providing this level of personalization can be a challenge.

Building relationships between members

Connecting members with one another is one of the things that bring community builders the most joy. Building these authentic relationships is one of the greatest challenges for operators, especially when it feels like it isn’t happening naturally.

Communicating with members effectively

Consistent communication with members is an easy way to keep them engaged, whether its an email newsletter or a regularly scheduled check-in. Making this happen in a multi-location coworking space, franchise, or an unmanned coworking operation isn’t always easy.

How can I use coworking software to improve member engagement? 

Keeping members engaged is an active pursuit. It involves gathering feedback, iterating on your offering, and keeping your brand top of mind for members in as many ways as possible. Coworking software can help improve member engagement by:

• Centralizing communication in one branded app
• Connecting members with 1:1 messaging
• Sharing announcements via a shared community channel
• Automating personal touchpoints
• Promoting events

All of these components of coworking software help to drive member engagement. But what if we told you there was something else that could help build your community without any additional effort?

How to automate member engagement with coworking software

If you’re manually sending messages, writing email follow-ups, and creating reminders for yourself to check in with new memebrs, then keep reading to find out how to slash your workflow time in half with Optix Automations.

Step 1: Identify repetitive tasks that you’re carrying out each day

According to our Coworking Automation Report, coworking and flex space operators are spending 53% of their day completing manual tasks each day. 

That’s over half their day spent performing manual tasks that could be automated. To find out which member engagement tasks your team completes on a regular basis, consider:

• Surveying your team: ask your team members which member engagement tasks they’re doing each day. Hint: pay attention to member onboarding processes and recurring member communications
• Referencing process docs and SOPs: check out your standard operating procedures and write your engagement processes down. Putting everything down on paper will help you better understand what opportunities exist for automation

Common opportunities for automation include project management like creating tasks, email marketing like sending emails or messages to members, and online community building activities like welcoming new members. 

Step 2: Look at your tasks and divide each one into triggers and actions

Once you identify the member engagement tasks that can be automated, think about what exactly you want to happen after something takes place. In Optix, we call these triggers and actions.

A trigger is an event that triggers an automation. An example could be a new user is added, a new template is created, or a certain date has passed. When a trigger occurs, the automation begins.

An action is the event that occurs after the trigger. It is what you want the automation to ultimately do. Common actions include send an email, send a message, or create a task.

Think about all of your tasks and see if you can organize them by triggers and actions. Here’s what that may look like:

Both Adam Hyman, Founder at KoWorks, and Deanna Hoy, Community Manager at Q Space, started their automation journey by mapping out all of the manual tasks in their space and then dividing it up into a simple list of triggers and actions.

Step 3: Look for inspiration around you

Not sure where to begin on your automation journey? Not to worry. You can find preset automation templates directly in Optix.

These templates were designed in collaboration with real Optix customers and reflect exactly how coworking and flex space operators are using Automations to run their business.

Keep an eye out for automations like:

• Welcome and onboard new users
• Check-in with new members on plans
• Support your members’ first booking

For more automation inspiration, see Optix in action.

Step 4: Create your automation

The better you are at planning out what you want to happen, the easier the creation process will be! Right now Optix is the only coworking software that enables you to create automations directly in your dashboard, making it one of a kind.

Check out this video below to find out how to create your first automation in Optix.

What member engagement processes can I automate in my coworking space?

Looking for inspiration on member engagement activities you can automate in your coworking business? Check out the nine automations below that you can set up right now in Optix.

1. Send a follow-up email after someone books a tour

Trigger: New tour booking

Action: Send Email

A tour of your coworking space is a critical sales tool, and the opportunity to impress begins as soon as the booking is made. Schedule an email to go out after someone books a tour that provides them with everything they need to know for a successful tour experience.

2. Send a welcome message to new members

Trigger: New User is Added

Conditions: Account Status is Active AND Active Plan is Any

Action: Send Message

What could be more welcoming for new members than a personalized message from your community manager? Set up an automation so new full-time members receive a personalized message welcoming them to the community on their first day. 

3. Welcome new members on Community Feed

Trigger: New User is Added

Conditions: Account Status is Active

Action: Post on Community Feed

There’s a world of opportunity in creating a digital community for your coworking space. Begin to build your community beyond your physical walls by creating a public, personalized message on the Community Feed for any new member who joins.

4. Invite VIP members to an exclusive welcome event

Trigger: New User is Added

Conditions: Account Status is Active AND Account Type is VIP

Action: Send message

Do you have a special onboarding happy hour planned just for your most important members? Send them an automatic message inviting them to the event. You can include all of the details of the event in the message itself, and personalize it with their name.

5. Remind members of an upcoming booking

Trigger: New User is Added

Action: Post on Community Feed

Are your members always forgetting they booked that phone booth for the afternoon? Create a reminder to send members a message an hour before reminding them of their upcoming booking.

6. Cross sell a service when a specific resource is booked

Trigger: New Resource Booking

Condition: Resource Type is …, Delay 30 minutes

Action: Send Message

Cross selling and upselling are huge money making and engagement opportunities that you may be missing out on. Think about whether you could cross sell services when someone books a specific resource, and set these up as automated messages.

7. Reminder to book after 30 days of inactivity

Trigger: Date, Most Recent Booking, After 30 Days

Action: Send Message

Let’s say you have a drop-in member, and you’re trying to get them to commit to your community full time. They’ve stopped by your space a few times, but haven’t booked anything in 30 days. It’s time for a re-engagement campaign.

8. Send an exclusive offer to inactive members after 3 months

Trigger: Date, Most Recent Booking, After 90 Days

Action: Send Message

Re-engage inactive members with an offer they can’t refuse. Create an automatic email to be sent out 3 months after member inactivity with an exclusive offer. Personalize this offer based on the kind of plan they had purchased – those who purchased a larger plan can benefit from a bigger offer.

9. Collect member feedback after one, six, or 12 months

Trigger: New User is Added

Condition: Delay 30 days

Action: Send email

Gathering member feedback can help you understand if your offering is aligned with what your members want and need. Schedule a series of surveys to go out after one, six, and 12 months gathering feedback on their overall experience.

What are the best practices for using coworking software to foster member engagement?

1. Personalize the member experience

Use your software’s profiles, tags, and automation features to deliver personalized experiences. From tailored onboarding flows to targeted event invitations, personalization makes members feel seen and valued. A system that “remembers” preferences helps reduce friction and builds a sense of belonging.

Justin Moran, Owner at Workspace personalized consistent communication across 5 locations with the help of Optix Automatons. Read the Optix x Workspace story.

2. Encourage community interaction

Features like directories and event promotion can help make your software a central place for all member communication. Encourage members to share wins, ask for help, or promote their projects directly in your white-labeled app. This strengthens ties (one of the strongest drivers of long-term retention!)

3. Make engagement effortless

Reduce barriers to participation by ensuring everything members need is accessible in one place: booking desks, paying invoices, joining events, or messaging peers. Frictionless experiences keep members coming back because they know they can rely on the platform to simplify their workday.

4. Automate consistency

Automations ensure no touchpoint is missed, whether that’s nudging a lead who hasn’t booked a tour, celebrating a member’s anniversary, or reminding someone about unused allowances. Small, consistent touchpoints add up to big feelings of care and reliability.

5. Use data to adapt and improve

Leverage analytics from your coworking software to monitor trends in usage, event attendance, and churn. Use these insights to refine programming, identify at-risk members early, and continuously improve the member experience. 

6. Celebrate milestones and achievements

Your software can help track and acknowledge important moments, from welcoming new members to celebrating anniversaries or highlighting member accomplishments. Recognizing these milestones through the app or automated communications reinforces a culture of appreciation and belonging.

Get better engagement in less time

Gone are the days of manually following up with prospects and trying to re-engage inactive members. Now you can get better engagement from your community in less time with the help of automation.

Optix is the only coworking software available today that enables you to create custom automations for all of your manual tasks, including member engagement. 

With Automations, admin can get up to 53% of their time back, and reinvest that time into other high impact activities. Connect with a member of our team today to learn more about how you can transform your business with Optix coworking automation software.