Any business, be it a cycle repair shop or a departmental store these days uses a technology device to provide consumer satisfaction and also put in order their business workflow.
Recently, I have been to a cycle shop for a small job. After he finished, I realised I did not carry my wallet for some reason. I apologised to him and mentioned I would be back with the money. He smilingly asked me to do an online transfer. I had my phone and immediately transferred the paltry sum of Rs. 20 (~$0.15). The cycle shop owner is a one-man army and does all the work, but looking at automation for payments. Simple for him and easier on his clients.
Now, let us move to #Coworking. The #Coworking business model has been evolving over the last few years and it will continue to evolve for the next few years, and then suddenly it will pivot to a different model altogether.
What should be the solution?
Not complicated, but meaningful and value driven.
There is one challenge, once you automate the workflow, tweaking the flows as business models change becomes the hardest task.
How should we design it?
Keep in mind the user workflow. The user workflow remains the same anywhere in the world, however, how it is executed differs.
Let me take an example – When you walk into a car showroom, the sales person approaching you and inquiring what you are looking for and then showing you the product they have and how it fits into what you are looking for, providing a test drive, explaining all the features and towards the end, offers they have and loan process if any. A simple user workflow for making a sale.
Now, this is the same process for an entry-level car or a Rolls Royce or Lamborghini. What differs is the execution.
An entry-level car buyer can be someone who is purchasing a car for the first time, but the Rolls Royce buyer is definitely not a first time car buyer. An entry-level car buyer can be a novice, but a Rolls Royce buyer definitely knows the configuration of the car already and he is coming for purchase.
This is where the workflow changes. It might be the same sales software both showrooms use, but how they sell is different and there are definitely more KPI’s for Rolls Royce than an entry-level car showroom.
This is one of the key pain points we wanted to address when we were conceptualising the idea for automating the #Coworking business model.
Differentiator
In my humble opinion, the software might remain the same, but the options available for customising are tremendously high.
What should new ideas think of?
There are no new problems to solve, all we are focusing on is the fine tuning of the solutions
When we are conceptualising new ideas, we need to understand the business model in detail. Work with existing business to understand how they do things. If possible even go to outside markets to understand how things are done there. With this understanding, identify the key aspects which your solution would address. I personally recommend to pick all common workflow’s and pick two or three next level workflows.
We worked with spaces with 40 seats to thousands of seats. The workflows are same, but the pain points are different.
Value
After you identify the problem you wish to solve, find the client’s value for using your solution. This value is highly recommended to be monitory value, else time value. Because these are the only two things which matter in the end.
The other important value can be helping the business owner get to the next level in their business, providing this option has a tremendous value too.
Automating #Coworking space
There is no set rule to follow while automating your space, pick the technology which matches to your need and if you have not envisioned it yet, helps you envision your long term plan for building your business.
Yes. I do agree that jazz and beautification is important, but what is more important is the functionality and measuring the time and money. If these two key ingredients are addressed, you could start with it.
How we do it?
I will not be able to elaborate in detail in this post as to what the exact value we provide (but talk to us and we can show you), but one thing I can mention here is focus on the Experience. This is our Unique Value Preposition along with with many other’s.