190. Onboarding New Members with Intention for Retention

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190. Onboarding New Members with Intention for Retention

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything co-working podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert, Jamie Russo, Welcome to the everything coworking podcast. This is your host, Jamie Russo, and this is episode number 190. So busy week. Let's dive in first. I just want to touch base on a couple of industry news items.

00:00:42 I have been on lots of zoom calls this week, talking about what's happening in the industry, and you will not hear this until next week. So it'll be old news by then, but lots of interest in the industrious announcement that Seabury has invested $200 million in industrious will take over the management of CBRS brand HANA. So I think overall, certainly it raises some questions.

00:01:09 Why how's that going to work? What's the partnership going to look like a lot of questions about the integration of, of that business and what role industrious will play with CVRE. But I think my overall take is it's positive for the industry. I love that it's going to balance out some of the other less positive news that's coming out of some of the other major industry players.

00:01:32 So I think it also indicates that CVRE may have learned that running a hospitality service business, isn't a competency that's easy to create or scale. And I think it's positive for those of us that are doing that work that others realize it really truly is a sort of a competitive advantage to have that competency and it takes time and the right people to build. So I think that's super positive for the industry overall.

00:01:59 And I think that it's also good for smaller operators that are looking to do management agreements because landlords are, you know, reading the news. They're going to see this investment as a positive note, and they're going to, you know, I think they're going to realize too, that like partnering with folks that already have these competencies. We talked about the customer acquisition competency in the last episode,

00:02:22 if you missed that, actually two episodes ago, one 88, go back and listen to that because I think that's really important perspective for what's happening in the industry right now. I also wanted to bring up something. This has come up in the Facebook group, it came up on a call. I was on today that there are brands that have filed for bankruptcy that are still moving in groove in personal bankruptcy.

00:02:44 It's very traumatic, right? You cannot file for bankruptcy and then go buy a car business. Bankruptcy is a little bit different and I am not an expert. So I'm not going to talk about this a lot, but I thought that it was, or in detail, I should say, but I thought was an important note that folks keep making, which is that sometimes businesses need to restructure,

00:03:04 but they can keep operating. So it's a way for them to kind of manage challenges that they're having, but they can still be a going concern and they've, you know, made a plan to pay back what they owe and, and deal with debt, but they will continue to operate. So Regis serendipity labs are examples, you know, they filed for bankruptcy,

00:03:24 but they will continue to grow. Regis just made an investment. IWG I should say the parent company, which is a public company, just made an investment in the wing, which I thought was super interesting. We could do a whole episode on, on that. So we won't, but I just wanted to kind of acknowledge some of the things happening in the industry right now.

00:03:41 I think there's a lot in flux, a lot of movement, which is positive, but still an incredible amount of struggle at the local level. So I feel for you, and I also want to send out thoughts to our friends in Houston and Dallas and elsewhere in the U S that have had really challenging natural disasters. We'll call it recently. And our thoughts go out to any of you that have been without power and water,

00:04:08 and that have had damages to your homes and businesses. So on a lighter note, I feel like it's my role to be, you know, the, the rainbow here, I'm very, very realistic, but I like to see the bright side of things quick, 20, 21 personal goal update for any of my designed to thrive workshop participants from quarter four,

00:04:33 we went through business planning and goal setting, and also talked about what's important to us in our personal lives, which has become maybe a bit more of a focus after living through 2020 being locked up in our homes. And so one of mine was to have more fun. And I thought that was going to play out in the form of hip hop, hip hop class,

00:04:55 hip hop, dancing class, which I haven't done yet. And we're almost through February. So I was inspired by something else fun, which is dance, jump roping. I don't even know what to call it. If any of you do it, I want to hear about it. So I'd jump rope quite a bit for CrossFit. I do double unders I'm quite good at double unders,

00:05:16 I will say, but I wouldn't call them fun in any sense of the word. And so I S I think I saw it on Instagram. Somebody was, Oh, you know what I follow? Yes. I follow this woman in Chicago who I've always just loved and kind of looked at her as a role model. She's a dietician, but she jumped rope.

00:05:33 So she posts these like choreographed, like dance, jump, rope videos. And I got super excited. So I just ordered one of those like beaded jump rope for my height. And I got to pick the colors. I made a terrible choice on the color combo. It's ridiculous, but that's okay. It's all in the sense of fun. So I will keep you posted on that.

00:05:51 But if any of you do that, I want to hear from you. So send me a note. Okay. So today's episode, we are going to talk about member onboarding. So the title of this episode is member is onboarding new members with intention, for retention and it rhymes. So I love it. Leads are starting to pick up for many parts of the world.

00:06:12 Many co-working space owners experienced a lot of turnover in 2020. So many of the members coming into your spaces now are brand new to your brand, and they might be brand new to coworking, which is important to remember. So our onboarding processes might be a little bit rusty, or they just might be a little informal and inconsistent, and they may have gotten that way partly because of 2020,

00:06:38 or they may have always been that way. And maybe they didn't matter as much when we had new members kind of trickling in, but likely we'll get to a point where we'll start to see pretty consistent folks being added to our memberships. And we want to be intentional about that process. We also might have new team members that haven't done a lot of onboarding.

00:06:59 So we want to make sure that we have those processes in place, that they are intentional. I'm going to keep using that word and documented. So make sure you're training your team on your onboarding processes and helping them to understand why they're so important so that they put their heart and soul into onboarding new members. So this episode is to kind of get you back into the frame of mind of thinking about making a really amazing first impression.

00:07:26 Do you want to share a couple of things with you before I dive in? So I talked about this on the last episode, if you are a landlord or a coworking space operator, looking to enter into a creative partnership structure, to put a coworking space in a building that has the right upside for both parties, while being confident that you've covered all the,

00:07:49 who does, what and what ifs before you commit, then you're probably thinking about becoming more of an expert on the co-working management agreement, which is probably kind of the most common term for a creative partnership. It doesn't have to be a management agreement and almost no two agreements are the same. So we're calling it a creative partnership. So I've partnered with Michael Abrams who has deep real estate experience and extensive experience with management agreements in the hotel industry and the retail industry and the coworking industry.

00:08:25 So we're developing a course that covers structuring and negotiating a management or agreement, or another type of creative partnership, literally from a to Z. So if you are a co-working space operator looking to expand through a creative deal structure, I got some emails from folks. We have several people already registered. So we're thrilled about that. Some are already doing management agreements.

00:08:49 This is going to be a great networking and learning opportunity. And I had folks, you know, respond and say, they have some opportunities in the building they're in, or they've been thinking about this to expand. This is exactly. This is for you to help you understand these agreements from both a strategic perspective and a tactical perspective. So you can get all the details at www dot everything,

00:09:11 coworking.com forward slash management agreements. We're launching our first beta cohort the week of March 15th. So we'll close registration on March 12th, and we will limit seats for the March session. So if you're interested, you can go to everything. coworking.com forward slash management agreements. The link will be also in the show notes, which you can find on the homepage of the everything coworking.com

00:09:35 website. If that's easier. Also, we're busy over here. We launched another new program for those of you that are working on starting a coworking space, or you're in your first few years of running a space and have some core business competencies that you want to improve, like onboarding processes, which we're going to talk about today. For example, our new mentorship program provides one-on-one coaching,

00:09:57 but also access to tools, templates, and detailed resources that will help you launch your business and then develop competencies around things like member acquisition, team management, operational excellence, community building, and more, it kind of wraps in all the things they've been doing for the last few years in an new format. So I'm really excited about that. To learn more about that.

00:10:20 Again, it's for folks who are, there's a version for those that are just launching a co-working space, and then there's a growth version for folks that are already in a space, but looking to kind of get all their systems in place, maybe you're looking to expand. Maybe you're looking to hit profitability in 2021, get your self, you know, get all the things in place to be able to do a management agreement.

00:10:43 So if those things are on your list, you can learn more by scheduling a free call with me and we'll go, we'll take an hour. So we'll answer questions that are on your mind, and we'll talk about the program and see if it's a fit, everything coworking.com forward slash mentor. Okay. So again, we're talking about onboarding your new co-working space members with intention,

00:11:05 for retention. So some of these concepts will be pretty basic, but my goal is to get you thinking about what your onboarding process looks like, and if it is intentional and documented and kind of checks these boxes. So to get you back in the frame of mind of welcoming in new folks, in a really thoughtful way to help them get the most out of the space and feel like they made a great decision and stay.

00:11:29 We know that first impressions matter a lot, and that a great onboarding experience can be one of your best retention strategies. It's a lot easier to keep our good members than to attract new ones, right? We talked about customer acquisition and all the systems and processes that you have to have in place for that to work. But once they're in do your thing and get them set up for success,

00:11:56 but be intentional about it. Cause we don't want all that work of getting them signed up to be for nothing and have them leave in three months. I don't think we can underestimate the importance of an intentional onboarding process for co-working space members right now. And there are a few factors for that. One is that we're going to have a lot of folks coming into our spaces that have never used a co-working space before.

00:12:19 So we cannot forget that they don't understand how it works, how to be successful with the etiquette is, and when someone feels uncomfortable and they're worried if they're doing something right, they, they get tempted to not come back because it's easy to be at home, right? There can be distractions and reasons for people to leave, but at least they know how to handle those things.

00:12:41 And when they're uncomfortable in a new environment and not sure how to use it, or if they're doing it right, then they won't come back. And if they don't come back, it doesn't develop into a habit and they won't use their membership. And they'll cancel. So we're going to talk about why your onboarding process is critical to retention four key elements that your onboarding process should include.

00:13:04 So I delivered an extended version of this topic to our community manager, university members. So if you are a member or you're an owner and you're a member, your community manager is a member, then make sure they go through this training because it's much more extensive than what we have here. And they got also got some really great resources along with the live training so that it's also recorded in their members area,

00:13:32 but they also received a member onboarding email sequence with sample subject lines and texts for each of the seven emails in the series. So we don't talk about kind of the, how to do the onboarding in here, but we have a whole training module on onboarding new members, checklists, we have an agenda for your in-person onboarding meeting. And then we have this kind of 300 level training on onboarding new members with intention.

00:14:00 And if you're curious about the community manager university program, you can find a link to that in the show notes as well and try it out. So let's dive into the four elements that you should consider in your onboarding process. So first confirm they made the right decision by joining. So you want to reinforce their decision to join investing in a co-working membership for some as a total.

00:14:25 No-brainer right. They're coming out of situation. That is a longer term. Maybe it's less expensive, but signing commercial lease is a really big deal. So if you've helped someone avoid that, it's a no brainer for them, right? But for some folks they're new to it, they're new to business. So it's an investment for them. And they're really thinking about whether they're going to get the ROI or not.

00:14:47 So you want to confirm for them right away, you made a great decision in this. This is gonna really impact your life. And we're going to make you happy here because they may not have anybody else in their life. That's telling them that, right? They, maybe they have a spouse. It's like you're doing a, what you're spending hundreds of dollars a month on what?

00:15:04 And they may not understand what the experience of a coworking spaces. And so you want to be the one that confirms for them. You just made a great decision and you're going to this, we're going to meet your expectations. And this can be really simple. It can just be a welcome email that simply congratulate them on their decision. Before you get into wifi,

00:15:25 passcodes and parking and all the logistical stuff, tell them they made a good choice. And that may sound weird, but like, we all want to feel like we make good choices, right. Especially when it's a bigger decision. And again, they may not have somebody else that's telling them that. So you do that for them. And if you want to go a step further,

00:15:46 I love welcome videos. I do this for my coworking startup school members, because I feel like they've just, you know, made a big investment and trusting me to help them through their process. And I want them to know right away that they made a good decision and that I'm here for them. So I want to make that personal connection. So I send a video and of course it was kind of awkward at the beginning.

00:16:07 And then I just got really used to it and much more casual about it because I think people really love that you make the effort. And so they don't judge all the things that you think they're judging. However, this can be a major comfort level, her hurdle for your community managers to get over. So give them a little space. If they're the ones that you're asking,

00:16:26 you know, to make the video, it might take them a while to warm up to that. But there's this awesome app called loom. I think it's a loom.com. It's a Google Chrome extension. And if you work with me, you will get a loom video at least once. So I use it all the time because it's so much faster than sending long emails.

00:16:47 And it also just like really personalizes the message. So go to loom.com, turn on your video and congratulate the member, tell them what to expect for their onboarding process. So they don't feel like they're just kind of floating on their own. If it takes you a couple of days after they've signed up to get them into the process, they might kind of be wondering like,

00:17:08 well, am I do I just figure this out on my own? And they, you know, what, if they need to just tell them you're going to walk them through it and whatever that looks like for you, but set the expectation. And then also mentioned something, you know, they're going to really enjoy about the space, or if you took some notes on your tour about something that's important to them or college they went to or what they do for work or what they're interested in mentioned another member that they should connect with and tell them that you'll share more in your onboarding meeting.

00:17:38 And I love it. If you can do an in-person onboarding meeting, we know it can be hard to kind of coerce members to make time for that. But if you can give them a reason to do this onboarding meeting in person, it can go a long way because we know new members do not read all our stuff. They don't read all our emails that are read our whole,

00:17:58 you know, onboarding packet. They do what they need to do. They get to work and then they'll come find us and bug our community managers when they need the details. But if we can set a tone in an onboarding meeting and get to know them, that can go a long way. So we're going to talk about that in a little bit.

00:18:13 So, but I love if you can, again, just, this is, these are all things. These three things help them to say, Oh, I made a good choice. Someone's telling you, I made a good choice. They're telling me what to expect next. So that makes me feel comfortable. And then they're mentioning something that I'm going to really enjoy about the space,

00:18:29 where someone I should connect with. So I'm looking forward to when I come in and that's super important to get them to come in and have a good experience. So the second element of a successful onboarding program is super simple, but get them what they need to use the space. And that seems basic. But again, I think sometimes, you know,

00:18:48 we get a little like lax and we just let them come in and say, Hey, here's the wifi password, you know, have at it. And we're a little bit informal. And I think that we're missing out on a major opportunity to make a connection and to help them see us as an organization, that's providing hospitality in a service, right.

00:19:08 So kind of make a bigger deal. Don't just throw them a little card with a wifi on it and tell them to, you know, grab a seat unless that's your vibe. If that's your vibe, totally go for it. That's totally fine. I do think least if that's your vibe, but you know, say community is super important to your culture.

00:19:27 It's awesome to sit down with folks and get to know them and figure out how they'll integrate into your community. So super simple, get them what they need to use to use the space. So we won't spend a lot of time on this because it's pretty obvious, but test to see what, what works for you. Does your onboarding packet get printed?

00:19:45 Does anybody read it? Is it better to send it digitally because nobody saves the paper. Do you drip the information or do you hand it all over at once? There is a lot of onboarding. There are a lot of onboarding steps when you onboard a new member, right? They have a lot of technology. They need access to. Sometimes those are different logins.

00:20:05 Maybe you have a Slack group, you know, all the things. And so figure out what works best for you and your members dump it all on them at once. Or, you know, drip it out over a week or two in an email, see what works best, but make sure they know how to access the space. Reserve, meeting rooms,

00:20:22 use phone rooms, you know, set the expectation about how they can connect with other members. Are you, do you host happy hours or are you going to have a lunch and learn soon? Do you introduce do members, should they stick their hand out and maybe not right now during COVID, but you know, in spirit, how do they get to know new members or maybe especially during COVID?

00:20:43 Is there something unique that you're doing those zoom happy hour or whatever it is it's happening virtual to help integrate new members during this kind of unusual time, make sure they know where to park, where to get lunch. And these, again, these things sound really simple, but I think when we know these things and all of our existing members know these things,

00:21:02 we forget that new people need to know these things and that if they don't know them, they'll feel uncomfortable and nobody likes to feel uncomfortable. And so they won't come as often or they won't come at all and we want that to become a habit for them. So if they get stuck on the basics, you'll never have a chance to dazzle them with your hospitality and community.

00:21:21 So make sure they know the basics. And again, if you can talk them into an in-person meeting, this can go a long way to actually getting them to process these things. Because when you dump the dump it on an email, or you're walking around the space to give them an orientation viewer, and you're telling them 12 things, and they're not taking notes that stuff's probably not going to stick very well.

00:21:45 And they're kind of come back and ask you all the questions which they might do anyway, but that in-person meeting to get them to really listen and take notes can be helpful. Okay. So onboarding element, number three, set expectations around culture and community norms. It may be that you are so thrilled to have members back and having new members joined that you don't want to rock the boat by doing your den mom act.

00:22:10 If you know what I mean, and reminding them that we don't leave dishes in the sink. And we certainly don't leave writing on the whiteboards in the meeting rooms. Thank you very much. I've heard community managers in my community manager university group and in our Facebook group, talk about challenges with member behavior. And I feel I really empathize for that. I think one woman called it babysitting adults that pains me.

00:22:37 We don't want community managers to feel like that. And we don't want them to spend their time and energy on managing bad behavior. And sometimes bad behavior is just specific members that don't get it and they're not going to change. And maybe the member needs to go, right? But sometimes we can get in front of this by setting the tone right at the beginning,

00:22:59 and being really explicit about how you use the space and what's expected. And we can do that in our onboarding process. So people that haven't used coworking spaces before may actually not be that sensitive to things like wearing headphones while they're on their conference calls. This happened to me recently in a coworking space. And like, it made me crazy. But I think,

00:23:21 you know, if you don't make that an explicit thing, sometimes people don't think about those things on their own. So you're doing them a favor by mentioning these things. You're not picking on them. You're not, you know, giving them a bunch of rules. It's a community. And there's a certain etiquette that you have to use in a shared workspace.

00:23:39 We don't want them leaving teabags and mugs. That's my personal pet peeve. Maybe in COVID times. This is okay. But tell me if it makes you crazy when somebody walks in and somehow it takes up three to four seats at a table when they should only take up one, they put their bag in one and their lunch over there. And they like do this massive spread,

00:24:00 which always make me crazy. And I know we're distancing more during COVID, but they need to understand these little things. This used to happen to us all the time. People would leave items overnight when they don't have a dedicated desk membership like chair backs and screens and all those things we needed to tell them upfront, or the first time they do it.

00:24:18 That that is not how we roll in a very cool way that doesn't put them on the defensive, but we owe it to new members and existing members to make sure that we spell these things out because they don't know. Right. We know, but they don't know. And I always like to put a little humor into it. So maybe have a really good story about the crazy guy who did the crazy thing that made you make all these rules and tell people upfront.

00:24:43 You know, we had a guy who joined and walked around the space barefoot. That is not how we rolled. So that was super awkward and weird for existing members. And one of those things we never thought to set expectations on. So you want, you know, use humor, use an example of somebody who did something crazy. So that it's your excuse,

00:25:04 you know, to kind of go through this with new members, if you think it makes them feel awkward. Okay. So the fourth element to your successful onboarding experience is help them have a positive experience in their first week. So there's research that shows that members are more likely to stay. This was not co-working specific research. So don't email me for the study,

00:25:26 but I'm applying it to co-working. If they have a positive experience within the first seven days. Now we don't get a lot of people who leave within the first week, right? But again, we want people to say, I made a good decision and this is the right place for me. And you need to give them evidence of that. Don't just wait for that to happen on its own because it may not in a week,

00:25:43 we need to help that along. And that's part of the reason we have a community manager, right? Not just for the admin staff, but to do these, take these steps and help people feel like they made a great decision. So you want your members to confirm that the logistics work for them and help them get more out of the space than they expected.

00:26:02 Like I said, at the beginning, joining a coworking space for some is a no brainer, right? But for others, it's an investment that they've never made before. So find ways to reinforce that decision during the first week and of course beyond. So the need for this aspect in particular, I think will vary depending on the individual situation of a member.

00:26:23 And that's why I love to try to require that in-person onboarding meeting, by the way, a favorite trick of some of my community manager university members is to only give out door access. After an in-person meeting, you know, you need a fob or you need QC access. You have to show up to this meeting to get it or Bravo or whatever you're using.

00:26:40 It don't mean to play favorites with Casey, because that way you can go through the most important elements of a coworking orientation with your member in person. Again, I know it's hard to get people to take time to do that, but it is so beneficial for both of you, because the best way to get a NOAA, to get to know the members,

00:26:57 to sit down and go through your list of onboarding questions and more deeply understand why they joined and what they're looking for, because otherwise you're making assumptions and you're guessing, and oftentimes we're wrong when we do those things, right? So I thought through three different member profiles and how you might take care of their onboarding needs just as examples. And again, this is may feel like,

00:27:20 of course, but the idea of this episode is just to get you thinking back into the mode of paying attention, to onboarding and getting all your systems documented and getting your process and how you want to treat people during onboarding in place. So member profile, number one, you just signed on a new team that used to work at a coworking space nearby that recently closed.

00:27:42 And this is happening all over the place. So this may be something new that you haven't encountered before. They know how coworking spaces work. Cause they worked in one. And right now they're super busy with client work and they are desperate to get transitioned, to do a new professional environments. They can stay focused on serving their clients. You're not going to have to work hard to convince them how amazing it is to be in your coworking space.

00:28:07 Not at home. They already know that. So you don't have to sort of convince them. They made a great decision. What you might want to spend time on is the culture and norms piece. So teams can be a little overbearing. And I know many of you are having trouble getting teams, but I do think that's going to come back after the vaccines,

00:28:30 particularly in the U S because our teams are the ones that are moving out of expensive longterm, real estate that they had before and are going to love the option of doing co-working space. So they're going to come be prepared. That can be challenging. They bring a lot of revenue at once, but they often feel more comfortable doing the things we do.

00:28:50 We don't want them to do. I think it's like this sort of herd. There's more of us than you sort of mentality. So they might feel more comfortable leaving dishes in the sink or overstaying their welcome and meeting rooms or being allowed in the open space. And they may have picked up some of those bad habits from their last coworking space. You don't know,

00:29:08 but you'll want to make sure that you spend a little extra time with them in the onboarding process, setting expectations. Actually, one of my flight group members mentioned he has his team. He's super happy to have the team, but one of them walks through the space on a cell phone all the time talking, which is not cool, right? We all know that's not cool,

00:29:25 but somehow he's not picking up what we're putting down. So go through these, you know, etiquette items and be really explicit about them. And then you have to not feel bad about approaching them and letting them know, Hey, that doesn't work here. You know, it's not, you it's us, but you can't walk through the space with your cell phone.

00:29:43 At the same time, you do want to confirm that your space is right for them. And maybe that's simply by don't bug them, you know, in the first week to attend a community lunch and learn because they're working on client deadlines, right? So this is why, if you know what they're up to, you can serve them better. They probably just want you to keep the coffee hot,

00:30:03 be extra hospitable to their clients, keep the printer full of paper. The meetings room stocked with whiteboard markers. And this might sound like minor and operational, but it's probably what they need to feel like. They don't have to worry about the details. And it's easy for us to lose focus on those details when we're bringing in new members and focusing on other things,

00:30:26 member profile, number two, another new member type might be the new member that has a corporate job, but is now working from home. And we've talked about this person and how to attract them several episodes ago, kind of how to bring in the, the work from home crowd. And they may just need to escape the distractions of home to get some focus,

00:30:46 work done, or do an important zoom call. And they know they're not going to be interrupted. Maybe this member has never tried coworking. And maybe a friend of hers told her about it. And she was like, okay, you know, I'll go see what that's about. So she might feel unsure about how it all works, what the etiquette is.

00:31:03 Should she even talk to other members? She probably has lots of work friends already, you know, but maybe she does like the idea of meeting other people that live in her community that she doesn't work with. And she probably likes having a reason to put on an outfit and pack her lunch. That is how I feel when I go to a coworking space.

00:31:21 So you'll need to do a bit more handholding with her. Then our team profile, who already knows how to use a coworking space and just get out of my way because I'm working with clients, right? So you'll want to make her feel comfortable, welcomed and let her know she's like doing it right. You know that there's no wrong ways. You should make yourself comfortable.

00:31:40 Also compliment her on her outfit. No one at home notices what she's wearing. And we all like to feel noticed. So that may be a huge win right there. And that's super easy, but make sure to spend some time getting to know this profile, personally, understand what they're trying to get out of the space or help them figure out what they're trying to get out of the space,

00:32:02 because maybe they don't know yet, but you want them to keep coming back and figuring out how to use the space. Do they need heads down time? Are they looking for a really great zoom room? If it's a zoom, you know, she's like, Oh my God, I'm on zoom all the time. We'll tell her about the great meeting rooms that you have set up with the great zoom backgrounds and the ring lights that are already connected and how to book a room when she needs it.

00:32:23 So make that super easy, make her feel like, Oh my gosh, that's better than being at home. Make sure she has the adapter she needs. You use your technology, like go the extra mile. If you can make sure to cover the little things with her, like the coffee's local and free. And let her know if you've done some things for our enterprise members to improve security on your network mentioned those things.

00:32:48 So she's not worried about that. And then try to introduce her to some other folks in the space that maybe are sort of similar to her. Maybe they're a working mom, help reinforce it there. Others like her using the space and that she belongs there because we know this is not the case, but lots of people who don't have experience with coworking may believe that coworking spaces are full of young startups and that she's not really a fit,

00:33:14 right? So make sure she realizes, Oh, there are people like me here too. Almost there are not, but there probably are. And then profile number three might be the solo preneur who is at home and really craves community, or maybe in maybe they're newer to business or maybe their business relies on referrals and networking. And they want to see if your coworking environment is a good place for them to authentically grow relationships.

00:33:39 This is probably one of the common member profiles we think of when we think of coworking spaces and these can be really great folks cause they get engaged in the community and they get a lot out of being in a community, but they can be a lot of work and they can be the ones who are most judging the ROI. It's an investment for them.

00:34:00 They don't need to be there. And they're trying to get stuff out of the space that, you know, you might need to help along. They're probably not in an office they're in the open space so they could probably could work at home. Right? So again, they're, they're really evaluating the ROI. And these are probably the folks that spend the most time chatting with the community manager and hanging out in the lounge space,

00:34:23 you know, near the coffee, but they're the first ones to happy hour and they'll probably offer to teach your next lunch and learn. So when you onboard this member, spend more time going through your member events, calendar, that where to find the member directory, how the Slack group works, make sure they get introduced to the crew that likes to go to lunch on Fridays.

00:34:43 You know, that's probably more of what this person is looking for. Maybe they don't care about the zoom background, you know, so think about these profiles and what you can focus on when you're getting them onboarded. So the key I think is really to pay attention to what new members want out of your space and look for small ways to reinforce those things to your new members early on in their membership,

00:35:05 ideally in the first week to help them see that they will get what they want out of your space and out of your team and out of your community. Okay. So just a quick recap, your onboarding process is critical, especially if there are, if you have competition in the area, they, you probably have a 30 day termination clause unless they're in an office.

00:35:25 So you want to make sure they have a great experience and that they stay. And here are the key elements that we just talked through, confirmed that they made the right decision by joining. So that video that congratulates them, get them what they need to use this space and make sure you're super explicit about, you know, how to use conference rooms,

00:35:43 where to park all the things don't assume that, you know, they'll know or figure it out, set expectations around culture and community norms so that we don't run into problems later on and help them have a positive experience within their first week by focusing on what type of user they are and what might be important to them. So hopefully this kind of dusted off the importance of member onboarding,

00:36:08 take a look at your processes and you know, just kind of the focus you put on getting members onboarded. Sometimes it's hard to steer ourselves away from all the like technical adminy aspects of getting someone onboarded. Cause that's a lot, right? So we forget about all the other things that go along with the onboarding process. Hope you all are having a great week.

00:36:30 I have some interviews scheduled coming up. So I look forward to being in your ears next week. Talk to you soon.

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Jamie RussoComment