June 10, 2020
Our earlier post identified the opportunity to offer ad-hoc work space. Here we take you through the steps to get there.
What people want your space for NOW
Organisations have been pleasantly surprised at the success of remote working. But they still want to offer people work space as an alternative to being at home, and get people together to foster collaboration and social networks.
Making the office safe can be disruptive and impractical, and in any case teams are now stationed in their communities, not in cities.
Some people have served notice on their offices to cope with the economic hit of the crisis. They simply don't have a space anymore.
But they want space. To work from. To collaborate in. In amongst communities with good access and parking. Without commitment.
What to do about it
1. Review your spaces in line with regulation
What can you offer at your venue?
Look at the space you have on site
Work out the capacities you can offer with 2m social distancing in place
Work out how to create safe routes in and out of the building
Look at signage required and access to hygiene stations
2. Get setup
Prepare for service
Add suitable desk* configuration based on social distancing rules and access to power
Look at broadband performance and upgrade where necessary
Plan for how refreshments can be provided without self-service - order system and delivery to the room. Work with a local supplier if this isn't available on site
Look at a suitable pricing model - £5 per person per day, £8 with tea / coffee, bulk booking discounts
Get your Covid safe processes and signage up
*Use existing resources where possible to create pop-up tables and chairs for people to work from.
3. Engage your community
Raise awareness for what you are doing
Go through your database of previous event and meeting bookings
Introduce the service by email and offer a booking incentive
Find a way to reach out to your local community - parish and local councils have Facebook pages you can post to to promote what you are doing
Use the community angle to soften the sales message - 'helping provide services locally that will have a knock on effect for weekday trade for other service businesses'
4. Broaden your marketing reach
Push what you are offering on large space aggregator sites more focused on business than events. They all have free listings (with commission on bookings):
Meetings Booker- focus on meetings market
Coworker- focused on people looking for coworking communities
Dispace- focused on community pop-up spaces
Andco- focused on freelancers looking for social collaboration
5. Manage your bookings
Bookings will be higher volume, lower value and more vanilla. Having a system to automate online booking and payment, customer comms, check-in and ordering food and drink will keep overheads low and align well with social distancing rules.
***Plug coming****
But it works
Check out the services we can provide with Switch
Advertise services through your website
Online bookings
Add food and drink packages - your own or local suppliers
Payment and cancellation services
Automated customer comms
Online arrival confirmations
Covid safe workflows
If you'd like to chat, contact us at hello@dispace.co or book a zoom call here!