After reading Alex's response and blog post, I realized there were a few points I elided that I should have surfaced, so let me do that now.
A few notes about Workantile: - Unlike IndyHall or NWC, we have no staff - no office admin, door greeter, etc. The four maintainers - the three co-owners (of which I am one) and the community manager - plus help from the membership, do all those things. - The maintainers are all full members of Workantile and pay the full monthly membership fees just like everyone else. - We operate with complete openness and transparency. Every month we publish the financial statements to the membership, so everyone know where money came from and where it goes. The weekly maintainers meetings are held in the middle of the space and all members are invited to attend and become part of the sausage-making. - Because we have no staff to open and close the space, and because 24/7 access to the space is a benefit of membership, all members get a key upon joining. This implies a trust relationship between all the members, and also means that some screening process needs to be in place before someone joins. As for our membership intake: - The trial week is not free - it costs $35. - We say a week, but we are really flexible on that. Some people can't come in every day for a week, so if it goes longer, it goes longer and that's fine. The purpose is for the potential member to get to know us and us to know them, not to put some time-limited barrier in place. - When someone starts a trial, we send out an email to the membership telling them who the new trial member is and encouraging the members to welcome the person. The maintainers will check in with the trial member periodically and see how they are doing, what they think, what is unclear, what they might need. By the end of the trial period, we have gotten to know them and understand the reasons for which they will have joined or not joined. - Our conversions, from someone coming in for a day, to deciding to do a trial membership, to joining, are running around 50%. On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 11:27 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]>wrote: > There are elements to what Workantile is doing that are similar to what > we do, but I think there's a couple of important differences that I wanted > to point out so as to not confuse people > > 1) We don't do free trials, especially not a week: > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/06/a-case-against-free-trial-coworking/ > > 2) Our 3 signature model is to get keys, only. The purpose of this model > isn't to keep anybody "out", as openness is one of our core values (see > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2011/08/coworking-core-values-3-of-5-openness/). > Instead, it's a reminder to the person who's getting the signatures that > they need to get to know people to make the most of Indy Hall and it's a > reminder to the 3 people giving the signatures that it's everyone's > responsibility to watch everyone's back. > > A bit more about how our onboarding *does* work: > > - The tour Adam gives focuses on showing people examples of how Indy Hall > works, a mix of functions and interactions. > - We get paperwork out of the way and focus on making sure people are > acclimated and can get right to work. > - Our drop-in day rate is the same price as our basic membership ($25), > this is very much on purpose. > - Our conversion rate to at least basic membership is 2:1. For every two > daily drop-ins, we gain a member. > - If you sign up for any level of membership, we waive the drop-in day > rate. This avoids "free trial" woes mentioned above as it's only free if > you actually sign up. > - Our "end of day" workflow is more hands on than directing them to a web > page. We ask them directly if they're interested in a membership. If no, we > ask why not. If yes, we take their contact information and start our > onboarding process which is all over email. It includes their first > invoice, a welcome letter, and an invitation to our discussion list. > > -Alex > > -- > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > On Friday, March 30, 2012 at 3:42 PM, Tom Brandt wrote: > > We (Workantile) use a process we shamelessly stole from IndyHall. > Potential members visit the space, take a tour where we explain what we are > (a community) and what are not (desk rental), and then have them do a week > trial. At the end of the week, assuming that they decide that Workantile is > for them, they need to turn in a card with signatures of three members whom > they have gotten to know. Once the community manager has talked the three > people and there are no red flags, they get an emailed invite directing > them to a website where they can sign up with a credit card. After that, > they get an rfid chip that opens the door. > > Since we have started this process, we have not had anyone join who does > not belong here. They are also committed to the community because they have > invested some time and effort into joining. Before we started doing this, > we had a few people join who really did not fit in, or did not have much of > a commitment to the community. > > On Fri, Mar 30, 2012 at 3:26 PM, Tony Bacigalupo <[email protected] (mailto: > [email protected])> wrote: > > Hey hey everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely Friday! > I'm curious what processes people have developed for funneling new members > from their first interaction to signup. To date, I've taken a largely > hands-off approach that looks something like this: > > 1. Encourage people to visit the space before signing up > 2. When they get here, give them a tour and get to know them as well as > possible. Before parting ways, direct them to a web page where they can pay > for a day pass or sign up for membership > 3. Let them decide for themselves how to proceed from there > > We haven't really sold people on membership, leaving the signup buttons > visible on our public site for anyone to find and use. I feared this would > get us into trouble with people signing up who haven't visited and don't > understand, but that's been minimal. What I'm more concerned about is the > flow of the process and whether there are better ways to guide people > through it. > > I don't want the onboarding of every new member to be too labor intensive > an effort, but I feel like it can always be done better. > > What practices have you all found to be good or bad when refining this > process? > > Cheers, > Tony > --- > New Work City > Site (http://nwc.co/) | Twitter (http://twitter.com/nwc) | Newsletter ( > http://nwc.co/newsletter) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] (mailto: > [email protected]). > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] (mailto: > coworking%[email protected]). > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > > > -- > twb > member, Workantile (http://workantile.com/) > @twbrandt > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] (mailto: > [email protected]). > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] (mailto: > [email protected]). > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > -- twb member, Workantile <http://workantile.com/> @twbrandt -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
