Reported for Flatiron Hot! News by Katherine Jin

The WANY 13th Annual Educational Conference & Awards Presentations, hosted at NYC Seminar and Conference Center on June 15th, celebrated the strengths of the shared office space industry and those who make it possible, gave valuable insights into how to run a shared space successfully, and sought to raise awareness and support for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

“Coworking” is the new euphemism that describes an increasingly widespread utilization of office space by companies, that, along with the rental of space, involves social gatherings of people who work independently but have shared values and are interested in the synergy that can happen from working alongside other enthusiastic, sociable individuals. At its core is a strong sense of community. As Tony Bacigalupo, founder and mayor of one of the biggest coworking space companies in the world, New Work City, explained, people are going to these spaces for something more than the fact that they need offices. For the most part, people in the coworking market don’t need offices – they can work anywhere with reliable WiFi. However, they choose to work in a specific location because of the people there, who can help them grow their business. These spaces offer a solution to the problem of isolation that many freelancers and startup founders experience while working at home, while at the same time letting them escape the distractions of home.

Because the sense of community is so vital to coworking spaces, it’s crucial for companies in the industry to have great customer service. Just having a solid operation site only gets you on even ground with everyone else who’s doing that really well. To distinguish yourself, it comes down to the relationships you build with your customers. Edward Bungert, one of the past presidents of WANY, illustrated why customer service is so important and how companies can improve it. A company’s facility, for their clients, is a series of experiences. These experiences aren’t just big-picture ones, like a wow-factor when you walk into a new hotel lobby or a beautiful reception area; it’s little moments (which Bungert deems “moments of truth”) where a client’s expectations are either met, exceeded, or disappointed. The more moments where expectations are exceeded, the longer customers will stay with the facility. Thus, when companies train their staff, it is especially important that they can imagine themselves from the customer’s point of view. Their priority is to make the client have an overwhelming majority of good moments in their overall experience, so that

they want to come in all day, every day. The motto is, “It may not be our fault, but it is always our problem.” Staff must genuinely care for others and want to build a relationship with their clients, as much as the clients want to build relationships with them. For the customer, the facility and its staff is a means to an end, but a very important means, without which the coworking space cannot survive. In the words of Bungert, “we want it to be so emotionally painful for them [the clients] to ever leave, that the only comfort they’ll find is referring us new business. That’s what we want.”

The Workplace Association of New York (WANY) is one of the leading industry trade organizations that serves the burgeoning coworking industry, boasting multiple awards and over 2 million square feet of A+ certified professionally managed workspaces. Its mission, as presented by president Ray Lindenberg, can be summarized into the eight “-ates,” most importantly: Educate, advocate, elevate, communicate, watch the gate, and generate (business). The educational presentations offered in the past year focused on sales, and explained how to fill the sales funnel, qualify general needs to save resources, discover specific needs, enlighten consumers to the coworking industry, lead without your aces, offer and negotiate, ask for the sale while presuming it, and celebrate a good sale. Through these goals and educational initiatives, WANY provides exceptional value and service to customers, maintaining and improving the highest standards for quality, ethics, integrity, research, and learning with regard to industry-leading advancements. Dubbed as “the cradle of entrepreneurship for the past half-century,” they have helped start a lot of new practices and businesses, and continue to provide top-notch service. WANY briefed the crowd on news and trends relevant to the workspace industry. Interesting findings include the fact that coworking spaces in resort areas are on the rise, as are space niches targeting childcare, gym enthusiasts, women entrepreneurs, and the cannabis industry. Placepay, which offers payment infrastructure designed for coworking spaces, and TriNet,

a full service HR solution for small businesses, spoke on the financial aspect of operating a coworking facility. After a lunch break featuring Mexican fare, operators from Office Evolution and Premiere shared insights on what it feels like to grow an industry and some of the challenges that they are facing with their operations, especially in regard to infrastructure, and Steven Shapiro from NYCSCC explained what makes our facility unique. Finally, after the awards ceremony, the highly anticipated Stand-Up for Women Fashion Walk capped off the event, with proceeds to benefit Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research.

Learn more about WANY here.