Case MOW: More Sales With Automation

Operating online has made buying things straightforward. People look into options, make a decision and, with a click, they are done. This applies to all kinds of things from clothes to flights and barbershop appointments. Why would reserving a desk or a meeting room be any different?

MOW, short for Mothership of Work, is a community platform for developing, growing, and running businesses. At the MOW hubs, you can rent work space for short-term and long-term needs alike and choose from a single desk to a designated room – or even larger facilities for bigger teams. The MOW coworking concept is provided by Sponda, a real estate asset management company.

We created a solution for MOW that lifted their sales, digital services, and customer satisfaction to the next level.

Manual Work as a Hindrance

At the start of the project, MOW’s operations were otherwise modern and flexible except for one area that was bottlenecking the whole process: bookings, inquiries, changes, cancellations, and invoicing were done manually at MOW’s front desk.

In addition to challenges concerning time management, manual work hindered sales. As customers weren’t able to book the spaces online, many customer journeys ended there. Also, the operator didn’t have continuous up-to-date information about the renters or the occupancy rates.

“The main objectives of the project were to decrease the need for manual work at the front desk and increase our occupancy rates and sales,” says MOW Mothership Captain Sonja Tuomenvirta.

Another stumbling block concerning sales was the way MOW’s website represented the company’s services.

Coworking spaces are typically used by media and marketing freelancers and small companies, but MOW also has the capacity to facilitate even bigger businesses. The website was revised with the aim to reach these potential customers, too.

Increased Sales with Automation

Over the project, we implemented a system called MOW9k which allows both the front desk as well as the renters to look at and modify bookings and memberships online. Logging in to the service is via Auth0 authentication. The mow.fi website was also renewed. So now it also acts as a lead generator as well as a sales channel for day passes and team rooms.

The back-end system and master data are stored in Sponda’s Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system, which the new management system had to be integrated. MOW’s data needed to be filtered from the parent company Sponda’s massive overall data. Data formats needed to be modified so that the systems could talk to each other seamlessly. The integration was implemented in close cooperation with Sponda’s technical expert.

“All necessary functions are now located at the same place. The MOW9k system is easy to develop further to cater to the changing needs of the hub, including communications and lead management,” says Captain Tuomenvirta.

Targets Were Met with Flying Colors

In addition to excellent usability, the goals related to freed resources and increased sales were achieved. Also, customer satisfaction improved.

“With the online booking service, the sales and occupation rates of meeting rooms have increased. There is now considerably less manual work also, and managing reservations is really smooth and effortless,” Tuomenvirta sums up.

In addition, internal communication with residents is easier than before.

”Our customers have been especially happy with the real-time info about available meeting rooms, as making ad-hoc bookings is now fast and easy.” says Tuomenvirta. “Both our customers as well as our staff find the system easy to use. All in all, we are very content with our new system.”