Wi-Fi is the most expected and probably the most substantial service provided by coworking spaces. Poor experience with your Wi-Fi can seriously harm your brand image as members come to your coworking space to get the work done. In this article, we are going to discuss how to automate management and make access to your wireless networks much more convenient for members.
How Do Your Customers Get Online?
Ten to one, you have posters with Wi-Fi password hanging on the walls around the space. So, clients have to find such a poster and manually type in the code. Or maybe you send them login details via email. In both scenarios “What is Wi-Fi password” is probably the most frequent question at the reception desk.
Manual operations such as typing and copy-pasting the codes are not the best experiences you want for customers. What if a person can’t check their email because they need to get online first? Coworkers will come to the help desk and ask an administrator for assistance. A workspace manager will surely help them but did you ever think that getting online must be way easier for people that pay money to use your Internet?
An Easier Way to Access Wi-Fi for Coworking Space Customers
The hospitality industry is moving towards automation of workflows. At the same time, flexible workspace managers don’t want to overcomplicate the life of their customers by making them use one more app. They strive to integrate solutions they utilize in order to provide tenants with a single platform they can use for everything—booking, communication, payments, application for benefits and services, etc.
Why not use the same logic for Wi-Fi access? What would you say about a single passwordless log in for your customers when they don’t have to remember the codes or ask the manager for ones?
Members and guests of your coworking space log in to your app, the system automatically authenticates the user, generates one-time passwords, and gives immediate access to the appropriate network (Wi-Fi Members, Wi-Fi Guests, etc.)
Such kind of automation can streamline the entire process of granting and revoking access to Wi-Fi for managers of your coworking space and make getting online effortless for members and customers.
Creative States is striving to provide easy and secure Internet access to our customers. Thanks to Spacebring’ solution, we can automate access to our network and allow residents, guests, and even non-residents easily connect to Wi-Fi without any passwords! The system works automatically and smoothly, which allows to save time on Wi-Fi access administration, deliver new values to members, offer amazing infrastructure, best-in-class technology, and high-quality services.
— Vitalii Boichuk, Creative States
Let’s see how you can introduce it at your coworking space.
Automate Wi-Fi Management at Your Coworking Space
1. Reduce the Number of Steps
We have already mentioned the integration strategy above. Here is a perfect place to elaborate on this.
Not so long ago, Spacebring has built an integration with IronWifi, which is a cloud-based authentication platform for wireless and wired networks that plugs into almost any popular Wi-Fi hardware enabling seamless automatic access to wireless internet networks of a coworking space.
In other words, by integrating your main workspace management system with a solution such as IronWiFi, you will free your members and guests from looking or asking for Wi-Fi password and manually inserting it to get connected to the Internet.
When both systems are integrated, your customers are automatically authenticated by the app they already use with your flexible workspace and get either immediate access (in case of valid membership) or a one-time confirmation code (in case of exterior customers) to go online. No administrator’s assistance is required.
Such automation eliminates unnecessary actions both from customers’ and administrators’ sides, which is a much better way to handle your Wi-Fi.
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2. Separate Networks for Different Types of Coworkers
Almost every coworking space mentions secure lightning-fast Wi-Fi in its marketing messages. High Internet speed is really critical for members, so you must meet their expectations, which is challenging if you are using one password and network for everyone. This exposes your members to security risks and forces them to put up with a sluggish network.
Wi-Fi automation will let you forget about the issue, allow to have as many networks for your customers as you wish/need, and connect each customer group (members, daypassers, meeting participants, event attendees) to a specific network without any effort from the manager’s side.
More on the process in the next section.
3. Give Access to Wi-Fi Based on Conditions
The logic behind Wi-Fi automation is that you are going to provide two types of access to your wireless networks.
- Unconditional
Unconditional access is granted to members with pre-paid plans and workspace administrators. In fact, for members, the log in to their coworking app equals to log in to Wi-Fi. No additional password is required.
- Conditional
This type of access is applied to non-members and is based on a certain condition. For instance, room or desk booking, event ticket, visit registered through the reception tablet, etc. After the booking, plan, whatever was paid in your workspace app, the system checks the criteria of the event, generates a one-time code, and gives relevant access to Wi-Fi.
In the case of Spacebring, all access parameters are set by the admin through the solution settings page.
4. Manage Wi-Fi at Your Workspace Like a Pro
Did you ever face the situation when members that left your coworking space appeared in your network? If you glue passwords on the wall or don’t have the correct access revoke procedure, everyone can steal your internet and threaten the cyber safety of the authorized users.
With automated Wi-Fi you will manage such cases like a pro. No more access for unauthorized people. The system revokes it as easily as it grants it. As soon as a membership plan/visit/booking/event comes to an end, the customer loses temporary access to your Wi-Fi.
5. Analyze Wi-Fi Usage Data
And the last but not least step of Wi-Fi automation is data analysis. Every coworking space manager wants to know how many hours customers spend in the building. This is essential for hourly billing, security, and understanding space utilization metrics.
IronWiFi integrated with your coworking space platform has got you covered here. The system offers built-in analytical tools that will provide you with detailed Wi-Fi usage data by automatically tracking and recording all customers’ activities. You see who is going online, when, and what device is used. You can walk the extra mile and connect Google Analytics to the available solutions. This will give you the possibility to monitor all available networks in real time.
Final Words
Summarizing everything said above, automation of Wi-Fi at your coworking space is another lap of total workspace automation. It brings additional comfort to your members and saves more time for your managers.
If you are already using Spacebring platform to manage your coworking space, you can start to enjoy the benefits of Wi-Fi management automation straight away. No extra fees to be paid. If you are not an Spacebring customer yet, schedule a demo call with one of our product experts and get to know what else can our system do for your workspace automation and member happiness.
