Managing a coworking space can be a complex endeavor, involving a variety of tasks such as managing bookings, invoicing members, and coordinating events. That's where Zapier comes in.
Zapier is a powerful automation tool that can help you streamline your coworking space operations and increase productivity. In this article, we'll explore some of the most popular Zapier use cases for coworking spaces, from automating member onboarding to meeting safety regulations, so you can automate your way to success.
What is Zapier
Zapier is a powerful automation tool that can help you streamline your workflow and increase productivity by connecting various applications and services that you use. With Zapier, you can automate repetitive tasks by creating workflows called "Zaps" that connect two or more apps without the need for any coding skills or developer's help.
The beauty of Zapier lies in its ability to enable different apps to work seamlessly together, creating a more efficient and streamlined workflow. Zaps are activated by a trigger, which can be any event in one of your apps that initiates the workflow. For instance, if you receive an email in Gmail with a specific keyword in the subject line, a Zap can automatically create a new task in your project management app.
Zapier can help you automate tedious and time-consuming tasks such as data entry, file management, and social media posting, freeing up your time for more important work. With over 3,000 apps and services to choose from, Zapier can help you connect and automate virtually any workflow imaginable. Whether you're a solopreneur or part of a team, Zapier can help you work smarter, not harder.
Common Zapier Workflows
Here are some common Zapier workflows that can help coworking space managers:
- Notify Your Team: Automatically notify your team when a new member signs up, a reservation is made, or an event is scheduled.
- Sync Your Data: Automatically sync new leads with your CRM or spreadsheet, track payments in your accounting software, and update member information across multiple apps.
- Personalize Your Communication: Automatically send new members a personalized welcome message, follow-up emails to potential leads, or birthday greetings to current members.
- Social Media Management: Automatically share your blog posts, event updates, and news articles on your social media channels, and monitor your brand mentions.
- Customized Workflows: Zapier allows you to create your own custom workflows based on your specific needs, such as automating the creation of invoices or tracking member feedback.
How to Create a Zap
Here's how to create a Zap:
- Choose a pre-built template or create a Zap from scratch. To add a Zap template to your account, input the name of the app you want to create a Zap for in the "Connect this app…" field in your Dashboard.
- Type in the name of the app you want to connect to your first app in the "with this one!" field.
- Select a trigger for your Zap that will kick it off. For example, you can choose a new entry in Google Forms (or any other app you are using) for online member sign-up.
- Choose the action you want to occur whenever the trigger happens. For instance, you may want to send a new member an invite to download your coworking app and start using your services right away.
- Click "Use Zap" and edit the template in the Zap editor.
- When you have finished editing, click "Finished Editing!" to add the Zap to your account and turn it on. You can test your Zap immediately to see the automation in action.
If you need more guidance on creating a Zap from scratch, the Zapier team has provided detailed instructions that you can find here.
How to Automate Background Tasks at Your Coworking Space with Zapier
Now that you know what are Zaps, let's see how a busy coworking business operator can benefit from them at every stage of working with members.
1. Custom Sign-Up Form
Every modern workspace is running a website as this is an inevitable part of digital coworking marketing. Some hubs encourage prospective members to self-register online, which is a great practice. You can use engaging Typeform, Typeform alternative or Google Forms to let members sign up on your website directly. However, you can go even further and create Zaps that are triggered by new entries to Typeform, Google Forms, or HubSpot and invite members to your coworking app without any additional manipulations from your side—no data entry, no message sending.
Use ready-made Zap templates:
- Invite Member in Spacebring upon New Response in Google Forms
- Invite Member on Spacebring when New Form Submission is Made on HubSpot
2. Custom Onboarding Flow
Do you use a CRM system at your coworking space? Mature coworking brands do as they need to deal with hundreds of customers and provide them with a great experience. So, if you are using a professional CRM platform like HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Pipedrive, or others, you can automate inviting members to coworking software simply by updating a deal. Just move a deal to the next stage and the associated contact will be invited into the app. This way you give members the possibility to use all the workspace perks including a remote meeting room booking, community, and newsfeed access from day one.
Use ready-made Zap templates:
- Invite Member on Spacebring when Deal is Updated in ActiveCampaign
- Invite a Member on Spacebring when a Deal is Updated on Pipedrive
3. Welcome New Members
It's very important to help new members join the existing community and find opportunities for networking and friendship. The process will be smoother if you post a welcome message on your Slack channel or Facebook Group whenever a new member activates the account. This way you will let everybody greet them and demonstrate a warm welcome.
With Zapier you don't need to write those messages yourself every time. Just set up Zaps that are triggered on your app join and welcome messages will be posted automatically.
Use ready-made Zap templates:
4. Sync Info to Favorite Apps
Seasoned coworking business owners use a variety of apps to run their spaces. They follow best coworking space trends and automate everything, from visitor management to customer support, billing, etc. Now there is no need to manually create a user in that app. Just set up Zapier automation that creates a new user in your favorite app, it may be Intercom if you use it for communication or Kisi if you use it for access control, whenever a new member joins your app.
Use ready-made Zap templates:
5. COVID-19 Protection
The integration of your coworking software with Zapier can help your workspace stay safe in the post-coronavirus environment. When a booking is finished, the meeting room needs to be disinfected. We created a trigger on Zapier that can be used to alert a manager that a room needs cleaning.
Use a ready-made Zap template:
How to Enable Zapier Integration
After reading the above info you probably want to know how to enable Zapier integration. If you are an Spacebring customer, it is included in a package with your coworking space management software:
- First of all, you need to create a Zapier account and log in.
- Then find the Spacebring app and connect your Spacebring account.
That's it, you are ready to experiment with Zaps. Our Zapier integration supports the “New member in a branch” trigger, “Invite a member to a branch” action and “Find a member in all branches” and optionally “Invite a member” search.
If you are not an Spacebring customer yet, schedule a demo call with our product expert and get to know how to become one.
