The flexible workspace industry is growing at top speed, with experts predicting 15% yearly growth by 2030. As more spaces continuously open, competition is intensifying. Today, a good desk and strong Wi-Fi are old-school ideas they are no longer differentiators that drive productivity. The key to long-term success lies in cultivating genuine happiness and pride among your members.
Happy members are loyal, engaged, and proud to be a part of the community. This article will explore a five-pillar strategy for creating that deep bond, fostering passion, and giving true meaning to your brand identity.
The strategic imperative: why happiness is the ultimate ROI
Happy members are your most powerful asset, serving as your primary source of growth and financial stability.
- The loyalty advantage: businesses with strong brand loyalty grow 2.5 times faster than their competitors. In coworking, loyalty translates to stable recurring income, low member dropouts, and dramatically lower marketing costs. Happy members become your best promoters.
- The advocacy advantage: marketers know people trust their friends more than ads. When a member is genuinely happy, they become a free marketing channel, with people being 90% more likely to trust a friend's recommendation. This organic growth is the most powerful countermeasure against rising digital ad costs.
- The cultural magnet: happy members are engaged, friendly, and naturally create a positive environment. They act like a magnet for new, high-quality prospects who want to be part of that thriving culture.
The five strategic pillars of coworking happiness
Happiness in the workplace is built by addressing core human needs. By focusing on these five strategic pillars, coworking spaces can create positive environments where people genuinely thrive while doing their work.
1. Architecting for emotional resonance (niche focus)
The biggest mistake is aiming for universality. The deepest human connections happen within a defined tribe. Your happiness strategy must be laser-focused on your ideal member profile.
- Deep analysis: the niche-as-amenity strategy: a space with sleek, quiet pods is useless for an art collective. A vibrant, communal space alienates a legal firm. You must design for your tribe’s specific needs concerning creativity and mindful focus.
- Actionable step: the "two-hour audit": conduct a rigorous audit of your top 20% most profitable or most active members. Identify their three most common pain points and their three most common professional goals. Design amenities that speak specifically to those points.
If your tribe is freelancers: focus on services that address isolation (e.g., small, curated skill-share sessions).
If your tribe is hybrid teams: focus on infrastructure that addresses tools for success (e.g., high-speed internet, comfortable furniture, well-equipped meeting rooms, and a user-friendly app for booking desks and services).
2. The ultimate freedom (true flexibility)
The modern worker craves autonomy and wants to choose where, when, and how to work. Offering flexibility as a benefit, not just a feature, ensures that the workspace aligns with their goals and styles, leading to genuine happiness and engagement.
- Deep analysis: the deconstructed membership: move beyond rigid 9-to-5 access. True flexibility means offering a variety of membership plans and guaranteed 24/7 access to key amenities. The rigidity of a traditional office is your competitor's weakness.
- The virtual-physical blend: utilize tools like a desk booking system and offer virtual memberships that retain the sense of Belonging for location-independent entrepreneurs. This untethers membership value from the physical real estate.
- The "work from anywhere" ethos: offer flexible options for growing teams where they can easily add or subtract day passes without a bureaucratic penalty. This positions your space as a partner in their success, reflecting the modern need for authenticity.
3. Fostering true belonging (facilitated connection)
The dimension of belonging is the soul of a coworking space. It cannot be forced; it must be carefully facilitated through serendipity engineering.
- Beyond the event schedule: hosting a Friday happy hour is passive. Serendipity Engineering is an active, ongoing effort. Community managers must actively seek opportunities to connect members for professional gain.
- Example: notice a web designer struggling to find a copywriter? Introduce them immediately. This active match-making validates the membership fee and drives the conversion of social capital into financial capital.
- The psychological safety zone: a true sense of belonging requires psychological safety. Designing dedicated collaborating rooms and quiet zones results in a balanced environment, ensuring mutual respect and trust among the members.
4. Cultivating meaning (shared purpose)
Post-pandemic professionals crave work infused with a higher purpose the pursuit of meaning. A coworking space can nurture this not by adopting a charitable model, but by curating a mission-driven environment where members feel their daily efforts contribute to something greater than themselves.
- Purpose as a community pillar: embed a shared value into your space's identity. This could involve key areas like sustainability or supporting local economic growth. Any partnership (charity or volunteering) must genuinely reflect your brand.
- The professional milestone: the most direct goal is to actively help members hit their professional milestones. Running small, focused workshops where members teach their skills to one another makes members feel their workspace directly contributes to their professional growth, granting a deeper sense of value and pptimism from their daily routine.
5. Measuring and amplifying happiness (the advocacy loop)
The final step is establishing an ethical and efficient system to measure happiness and turn your happiest members into your most effective sales tool. This is the ultimate advocacy process.
- Advocacy automation: utilize surveys and net promoter score (NPS) to track member sentiment constantly. More importantly, act on the feedback and publicly communicate the change. Seeing suggestions implemented validates a member’s value and increases their happiness score instantly.
- The amplification engine: identify your happiest members (your 9s and 10s on the NPS scale). These are your advocates.
- Public recognition: share their achievements and business success stories on your social media and internal community channels. When they are celebrated, their pride and loyalty grow exponentially.
- The formal referral system: pair this happiness with a formal, rewarding loyalty/referral program. An advocate who is recognized, rewarded, and feels integral to the community's success is an unstoppable force against churn.
In today’s market, a functional office is a commodity. What transforms a workplace into a true destination is its ability to cultivate genuine happiness, grounded in belonging, shared purpose, and thoughtful personalization. When you invest in emotional engagement, your members don’t just remain loyal they evolve into passionate advocates, fueling your growth and long-term success.
High five! The future is happy
You made it to the finish line and now you're officially armed with a treasure chest full of ideas to design a coworking space that keeps your members bouncing with joy.
Remember, happy members are like boomerangs—they come back stronger! Not only will they stick around, but they'll be your biggest cheerleaders, spreading the word and bringing new faces to your fantastic community.
Now, go forth and create a coworking space that makes Mondays feel like Fridays! Your happy members will thank you for it.
Want to become a master of member happiness? We've created a free, downloadable eBook overflowing with actionable strategies to keep your coworking space buzzing with happy faces.
Discover the keys to the happiness of your coworking space members.
By putting these tips into action and diving into our eBook, you'll be well on your way to coworking nirvana! Happy members, thriving space—that's the dream, and it's within your reach. Let's make it happen!
