From 0 to 1,300 Automated Actions in <4 Months with Q Space

Nestled away 20 minutes outside the bustling city of Wellington, New Zealand sits a beautifully modern building home to the Q Space community. At less than six months old, Q Space has quickly become a staple in the city, known for their beautiful branding, community driven initiatives, and elevated workplace experience.

The magic of Q Space hinges on their attention to detail and commitment to doing everything 110%. So when membership took off and community manager Deanna Hoy found herself managing over 150 members on her own, she knew she needed to come up with a solution to keep their high expectation for a great member experience…fast.

Here is how Deanna used Optix Automations to streamline essential processes, nurture leads, launch new marketing initiatives, and save herself a lot of time and headache along the way.

Before Automations: So much to do, so little time

Community managers are the unsung heroes of the coworking world. Their responsibilities range from collecting mail to cleaning the space to creating great social media content – not to mention being present to answer the onslaught of questions that come from members day in and day out.

For the average community manager, it’s a tricky job that requires a love for community and a commitment to the art of multitasking. But for a one-person-show like Deanna, you need something more.

With a rapidly expanding to-do list and ambitions for growth, Deanna needed a way to take back her time so she could provide a better experience for her members. It was as much about making sure the essential parts of the job got done, as it was about making her job enjoyable.

That’s the mission of Q Space after all – to create a space that inspires people to want to be at work, and makes work more enjoyable. Doesn’t that mean for the admin team, too?

Getting started with Automations: The big unlock

Optix Automations is a first of its kind workflow builder that enables admin to automate essential parts of their business directly in Optix. Think of it as another, highly productive member of your team.

The first step that Deanna took in getting started with Automations is the step we recommend all admin take – thoughtful and considerate planning for where Automations are needed most in your operations.

For Deanna, this meant mapping out: 

1. The different sources of leads for Q Space (website, calls, walk-ins) and the corresponding journey for each type of lead
2. All of the automations and email touch points she wanted to send to help move leads from one stage to the next
3. All of the automations to support different aspects of her role – like managing invoices, following up on payments, member onboarding, and sprinkling delight in her members’ days.

From here, she brought her roadmap to life by building out each automation in Optix. 

Deanna went into Automations with no experience with other workflow builders. Even so, she found the process simple, easy, and dare she say, even fun. It’s a comment we hear a lot from admin. Once the creative planning is done, building the automations is the most enjoyable part of the process.

After Automations: Doing more with less

Today, Deanna has created over 27 automations, automating over 1,300 actions that would otherwise be done manually. Here’s what that means for her and the Q Space team.

Significant time (and cost) savings. It’s tough to know exactly just how much time Deanna is saving with Automations. But considering the circumstances, she reckons Automations has replaced 10-15 hours of work of a consultant’s time  – not to mention the considerable money saved in the process.

Reduced risk. Even when Deanna isn’t in the space, her and the owners are automatically notified when an issue arises now with the help of Automations, improving communication between team members and mitigating potential risk in the space if Deanna is not on site. 

Improved communication. All of her lead follow ups are never lost. Her automations check-in on leads with personalized emails and ensure that anyone engaging with their Tour or Inquiry Widgets is enrolled into an automation with multiple follow-ups and incentives to become a member.

Streamlined processes. Processes are simplified for everything from managing inquiries and payments to member re-engagement, allowing Deanna to focus on the things that can’t be automated – like leading a rocking tour or connecting with members.

The strategic use of automation is a significant part of how Deanna has been able to make sure it all gets done as a one-person show on the ground.

How is Q Space using Automations?

We’re often inspired by all of the amazing ways our clients use Automations, and Q Space is no exception. Deanna is a wizard when it comes to how she implements automations to make the biggest impact on the business – here’s how.

Lead management

Perhaps the most impressive automation of the bunch is a staggering 30-step automation that Deanna created to nurture leads through their sales funnel. The automation consists of emails, tasks for Deanna, and other nudges to help turn leads into new members.

Since setting it up, that automation alone has led to an astonishing 33% conversion rate of leads to members. That’s revenue generated for the business by simply doing…nothing.

Member onboarding

Member onboarding is one we always recommend automating. For Deanna, this flow looks like welcoming them with personalized emails and in-app messages with hot tips to use the app and engage with the space. She also customized the member onboarding experience with her automations to ensure that certain types of members receive the information most relevant to their private office, dedicated desk, or hot desk membership.  

Automating this process not only saves Deanna time, it makes sure her members know everything they need to know and receive a consistent experience every time.

Member engagement

Keeping the community engaged is a key part of the mission of making work more enjoyable. Community building and delight are critical to the success of Q Space, which is why Deanna has a fun Birthday automation set up.

Whenever it’s a long term member’s birthday, a custom post is automatically created for the Community Feed celebrating their day. Other members see it, comment on it, and wish them a happy birthday IRL, bringing the community magic full circle.

What’s next for the Q Space team?

With all the essential parts of the day-to-day automated, Deanna has more time to focus on the things that drive the business forward, like connecting with members and getting more corporate clients in the door.

As Q Space continues to grow and transform the Lower Hutt community of New Zealand, we are so excited to be supporting Deanna and her team every step of the way!