Local coffee shops…any suggestions for cross-promotion or membership collaborations?
There’s a coffee shop that’s a 2 min walk from our space that many of our members frequent. There are also a fair amount of folks who work out of the coffee shop who aren’t members of our space.
We have a good relationship with the coffee shop and they don’t mind me handing out free day passes to their customers with laptops from time-to-time.
Would love to come up with a collaboration that would encourage the folks who still work from the coffee shop to join our space, while still getting coffee from the coffee shop.
Some ideas…
Include XX free coffees per week/month in our plans. Pay coffee shop up front each month at a discounted rate. Coffee shop gets paid whether or not people take advantage of the free coffee.
Standard discount, e.g. 10% for our members at the coffee shop. Not sure the coffee shop would care much for this.
Special “punch card” deal at the coffee shop for our members
We offer our coworking members 1 extra hour of meeting room time for every 8 coffees they get at the coffee shop in our building. No cost to the coffee shop and we have excess meeting room availability at this point so win for members and the coffee shop. In exchange, the coffee shop barista’s talk us up and recommend us / keep our postcards at the cash. I have a stack of punch cards that members can grab whenever they need them and the shop punches them each time (the cards, not the members . This is more of a symbiotic relationship built on good will plus we like to promote local.
We are also in the process of ordering ceramic mugs w/ lids that have both our logo and the coffee shop logo on them… we will be banning paper cups in our space so every members will be expected to use the mugs… we’re quite serious about taking as many actions that we can to lesson our carbon footprint and I think people respect that / attracts new members.
Hey, great idea, I think you must discuss with the coffee shop owner it must be a win win deal in my opinion. JV is alwys good.
My coworking space is located at 2nd floor of a coffee shop that I have great relation with also my members stops by for lunch or by some croissant but never thought about what you said. Also they don’t have internet because it is a small place they don’t want to be busy like webcafe it is not worth for them, they prefer people that drink and eat and have a turnover. So your idea is great for me. I do have a 2 coffee machines with a kitchen in my coworking space but I think that my members can have more like patisseries… and the coffee shop can promote my space too.
I have nothing to add here, but am interested to follow this as we have a coffee shop next door (although their coffee isn’t great)…and keen to know what is working elsewhere.
Such an interesting topic.
We are in the process of opening a space at a suburban area where coffee shops are used as working spaces, so we think we might be seen as competition.
I would like to make this relationship mora win win type rather than compete against each other.
Looking forward to listen to more expriences such as this.
There’s a really nice coworking space in Charlottesville, VA, Studio IX, that I think has (or maybe had) a great setup with the cafe they share real estate with.
You walk through a really great cafe to get to the coworking space (which does the best job I’ve experienced filling the room with the smell of great roasted coffee beans). I do not think they’re co-owned in any way, but there’s a counter in the back of the coffee shop for checking in to the coworking space and when you go in to work for the day you’re invited to grab a wooden token good for one free coffee at the cafe. I thought it was a great system and certainly made me feel good about buying more coffee at the cafe when I worked at the coworking space (even though they had their own lower quality drip coffee) AND about the coworking space.
If Studio IX is on the list, I’d be curious to hear about how that relationship was set up. If you’re not, I’d just suggest that offering the cafe a small fee for each token would still be worth the cost because it has such a positive impact on the coworking space.
I know some cafes connected to coworking spaces have actually been unhappy because the coworking space members use the seats and bandwidth of the cafe but mostly pay the coworking space, so having something that encourages drinking the coffee at the cafe but at a limited level seems like a nice solution.
We have a set partnership with the coffee shop in our building, 10% off for members. We are simply trying to get this on our member app to make tracking easy but have not launched that as of yet.
Our coworking space, FACTORY, has a healthy relationship and partnership with a downtown coffee shop. All of our staff and members walk down there daily. In return, here are a few ways to partner.
Ask them to give your member 10% discount by showing their digital keys. Our members pull up their door access app to show proof of their membership.
We serve their coffee and have a sign saying, “Kiln coffee served here,” which they provided. We have canisters of coffee, which are filled when needed and then they send us an invoice. We receive a discounted rate on the coffee beans, too.
Give them swag and information about your space! The owners wear our shirts on a regular basis, which is great brand awareness. We have a poster on the community wall, rack cards with pricing, and a business card with a free drop-in code.
Cross-promote each other on social media platforms. This is HUGE and FREE, especially when you share customers.
Marketing campaign ideas: Free drop-in with purchase of coffee! This didn’t work out super well, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work for your space.
A coworking space in Rifle, Colorado partners with a coffee shop across the street from them. All of their members can go there and drink drip coffee for free. Then receive a discounted rate on other items.
. This is more of a symbiotic relationship built on good will plus we like to promote local.