Referral program within the coworking community

[Mychael Taylor]

Hi all,

My name is Mychael Taylor (pronounced "Michael," but with a "y"), and yes I'm a female.

I'm the Community Manger at CoWork Jax (Jax, FL), and I've been playing around with the idea of doing some sort of referral program for our members. Reaching out to this community, because I'm curious if anyone has tried a referral program with your coworking space? What were the results? How did you implement and track referrals? What were the incentives?

I'd love to hear feedback (success and "failure"). Thanks for your time! :)

Mychael

[Elise Colcord]

I've been thinking about how to gain traction with this idea as well with our current members. I initially sent out an office-wide email announcing giftcard incentives to local shops if someone referred a friend and they joined. 

So far...nada. I'm also keen on looking for ideas that have worked. Thanks for starting this Mychael. 

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Elise Colcord

678-467-9328

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[Chad Ballantyne]

If an existing member brings a new member to our space, we take off the existing member's monthly rent equal to the amount of the new members monthly membership.

For example: Bring in a Lite member, get $180 off your next months rent.  Your members are and should be your biggest evangelists, but relying on them only is not a good plan.

Bringing people into your space (events, workshops, classes, etc) is just as effective.  In fact, for us, the events thus far are winning as the best tool for recruitment. (Ignite, Lunch& Learns, Open Coffees)

Chad

Chad Ballantyne

705.812.0689

ch...@thecreativespace.ca

Barrie's Coworking Community

Perfect for small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs.

12 Dunlop St E, Barrie Ontario, L4M 1A3

Memberships start at $25/mth

www.thecreativespace.ca

705-812-0689

[Alex Hillman]

Be careful of extrinsic motivators like referral programs. Over the long term, they erode the sense of value that someone gets. 

Take a look at the cookie case study at the bottom of this post: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2012/12/how-do-you-know-if-your-community-is-leaking/

-Alex

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indyhall.org
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On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 10:38 AM, Chad Ballantyne <ch...@thecreativespace.ca> wrote:

If an existing member brings a new member to our space, we take off the existing member's monthly rent equal to the amount of the new members monthly membership.

For example: Bring in a Lite member, get $180 off your next months rent.  Your members are and should be your biggest evangelists, but relying on them only is not a good plan.

Bringing people into your space (events, workshops, classes, etc) is just as effective.  In fact, for us, the events thus far are winning as the best tool for recruitment. (Ignite, Lunch& Learns, Open Coffees)

Chad

Chad Ballantyne

705.812.0689

ch...@thecreativespace.ca

<TheCreativeSpace-door-decal.png>

[Elise Colcord]

Thanks guys, always appreciate the insight. We currently do Lunch'N'Thincs the first Thursday of each month, but I'm finding that it's a majority of our members attending(which is still an awesome thing) but it's proving a bit more challenging to bring in outside people no matter who the speaker is that month. 

[Mychael Taylor]

Yes, thanks for the feedback.

Event we've held in the past, and currently hold bring in people outside our community, and they think what we do here is really cool, but usually aren't interested in joining. Most of our members skip out on these types of events.

Mychael Taylor
Community Manager | CoWork Jax

w  coworkjax.com

f   facebook.com/coworkjax

t   @coworkjax
p  904.586.8678 x 706 office

 

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[Alex Hillman]

"Event we've held in the past, and currently hold bring in people outside our community, and they think what we do here is really cool, but usually aren't interested in joining."

Do you know why?

"Most of our members skip out on these types of events."

Do you know why?

-Alex

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/ah
indyhall.org
betterwork.co

[Mychael Taylor]

I don't know why, but I would like to found out. Do you have any recommendations?

I'm attending your workshop at GCUC: Build Your Community Without Burning Out, and I'm excited to learn more then!

Thanks again for you time.
Mychael

Mychael Taylor
Community Manager | CoWork Jax

w  coworkjax.com

f   facebook.com/coworkjax

t   @coworkjax
p  904.586.8678 x 706 office

 

[Anand Vemuri]

We have a tiny referral reward - 10% of the referred members' plan - but we do also allow them to pass the reward on to the member themselves, which is what happens most of the time. In a roundabout way it allows us to offer a small discount to friends of members while still officially saying we don't do discounts.

Anand

PS: We're in India, so cultural norms may vary.

[Frank DePalma]

Hi Mychael,

We just started a referral program to reward our existing members for referring colleagues, friends and family. This helps remind our members to spread the word. Although we advertise and market, a vast majority of our members hear about us via word-of-mouth. Rather than offer a discount to the new member (which might devalue our services), we only reward the referrer in the form of a discount on their next monthly membership. You can see the details here: http://www.ptcolab.com/refer

Let us know what you decide to do, and how it works for you.

Cheers,

~ Frank 

CoLab Northwest Inc.

www.ptcolab.com