Bespoke
Here is the rundown on how one tech-focused coworking space is automating their tasks in the interest of a first class member experience
“In our business, there are a lot of tasks that are formulaic and repetitive when it comes to the membership lifecycle. BasicOps templates have allowed us to streamline those tasks and be both efficient and consistent in our quality to ensure an exceptional experience when people come to Bespoke.”
-Judith Shahvar, Director
Meet Bespoke:
Industry: Coworking
Location: San Francisco
Company Size: 15
Bespoke is a tech-focused coworking community in the Bay Area that provides office set-ups and amenities, an event space and tech demos for their members. Located in the highly trafficked Westfield Mall in the epicenter of downtown San Francisco, members, guests, investors and collaborators are constantly coming and going. It’s a bustling space with plenty to do for the lean team that runs the show. Their ultimate objective is member satisfaction and BasicOps is one central part of the equation that makes it happen.
Bespoke Director Judith Shahvar runs an agile team that manages membership from their first day to their last.
Bespoke uses BasicOps for recurring administrative tasks associated with various aspects of the member experience. When a new member joins, when they leave or an amendment is made to their membership, there are standard operating procedures and BasicOps allows Bespoke to capture those, replicate them and ensure an optimal experience each and every time for every member.
“We want people to be able to start their first day at Bespoke and get right to work. Before they walk through the door, there are a bunch of things my team does to make this possible. New members get a welcome email, an FAQ, a handbook and onboarding information. Some things go to the main point of contact and some are for every new person who will be in the space. We have to be really methodical about who is getting what information and what we need in return. All of that lives in BasicOps and the platform makes it incredibly easy to do it right every single time,” says Judith. Bespoke wants members to have confidence in their team and feel supported by the service they provide beyond office and event space. Members are trusting Bespoke to be on top of their office management needs so by extension, the Bespoke team counts on BasicOps as the infrastructure to make sure even the most granular of details don’t fall through the cracks.
Some projects don’t have an end date
Bespoke uses BasicOps a little differently than other teams who are managing projects with a clear start and end date. The team has ongoing priorities and continuous backend tasks that have to be balanced with the in-the-moment needs of their members. Another aspect of ensuring that members are having a top-tier experience is how Bespoke balances these spontaneous, and often urgent, requests, problems and questions with longterm workstreams. The whole team has to be able to switch gears at a moment’s notice. “We have to be able to move as fast as our members need us to. If there is something urgent in their world, for example they are having trouble printing for a meeting in the next hour, everything on my plate gets put on hold so we can solve that issue. BasicOps makes sure I don’t lose track of what I was working on before I had to jump on what my member needs at that moment,” explains Bespoke Coordinator, Kimberly Monnarez.
What are the key features that make Bespoke a well oiled machine?
Templates. The team can templatize recurring projects and tasks. The day-to-day realities of running the space don’t change even when the member requests do. BasicOps allows that piece of the job to be streamlined without the impromptu asks that arise derailing the flow.
Notes. “The Notes feature allows me to be spontaneous with ideas, capture what is on my mind or what I think of in the moment that needs to be done. When I have more time to digest and take an organized approach, I can categorize them and assign as needed,” says Kimberly.
Integration. Bespoke uses a series of Google doc templates with their members. BasicOps seamlessly integrates with Google Drive making it very easy to file these documents within the system.
Assignments. Bespoke is a small team, with an all hands mentality. Everyone wears a lot of hats and team members can assign and reassign tasks. When a member makes a request that takes priority and possibly requires follow-up, ownership can shift without too much back and forth amongst the team.
Mobile App. “The mobile app is very helpful. We’re on our feet, running around a lot. The app lets us keep on top of things even when we’re not able to sit in front of a screen for an extended period of time,” says Judith.
Bespoke puts members and their experience at the space first. The team is constantly prioritizing and reprioritizing. They triangulate what is the most impactful thing they can do, what can solve the matter at hand the quickest and what is the most urgent priority for an individual member in that moment. From templatizing processes to assigning new tasks, if it’s in BasicOps, it’s locked and loaded and they know it won’t get lost in the shuffle.
“It can be hard to get work done when we have a high volume of immediate and urgent requests coming at us. BasicOps makes a part of our jobs that could be overwhelming with an opportunity for a lot of errors completely possible to do and do well.”
-Judith Shahvar, Director