Just yesterday, WeWork announced via its blog a their new ‘WeWork Services Store’, which they describe as a “brand-new integrated hub for business services that gives members the freedom to do what they love without the hassles of traditional business management.”
The blog explains that:
“The Services Store is a software platform, similar to an app store, and is the first of its kind to be built by WeWork. It streamlines the process of finding, managing, and purchasing the various services that a growing business needs, with recommendations from members and special offers for WeWork members.”
In other words, WeWork built a system through which they can offer clients discounts on other products.
What’s surprising, however, is the fact that WeWork is only just now starting to build and work on partnerships like these. Business centers have been setting up partnerships with suppliers and service companies for decades now.
We believe they’re doing this as a way to create a value proposition for smaller clients, while trying to attract bigger ones. Furthermore they have differentiated their new service offering by investing in a digital platform that streamlines the process and adds value to members.
It’s quite an elaborate marketing strategy, if you ask us.
Is WeWork trying to distance itself from the ‘free beer’ value proposition and instead wants to focus on how they can provide real economic value to their members?
Some of the companies WeWork has’ teamed up’ with for their Services Store include Salesforce, Lyft, Upwork, Zendesk, Xero, Slack, Amazon Web Services, Office 365, Expensify, Davinci Virtual, and Ruby Receptionists.
We find particularly interesting WeWork’s partnership with Ruby Receptionists, as this is a core service that Wework should be offering themselves.
Live receptionist services are a vital element of the flexible workspace industry. From big players like Regus, The Executive Centre, and Premier Business Centers to the smallest independent operator, live receptionist services have played a huge role in the industry for decades.
We are wondering, then, what is WeWork’s underlying true goal, especially as many of the discounts offered aren’t really any better than what most companies could negotiate on their own and are simple affinity purchasing programs that are widely offered by many others in the industry.
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