IS YOUR COWORKING SPACE LOSING LEADS BEFORE YOU EVEN KNOW THEY EXIST?

You’ve done the hard work.

Your coworking space is beautiful.
Your marketing is humming.
Leads are coming in.

But there’s one thing that might be quietly killing your sales—and it’s happening before you ever get a chance to talk to your prospects.

It’s called “speed to lead.”

WHAT DOES “SPEED TO LEAD” MEAN FOR COWORKING OPERATORS?

Here’s the scenario I see all the time.

A prospect fills out a contact form. Or leaves a voicemail. Or sends a chat message through your website.

They’re not just browsing. They’re in buying mode.

Maybe they’re hunting for a private office. Or a meeting room for tomorrow. Or a mailbox membership because they’re tired of their home address showing up on Google.

They’re ready to make a decision—and they’re shopping around.

If your team isn’t responding immediately?

There’s a good chance that by the time you call back (an hour later, or even the next day), they’ve already booked a tour with another coworking space.

This isn’t just a hunch. The numbers back it up:

Sales conversions increase by 391% if you contact a lead in the first minute (Kubaru).
Companies that respond within an hour are 60x more likely to qualify a lead than those waiting 24 hours (Harvard Business Review).
82% of consumers expect an immediate response from sales and marketing (HubSpot).

And here’s the kicker: because of AI and automation, consumer expectations are only getting faster. Five minutes may already be too slow.

HOW ARE THE BIG COWORKING BRANDS HANDLING LEADS DIFFERENTLY?

Recently, I tested Regus’ lead response while doing pricing research for a client.

I filled out a contact form on their website. Seconds later—literally seconds—my phone rang. Then it rang again. And again.

They didn’t stop after one try. I received multiple calls daily, from slightly different numbers, for days on end.

Here’s why: Regus has a centralized sales team dedicated to one thing—responding to leads as fast as humanly possible.

They’re not making coffee, resetting meeting rooms, or juggling member requests. Their only job is to call prospects—even if it’s just for a $50 mailbox membership.

Now, I know most independent coworking operators can’t compete with that. You probably don’t have a call center of sales reps sitting around waiting to pounce on every lead. And that’s okay.

But if Regus and WeWork are calling within seconds, and your team is responding hours later… it’s easy to see who’s winning the deal.

WHY DO INDEPENDENT COWORKING SPACES STRUGGLE WITH SPEED TO LEAD?

For most single-location operators, lead response falls to the community manager (or whatever title you use: location manager, operations manager, etc.).

Here’s the reality: your team wears many hats.

They’re checking in meeting room guests. They’re helping members troubleshoot the printer. They’re refreshing the coffee.

Lead follow-up? It’s on the to-do list. But with everything else going on, it rarely happens fast enough.

Even worse, no one on the team may truly own lead response as a priority. It’s just “one more thing” on their plate.

I see this all the time when I’m working with operators:

The team waits until they can “craft the perfect package” for a unique request… and the lead disappears.
They assume email is enough… but inboxes are crowded and urgency gets lost.
There’s no process for who handles leads when.

This isn’t about blaming your team. It’s about setting them up for success—and creating systems that support faster responses.

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE LEAD RESPONSE TIME IN YOUR COWORKING SPACE?

You don’t need a massive sales team or a huge budget. Here’s what’s working for operators I support:

Leverage your CRM

Tools like GoHighLevel, HubSpot, or ActiveCampaign let you:

Instantly notify your team of new leads
Send an auto-text within seconds
Assign follow-up tasks so nothing slips through the cracks

Use AI chatbots

A chatbot can handle FAQs, share pricing, and even book tours—24/7. One client of mine uses this strategy with great success. Their chatbot answered questions and engaged prospects over the July 4th holiday when the space was closed.

Outsource lead response
Some operators use trained virtual assistants (VAs) who aren’t onsite but are dedicated to responding to leads quickly. This keeps the onsite team focused on member experience.

Prioritize communication channels

Call first: it builds rapport and creates urgency.
Text second: it’s efficient and gets nearly 100% read rates.
Email last: great for confirmations and follow-ups, but too slow for initial contact.