The market is maturing. Providers are re-sorting. Anita Gödiker, CEO of Satellite Office on the maturing process and her response.
Berlin, 25.10.2019. In the market of flexible workspaces, also known as coworking, an enormous change has taken place in recent years. Due to many new providers and the rise of digital work, demand has increased enormously and, as a result, the demands on products and services have also risen sharply and become more individualized. As is usual in mature markets, change is on the horizon. Anita Gödiker, founder and CEO of Satellite Office: “The market is becoming more professional and has outgrown its infancy. Now the world’s largest provider is getting out of balance with an unclear outcome. The industry is re-sorting itself.” Similar to the hotel market, he said, the industry will segment into upper class, middle class and tourist class, as the need for individuality and number of flexible workplaces will continue to grow. “However, the market will move away from all the hypes, away from noisy, crowded open-plan offices. Towards what you really need for concentrated work: quiet,” the pioneer for flexible working is certain.
With 23 years in the market, Satellite Office is one of the most experienced providers in Germany.
“In order to make strategic decisions, such as on product development or product positioning, a consistent examination of the market and the needs of the demanders is essential,” says Gödiker. With 23 years of experience in this market segment, Satellite Office is a provider that is very close to its customers and tracks the development of the industry like a seismograph. Despite diverse and very individual requirements, we have succeeded in retaining customers in the long term by involving them in the permanent improvement of the offer. “We invest much more in being close to our customers than in any advertising campaigns or rapid growth without substance,” says CEO and owner Anita Gödiker. This is an enormous opportunity for both sides, for customers and Satellite Office, to grow together. “We set out to connect with our customers and offer them exactly what they need to be successful,” she continued.
Temporary workplace users become long-term customers
40% of all Satellite Office members have been with Satellite Office for ten years or more. Wolf Reiner Kriegler, founder and managing director of Deutsche Employer Branding Akademie GmbH, is one of them. Having entered the market with DEBA in 2007, Kriegler and his team have been based at Satellite Office since the beginning, first in Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse and later at Ku’damm. First with one office, today with part of his team in four offices in Berlin, Hamburg and at times Düsseldorf. Wolf Reiner Kriegler: “I’m on Satellite Office’s Customer Advisory Board, which was founded in 2015, and so I’m in a position to give unfiltered feedback in the round and even help shape what Satellite Office makes of it. Things are steadily and constantly moving steps ahead here, and the professional manner and cordial service at eye level have kept me here for almost sixteen years.”
Response to market developments: “pureSilent®-Line
Based on many years of experience and intensive exchange with customers, Satellite Office has developed the “pureSilent®-Line” as the answer to the changing demands of customers. The focus is on a quiet environment conducive to concentration and individual service. Satellite Office will open the first location with the “pureSilent®-Line” in Frankfurt at the end of 2019. “Even now, before the opening and without us being ready inside, the demand is very high and half of the individual offices are already gone,” Gödiker is pleased to say.
