Basislager is not only Leipzig’s best-known coworking space, but also home to our company since our founding in 2017. Here our colleagues meet daily, eat lunch and work together. For several years now, however, we have not only used the premises of the space, but also, conversely, Basislager has used our services.
Our services have been fulfilling the demand for a digital and efficient working environment, both for coworkers and the employees of the Basislager, for years now. You can read how this came about and what facilities we were able to offer Basislager in our interview. Read more about the project here.
Specifically, we’re talking about our automated beverage billing which is used in Basislager. Within a single application, beverages are counted safely and error-free and users select their beverages on a tablet. We have implemented this feature not only in Leipzig, but also at Basislager in Rostock or at the FLEET7 coworking space in Kiel.
Inga is Office and Community Manager at Basislager and spoke to our colleague Saskia, who is responsible for Customer Care. Enjoy reading!
The Interview with Inga (Community Manager, Basislager Leipzig)
Saskia, IOTIQ: Hey Inga! You use our Beverage Business App at Basislager Coworking Space in Leipzig. How did you work with IOTIQ?
Inga, Basislager: The app was actually developed directly for us. When I came to Basislager as a community manager, we still had a checklist on which to put every name.
They were categorized by coffee or soft drink, for example, and each person had to make strokes in small boxes for the selected beverage.
At the end of the month, I had to count those strokes, decipher the doctoral code of the names, and put it all together. Each individual then received an email with the amount due. Of course, the lists had to be changed every month – also because new people are often added, because we have a high turnover in the coworking space. Some of the names could not be read, or someone just wrote his first name – but we have 50 Svens (laughs), so of course you don’t know which Sven is meant.
Every month you had to redo the list and print it out, which was just terribly complex. We said that we need an alternative and then came across IOTIQ, which then developed this beverage app in collaboration with us.
Saskia: To come back to this effort: I can imagine the checklists are incredibly error-prone too, right?
Inga: Exactly – 100 percent. As I said, I checked the lists at the end of the month, put everything together and put the new list up. But I still filed the old lists in case there is a complaint after all.
If you think about it, we have five floors here in the building. I did this for each floor and some people are also moving between floors, so I found them on several lists several times, so I got really annoyed. (laughs) That was simply not possible anymore.
Saskia: I can imagine that. Especially all the paperwork, which you then HAVE TO put away. All this is basically gone now, right?
Inga: Exactly – no more paperwork. And for the users, that is, our customers, it is of course also more clear and great, because we are an innovative, digital space and working with a paper list is a bit ridiculous.
Now we have the fancy tablets hanging next to the fridge, which are totally self-explanatory: People can set up their profile there, that’s just three fields that need to be filled out. From every location in the building you can find your profile and enter your drink. For us in the backend it is of course also super easy, because everything is displayed digitally. I can say exactly: You owe it to us or the users can come to me and say: “Inga, I saw, I have something open with you, I’ll leave you twenty bucks.” It’s super nice.
Saskia: So would you say that the app is also a relief for users?
Inga: Absolutely! I see the added value of the app on the one hand on the side for our customers, because it enables transparency in billing and flexibility, because we use the app in all our locations. On the other hand, we benefit because we save working time and avoid errors in billing. In addition, the dashboard gives us a good overview of our revenues, which makes our controlling happy.
Saskia: What do you personally like best about the Beverage App?
Inga: What I find cool as an admin is that we have this dashboard where I can see what was consumed and what we had every month in beverage income. And from a user’s perspective, I find it charming that it’s really flexible. You can be on the move as a user at our locations or on different floors and everywhere you can find your profile and enter your drink. It’s just convenient.
Our Basislager in Rostock also has your Beverage App and use it in the same way as we do across locations; so this is ideal for coworking spaces at several locations.
Saskia: The process of developing this Beverage App was carried out in close collaboration with IOTIQ. How would you describe the collaboration from your point of view? What’s your impression of us as partners?
Inga: So what I can definitely say is that since we have this app, whenever there were problems, or we had a comment and we contacted you -- and there were not many problems -- then it was solved super fast. That was super important and helpful for me.
What I also liked: I once had a small request about a feature that would help me and I wrote to one of your employees. He contacted us directly, asked and specified what could be done there. He also picked up a feature we had discussed a while ago and thought about how we could tackle it. In general, I find the whole collaboration very professional, especially considering what we need. Unlike others, for example, where you feel bad because you have submitted a request. In any case, I find the cooperation very pleasant and very productive.
Saskia: Thank you for the very nice praise! And thank you for the nice interview.