Avoid these 5 common pain points when choosing an app for room booking
Today, work is no longer limited to a certain cubicle or private office. Instead, an entire building—or even an entire campus—can serve as an employee’s workplace, with areas set up to support different types of in-office work: in-person interviews, phone calls, group brainstorming, video conferences, heads-down work, etc.
Is your organization ready to embrace and manage these changes? To connect employees to workplace resources, corporate real estate executives are turning to an app for room booking or a workplace experience app with robust room-booking capabilities.
The right office reservation tool can help you:
- Promote health and safety of employees, allowing them to quickly find clean, comfortable, and convenient workspaces
- Successfully support and streamline desk-sharing and hybrid work environments
- Maximize the use of meeting, hot-desking, and collaboration spaces
- Gain insight into employees’ workspace needs
But choosing an app for room booking isn’t always easy. Here are five common pain points you may encounter—and how to avoid them—as you search for the right solution.
1. User interfaces that are hard to understand
If your room booking or workplace experience app is difficult to navigate or takes too long to learn, then it can be a tough sell. Employees may get frustrated and decide it’s easier to work without the tool instead of learning to use it.
To avoid this frustration, look for a solution that supports:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) to drive personalization and elevate the user experience
- Choices between a traditional user interface and an AI-assisted digital assistant
- The ability to brand and customize content based on where or how employees work
- Conversational interfaces that mimic consumer digital assistants (Siri, Alexa, etc.)
- Machine-learning that responds and adjusts to user preferences over time
2. A tool that’s difficult to integrate with existing technology
Integrating a workplace experience app with existing tools—such as integrated workplace management systems or occupancy sensors—can boost the value of your technology investment.
To help automate processes like ticket routing and communication workflows, look for platforms that are compatible with the systems you have in place. Make sure the integration won’t require lots of time, effort, or development work from your in-house IT team.
3. A platform that focuses on room- and desk-booking tasks—and nothing else
Any room-booking app can streamline scheduling and room/desk reservations. But with the right platform, there’s so much more you can do.
As you compare your options, choose one that goes beyond basic room- and desk-booking capabilities. Use ticket requests as an example: Your office reservation management tool can act as a one-stop shop for employees to request service from IT, HR, or facilities management. They can use the platform to create a ticket, and the tool automatically classifies and routes the request so it can be addressed by the right people.
Robust office reservation management tools can also support additional features like:
- Broadcast alerts for important communication
- Building controls to customize the work environment, such as lighting and temperature
- Visitor management to safely and easily welcome guests
- Wayfinding to quickly locate desks, rooms, and amenities
4. A lack of two-way communication
It’s important to select a tool that not only lets your organization communicate with employees but also gives them the chance to share their feedback.
Seek out a platform that supports worker connection and engagement. This can be done through features like polls and survey tools, which capture information about employee productivity, wellness, satisfaction, and other metrics that can be used for planning and decision-making.
5. The inability to scale as needs change
Workforce and workplace needs will continue to evolve. As they do, you should be able to add features to your office reservation management tool without requiring expensive, time-consuming IT development work.
Look for a solution that continually adds to its features and integration capabilities based on changing requirements without increasing costs. Find a tool that can also expand with you as your portfolio and workforce grow.
Discovering the right workplace experience app
The right workplace experience app can help your employees quickly and safely book meetings and workspaces. It can also do much more to make your office a place where your people want to be.
To learn more about finding the right workplace experience app for your organization, start here or reach out to us directly to see a multifunctional office reservation tool in action.