If You Don’t Know Their Names, You’re Already Dead
Part of the Coworking Confidential Series: Saying the parts unknown out loud
The fastest way to tell if a workspace is the real thing or just theatre?
Ask the team the names of the people sitting inside it.
If they can’t answer, the game’s already over.
This industry loves to sell “community” - it’s the word you put in bold on the brochure when you’ve run out of ways to talk about Wi-Fi speeds and meeting room counts.
But community isn’t an amenity.
It’s not a mood board.
And it sure as hell isn’t something you can fake.
If you don’t know your members’ names, you’re not running a workplace. You’re running a transactional real estate business with free coffee.
You’re a wolf in coworking clothing.
Why Names Matter More Than Metrics
You can track occupancy, churn, NPS, all the KPIs you want.
None of them mean a thing if your team can’t tell you who’s in your space and what they do.
Names are the foundation of trust. They’re the difference between someone feeling like they belong and someone counting the days until they leave.
Knowing a name says:
“I see you. You’re part of this. I notice when you’re not here.”
Not knowing a name says:
“You’re just another contract in the CRM.”
The Invisible Rot
It doesn’t happen overnight.
At first, it’s just one or two members you never quite connected with. Then it’s a whole floor of strangers. Eventually, the space feels cold, even if the heating’s on. People stop saying hello. Members stop renewing, but they don’t tell you why.
By the time you notice, it’s too late.
The culture is gone.
And you can’t buy it back with a pizza night or a LinkedIn post.
The Hard Part
(That Most Operators Avoid)
This isn’t about forcing small talk or staging fake “collisions.”
It’s about building a team obsessed with relationships, not just billing cycles.
It’s the barista who knows your order.
The community manager who remembers you were pitching last week and asks how it went.
The ops lead who spots that someone’s struggling and offers help without making it weird.
That’s premium.
That’s sticky.
That’s the moat, competitors can’t copy.
The Price of Forgetting
If you think knowing names is optional, ask yourself this:
would your members miss you if you shut down tomorrow?
Would they fight to stay, or just pack up and walk into the space down the road?
If the answer makes you uncomfortable, good.
That’s the work.
Because here’s the truth…
In coworking, you can survive without knowing every spreadsheet. But the second you stop knowing your people, you’re already dead.
James Panepinto is General Manager for Clockwise Offices Manchester, England and UK Chair / Ambassador for FLOC (Future Leader of Coworking)