How customer-centric services become essential in coliving

In recent years, coliving has increasingly evolved from the idea of pure temporary accommodation to a service that aims to provide residents with an authentic experience during their stay. The core of this service remains accommodation. However, to give residents an all-around customer experience and create an unmatched service, additional offers are indispensable. Social rooms, communal kitchens, co-working or fitness areas are amenities that are now commonplace with many providers - especially those providers that have created their accommodation based on a customer-centric approach, giving their residents a feeling of “being at home”.

A laundry room is almost always part of the service offer ... or it should be. But this room usually does not often fit in seamlessly with the branding and experience offered to the residents. It mostly is a disregarded, outlying place well away from the stylish parts but a must-have to satisfy the basic needs of residents. Operators do not like paying much attention to the laundry process and users do not like doing laundry at all. It is something one has to do that feels like wasted time. So is it possible to create a positive user experience when it comes to doing laundry?

We are convinced it is, and that is why we launched appWash two years ago: a digital premium solution for laundries.

How we started Appwash

Looking for change, queuing to get one of the few available machines on a Saturday morning, only to finally learn that it did not really clean your laundry... This process often describes a typical user journey when doing laundry. While waiting for someone to fix a broken machine, dealing with users’ complaints and investing too much time and money in dealing with the laundry, are typical pain points of accommodation providers. Consequently, to create a positive experience one has to understand the real users’ and providers’ needs.

To do so, we launched a project powered by the Miele Innovation Lab that keeps all these challenges in mind. It may sound peculiar, but basically, doing laundry is a very intimate and personal matter, where everyone has their own rituals, rules, and preferences. Our team travelled to 15 European countries to ask users what they really want when it comes to their ideal laundry experience.

All we did was clean clothes in laundry rooms with students, business travellers, holiday makers, senior citizens and families. We observed how they went about things and asked what they like and do not like. Full focus on the user - design thinking at its best. This was the best way to find out what users really want, what bothers them most, what they are looking for and what expectations they have. In addition, we interviewed the owners of the laundries as well. In the end, they are the ones who have precise ideas about how the laundry should fit in with the portfolio of services they provide.

Packed with the insights from our journey to dozens of European laundry rooms, we started creating prototypes and showed them to users until finally appWash was born: a premium digital service for users, and a turnkey solution for coliving providers.

Today, appWash is a service of Miele Operations & Payment Solutions, a subsidiary of Miele. As the world’s leading manufacturer of premium products for laundry care, Miele has been one of the top suppliers of laundry equipment around the world for decades. Selling machines and providing excellent customer service is what Miele’s core competencies are. appWash today is an essential part of Miele’s journey from a pure hardware seller to a solution provider.

How Appwash contributes to coliving experiences

A coliving provider needs not do anything else other than provide the space for us to take over and give residents a positive customer experience when doing their laundry.

AppWash starts when the planning for the building begins. We provide architects and planners with complete implementation plans. This ensures that all technical requirements for the installation of our machines are met. When it comes to design, we have maximum flexibility. Many operators of coliving locations want a consistent design for their common areas. In this case, we adapt and remain discreetly in the background. We are also happy to contribute our own ideas and suggestions - if desired. We can rely on various partners with the appropriate expertise.

As co-proprietor and one of the managing directors, Markus Miele is the fourth generation of his family to lead the traditional Miele company. He has helped us with the evolution of appWash and shared his thoughts on our success so far, saying:

“With appWash, we are breaking new ground as a traditional manufacturer of high-quality hardware and offering our customers a tailor-made service that meets their individual needs. Thanks to the structures we have established over many decades, we have succeeded in rolling out appWash throughout Europe within just one year.”‍

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The room is fitted out at the customer’s request by our network of Miele technicians, wherever they are in Europe. Then the work can begin. Mid- and long- stay residents like to use the appWash app in order to check machine availability, book, pay and let Miele machines do their job. Once laundry has been completed, the user is informed by a push notification. And if there is a question, no problem - just send a message via the app and our support team will help immediately. For short-stay locations, we offer a digital payment terminal which allows users to select a machine, pay via NFC by credit card, smartphone or smart watch - it is as simple as that!

Conclusion

Modern coliving is more a question of providing a wide range of services than just offering bed and breakfast. Top-notch coliving providers aim to create a great experience for their residents where every single service contributes. Laundry services are a part of this, and appWash takes it to the next level: ‘simply. Washing. - but with a little bit of experience’.