Case Study – bazinga! Helps Condo Communities Reach Their Potential
The Potentiality inspires and educates changemakers who are passionate about building community. We research and present stories, tools and ideas that help communities realize their potential.
One of the ways that we deliver on our goal is to share case analyses of organizations (businesses, social enterprises, schools, and non-profits) that are doing cool things to build community.
This month, we are focusing on bazinga!, which is connecting owners, renters, building staff, property managers and developers to achieve a common goal: creating smarter buildings, healthier homes and happier engaged people.”
A few weeks ago I exchanged emails with Jean Nairon, Vice President Customer Success for bazinga!. And here’s the case analysis of how bazinga! helps vertical communities realize their potential.
bazinga!’s platform on an iPad / courtesy bazinga!
Part 1 – The Context | Tell us about bazinga! What is your unique value proposition and how do you deliver on it?
We believe city living can, and should, be more engaging and more inclusive. We want to change the way people living in vertical communities interact, work, and play with their neighbours. Through our unique platform, community members can better communicate, collaborate and innovate to enhance their buildings and their surrounding neighbourhoods.
One million people every week are moving into cities. Communities should be flourishing, yet concrete walls often create obscurity. Communication and information is scattered amongst Strata Council members, building-veterans, and property management companies. Typically, the only way to connect with neighbours is through chance encounters or the small corkboard in the lobby. We can do better.
bazinga! empowers vertical communities with access to information, make shared assets accessible, and create opportunities to connect with neighbours in fun and unique ways. bazinga! is bringing human relationships back into the places we call home.
Part 2 – The Challenge | Tell us about the community-based challenge you are addressing. What pain-point are you fixing? What problem are you solving?
There are a lot of things you need to do when you live in a building. However, booking the elevator shouldn’t be difficult, reserving the party room shouldn’t require a fax machine, and getting the latest meeting minutes or other building communications shouldn’t result in the loss of three trees. These functions can be really cumbersome and we’ve created a better way.
Through bazinga! vertical neighbours are able to get things done more efficiently and access to information is not controlled. Residents can access their building and home online through their smartphone, tablet or laptop. They can get notified when something important is happening in the building like when the water will be shut-off or the elevator will be down for maintenance. Residents and council members can also access important building information like bylaws and rules, budgets, vendor contracts, and be more easily involved in decision making through polls. This is critical in ensuring that all residents have a say and the building is running to its optimum capacity.
Living in a vertical neighbourhood can feel like being a resident in a community of strangers.
Most people come and go in buildings and never get to know their neighbours or even say hello to each other in the elevator. At times people can even get the feeling that it’s better to not know their neighbours just in case they end up being weird, boring, annoying, or just plain people we would rather not know. Urbanization is causing us to be less social with those living in right next-door.
bazinga! changes that through our social local platform. Residents can see neighbour profiles and interact together based on similar likes or interests. Imagine, residents can organize a weekend cycling group, hire a yoga instructor for a weekly neighbourhood class in the fitness room, plant a community garden on the rooftop, or even coordinate a garbage pick-up day to clean-up the local park. Through online interaction and collaboration tools, residents can better work together to improve their community. The possibilities are endless for creating better communities.
Part 3 – The Community Potential | Tell us how your idea, service and/or product builds community. How does bazinga! allow condos, apartment-complexes, and/or neighbourhoods to realize their potential?
Building a community requires leadership and the ability to bring people together to build sustainable lasting changes. This can be difficult when it seems people are always moving in and out and when there is little or no interaction between residents. We apply three core principles in all of our communities to help them realize their potential.
First, bazinga! provides the mechanisms for getting things done in your building. These are things like booking amenities, requesting a new fob, scheduling a move in date, getting information about your refrigerator warranty, or paying your strata fees. This is core to living in a new building. Residents want to do these things efficiently without wasting a lot of time. Without this functionality, buildings can be quite dysfunctional.
Second, bazinga! encourages interaction between community members through our social platform. Residents can seek like-minded individuals through their profiles to start groups and socialize. They also have tools to help them collaborate, schedule events, and get a pulse on what the community thinks.
And third, we work with community leaders (councils and property managers) to get them thinking about building community. Leaders have a set of tools and dashboard views of how their community is developing. bazinga! also works leaders to encourage community building projects and we provide them with best practices from our other communities.
The Closer | How bazinga! Builds Community
The Potentiality focuses on how people can build community by harnessing key competencies – in this case, bazinga! applies innovation and facilitates communication and collaboration with its platform. This challenge is actually one that I wrote about in late-2012; needless to say, we’ve all felt the neighbourly disconnect within our apartment complexes.
The idea is simple: connect people in condo communities better. The organization’s platform is accessible from anywhere in the world and any smart device. Allow them to socialize, collaborate, and transact with just a few clicks.
bazinga! will make it easier for neighbours to meet and work together on projects. For example, my condo neighbours will soon be teaming up and removing two stumps from our front lawn; a platform like bazinga! will allow us to book time, equipment and plan our strategy in a way that isn’t available now.
Well played, bazinga! – your innovative platform will certainly help build community within ever-growing urban environments.
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All photos courtesy of the bazinga! team.