“Did you have a good day looking at screens at work?” Paul Musgrave

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I confess. I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram when I saw this meme and it has bothered me since. There is nothing like some dry wit to point out the absurdity of our modern lives and wake us up to reality a bit.

(Author’s Note: Is this a meme, technically speaking? It is a screenshot of a tweet and I found it on Twitter, but perhaps that is a question for another day. I digress)

So yeah, most people I know look at screens a ton. Like Gollum, I can hear my precious calling to me throughout the day, begging me to embrace it and check out the latest. Now technology has given us many things and for that I am grateful. The wealth of information, the ability to gain what you need at the swipe of a button is helpful, technology almost gives us god-like powers. At the same time, when there is an app, a platform, and a website for everything you do at work, it can lead to double work and, worse yet, a sense of aimlessness.

Simplicity

In theory, technology should aid us towards simplicity. But with all the notifications from all the platforms (heck, my new fridge wanted me to connect to Wi-Fi so it could notify me if one of my lovely children left the door open), it seems that it can overcomplicate what is really simple. And can lead to technostress, loneliness, and digitally obese. To overcome this, I read recently that Gen Z is making moves to “dumb phones.” For Christmas, I bought a Light Phone, but have yet to put it into use.

Here at Bonfire, the company has its share of technostress. SalesForce (vomit), Outreach, Click-Up (love it), Slack, Outlook, DocuSign, Intacct, Loom, SlideBean, Box, Nexonia, Canva, Adobe, and on and on it goes. And can you believe it, I actually forgot a few assignments over the past few weeks.

Now, dear reader, lest you fear I’ve led to a point of mutual despair without a solution, fear not! As I speak with our customers, I know that many in Multifamily actually crave a way out of the malaise of technology. And that is where Bonfire CRM comes to play. Now I know it is not for all those in need of simplicity, yet the properties that have a PMS that meets their needs and then a CRM that works like a glove, can reduce the tech stack, cut costs, and eliminate double work.

We are currently using our platform to aid in our own tech stack reduction. Just this week we are launching a few campaigns through our automated Journeys in hopes of growing our business. Journeys will have automated follow up and task generation so that we can track our deals without losing them in the morass of notifications.

At this point, I do not have all the answers, but I do know the desire to simplify, work, and connect well helped drive our decision to move into the CRM space. The company grew tired of the perceived shackles technology placed upon the team and desired to simplify internally and then help others in that as well.

It is my hope that each of you will spot a meme that sparks an idea that helps you simplify and connect.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

JS Bower