Running a successful business is all about maximizing your resources. Every dollar you spend on one service is a dollar that you can’t spend somewhere else, so it’s essential that you wring every bit of value out of every service you pay for. Your shredding service contract is no exception. If you’re using your shredding service inefficiently—like if you’re only using it to collect and destroy sensitive documents—you’re leaving money on the table. Here’s how to make the most of your shredding service contract.
Have an internal system for organizing and collecting shreddable materials.
Consolidating your pickups can help you save on shredding service costs. When your service arrives at your business for a pickup, you want to make sure that everything that needs to be shredded has been collected and is ready to go. What you don’t want is to find out afterward that employees didn’t get the message about the shredding pickup and have been accumulating old, sensitive client files and hard drives in their offices. Either all that extra material needs to stay on your premises until the next pickup, or you need to schedule an extra pickup.
Understandably, your shredding schedule isn’t a top-of-mind concern for your employees as they focus on their tasks – so have a point person who’s in charge of managing your shredding system. They can be in charge of communicating with everyone about shredding pickups and making sure that everything shreddable is collected and ready when your shredding service arrives. Having one person in charge of coordinating your business’s data destruction process is especially useful if you have any local remote workers who need to bring sensitive materials into the office for shredding.
Shred anything confidential, not just paper.
As long as you’re working with a shredding service to manage your confidential documents, let the service help you protect other kinds of sensitive data. Shredding is the most effective way to destroy hard drives, payment cards, ID badges, off-spec products and other materials that are capable of storing sensitive data. Your shredding service should also be able to provide certificates of destruction for your records, in case your business ever needs to prove compliance with any data destruction laws that govern you.
Use drop-off services for shredding small loads.
While the convenience of secure pickup service is a significant perk of working with a shredding service, there are some circumstances when dropping off your shreddable materials is more cost-effective. Say your business finishes up a sensitive project for a client and you have several boxes full of documents, drives and other materials related to the project. Those boxes contain a lot of the client’s confidential information that you can’t risk exposing. It might be weeks before the next time your shredding service comes for a scheduled pickup.
Depending on your proximity to your shredding service’s facility, having an employee deliver those boxes to the facility might be a quick trip that saves you money. Many shredding services (including Northeast Data Destruction) have reduced fees for shredding materials that are dropped off.
Consider involving your shredding service in community or customer outreach events.
Working with a shredding service can serve a purpose beyond simply shredding your own sensitive data. Everyone has sensitive files and devices that need shredding, but not everyone has a shredding service contract. Your business can organize a shredding event as a way for your customers, neighbors and other community members to securely dispose of their shreddable materials. Your shredding service can bring a truck to your site, and people can stop by and drop off boxes of documents and drives for shredding. Not only are you connecting prospective customers with a valuable service, but creating an opportunity to get some face time with them and talk about your business. It’s a win-win.
Take advantage of your shredding service’s other connections.
An established shredding service is generally going to have relationships with other service providers in your area. Use those relationships to your advantage. If your business needs help with implementing better data security practices or disposing of non-shreddable recyclable materials or waste, call on your shredding service for help or referrals.
For example, Northeast Data Destruction’s sister company Miller Recycling provides commercial recycling services as well as equipment rentals. If a client is closing their office, Miller Recycling can deliver roll-off containers for waste while Northeast Data Destruction handles shredding all the client’s obsolete documents and drives in our NAID “AAA” certified facility. Use your shredding service as a source of information whenever you have questions or concerns about managing business waste. Northeast Data Destruction is committed to helping our clients maximize their resources. We want to make it as easy and cost-effective as possible for businesses to use our shredding services for their data security needs. How can we help your business? Contact us today!