Looking To Hire A Shredding Service For Your Business? Factors To Consider Beyond Price
If your business is looking to hire a paper shredding company, such as Vital Records Control, one of the factors that may sway you to hire one company over another is price. And while the price of the service is important, there are many other factors that are equally as important and may warrant paying a bit more for this service. Here are a few of the overlooked factors that you may want to consider when hiring a shredding service for your business.
If You Have To Remove Holders From the Papers
Some paper shredding companies require you to remove any metal objects holding your paper together. This includes staples, paper clips and binder clips. Other companies do not require you to remove these items. While it may not take much time to remove a paper clip here or there, if your company staples or paper clips everything, those few seconds can quickly add up to minutes and hours spent unproductively removing holders from paper. If your business has to discard papers that are held together with some form of metal object, try to find a company that does not require you to remove them in order to shred your papers.
What Can Be Destroyed Aside From Paper
When businesses are looking to hire a shredding service, they are primarily looking for a company to shred their paper items. This includes invoices, customer information, and files. However, there are many other items in an office that need to be shredded or properly destroyed to ensure pertinent customer information and business information does not end up in the wrong hands. Some of the items that you may want a shredding company to properly dispose of include old business credit cards, CDs, hard drives, floppy discs, x-rays, photographs and outdated company cell phones. All of these items may contain customer information or business information, so ensuring they are shredded or wiped clean is important. If your business deals with these items, try to find a shredding service that also disposes of the items you need disposed of.
What Certifications a Shredding Company Holds
As you look to hire a shredding company, it is important to ask the company what certifications, if any, they hold. The most recognizable certification for paper shredding companies is the one issued by the National Association for Information Destruction, or NAID. This company only certifies companies that comply with the industry's code of ethics and requirements for shredding business information. If a company is not certified, it doesn't mean that they don't comply with these requirements, but you have no way of knowing. When you hire a certified company, you know that they meet and comply with these standards.
How the Information is Secured Until it is Shredded
The last factor you should consider when hiring a shredding service is how the information you give to them is secured until it is shredded and how long it will take for this information to be shredded. As a business owner, it is your responsibility to ensure the information is properly disposed of. Giving it to another company doesn't absolve you of this responsibility. You need to find out how they are ensuring the information you hand over to them is secure until it is shredded. Some companies will use lock bins, while others will shred the papers on the same day they are given to them. Always ask how the information is secured and how long it takes to shred or destroy the information to ensure your business and customer information is safe until it is destroyed.
There are many different companies out there that offer shredding services. As such, it can be challenging to determine which one is best for your business. While price will certainly factor into your decision, there are many other things to consider as well. Finding out if you have to remove any metal holders from the papers you are disposing of, what other items can be destroyed, what certifications the company holds, and how the papers are secured once they leave your business will help you hone in on the shredding service that is best for your business.
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