Why People Paper Shred
We’ve been in the paper shredding business for nearly a decade, and I can tell you for a fact that there’re 4 main reasons why people paper shred. For some people it’s just one of the below, for others it’s a combination of 2 or more. Sadly, and to be very honest to our surprise, less and less people seem to care about the environment. One in every hundred customers we have, actually only paper shreds because it’s good for the environment.
Now I’m not telling you this so you feel bad and start looking for stashes of empty drink cans to recycle. I just wanted to point that out – it seems that less and less people give a hoot about the environment…. And not that I’m one to judge, today I, a grown man, ate a Big Mac for lunch – with a Diet Coke. So, believe me, not one to judge – just making the observation that caring for the environment seems less and less hip.
As a company that values its customers tremendously, making these types of observations always allow us to stay abreast of changing trends. But for now – the four main reasons that we’ve found why people shred are:
THE 4 REASONS WHY PEOPLE PAPER SHRED
1) They’ve got no choice!![bctt tweet=” They accept some documents that are so confidential that they can only be accepted if the recipient not only promises to paper shred – but also proves it by way of a Certificate of Destruction, YouTube Video or Flash Dance…” username=”totalshredlted”]. These types of people usually only get their shredding done on these specific occasions only.
2) Time – The companies have bought a bunch of office shredders, and whilst most have not jammed, thrown up or broken down – there’s still a human cost element of having to manually paper shred. They carry on for a while, convinced that shredding in house is the best way to go and outsourcing is a waste of money. Until of course they realise that you can have shredding done whenever suits, at a price point that ends up being far cheaper than the hourly rate of the poor person that has to do all the shredding… They wise up and discover that quotes for shredding can be as little as £39-£65. Bargain. But of course, the poor person who got to waste an entire day starring out the window whilst shredding, sadly has to go back to doing whatever they do. Pokémon GO?
3) Space – if you work in an office – let’s be fair space is a huge issue. Our customers tell us that sometimes they can barely stand another person in their office let alone stacks and stacks of archive boxes that are just collecting dust and quite simply cramping everyone’s mood. Initially they go through the whole process of trying to paper shred in house, then working out the cost of archiving, then realising most if not all the documents can be shredded and eventually, we get the call. Clearing up huge corners of their office that are just drowning in boxes
4) And finally, peace of mind – knowing that the documents you have in the wrong hands can be so utterly damaging, paying the nominal fee every month for some shredding is a no brainer. Recently someone told us of a company who used some rather aggressive scare tactics on prospective customers. They would go in and meet their prospects and at some point, start going through all the bins looking for confidential papers. Lo and behold each and every time they would find something that should have in fact been shredded. Now whilst we think that’s a little too extreme for us to do, it does make you wonder how casually people just throw away confidential papers in the hope that no one will read them. And you know what, you’re probably right; no one does. But it just takes that one time to be wrong. It just takes that one client letter, or credit card bill or bank statement to get found and it’s game over. Hence monthly shredding contracts almost serve as an insurance policy
Now if you’re already a shredder, you know me, I love ya and keep it up – keep shredding. And ask yourself which of the above reasons make you call us.