Each day, businesses around the world create documents. While it’s nice to hope that these documents stay out of the wrong hands, it’s hard to guarantee that this won’t happen. Considering that, many businesses utilize the help of shredding services in order to safely dispose of sensitive business documents. Failing to properly dispose of business documents could create major issues for your company in the form of data breaches. That being said, it’s understandable to wonder what separates the best shredding services from the competition. With that in mind, here are four qualities to look for while choosing a professional shredding service.
- Professional References Are Major Pluses
In many ways, choosing a document disposal company is similar to a company hiring an employee. Therefore, you’ll want to ask if the shredding service has any professional references available. These references are often reviews from previous clients or something that would indicate a client’s praise from previously completed projects. Obtaining this kind of information can help you to rest assured that you’ve partnered with one of the best shredding services available. - Wise to Consider Choosing Locally
Document disposal is an extremely sensitive matter. Considering that, it’s wise to work with a local document shredding company. In turn, you won’t have to worry about documents traveling all over the world before reaching their destination. You’re also far more likely to talk to someone in person when dealing with a local shredding service, rather than having to call an 800 number for questions or assistance. - Safe Document Shredding
One of the biggest concerns associated with improper document shredding is identity theft. Certain individuals can take the papers from your business and analyze them to obtain private information. While it’s understandable to think that hackers would have an easier time obtaining information through a website, this isn’t always true. In fact, nearly 90% of all instance of identity theft involved obtaining information through print sources rather than data obtained online. Considering that, it’s imperative that the document shredding service you’re working with knows how to destroy documents in a private and professional manner. - Offers Other Types of Disposal Services
Statistics gathered from 2015 found that data breaches affected nearly 131 million people. While 16.2 million people were affected by business data breaches, nearly 113 were affected by medical or healthcare data breaches. Regardless of your chosen industry, data breaches can occur at any time or place. While it’s been mentioned that many data breaches occur through paper records, it’s important that other data types are destroyed safely as well. Considering that, the best shredding services typically offer other types of disposal services including those used for computer hard drives.
To summarize, finding the best shredding services depends on several factors. It’s important to find a shredding service with professional references or some type of previously gained reviews. You’ll find it wise to narrow down your search by choosing a local shredding service. Working with a local company means it’s much easier to speak to someone in person rather than dialing into a call center. The best shredding services place the utmost importance on privacy and confidentiality while working with your company. Finding a document shredding service that can also dispose of other materials helps a business remain protected from breaches regardless of the data source.