Looking for a quote to store your records offsite? Five reasons why you need to insist on a site visit first
Sourcing a quote to move storage offsite is the first step to taking control of your business records – and to accessing all the benefits that come with it.
So, it is vital to ensure the quote you receive is accurate and well informed.
It is often tempting to look for a quick answer over the phone, especially when contacting several providers at the same time.
But beware of companies which quote too quickly. A site visit is the only real way to get an accurate price for offsite records storage.
Here are the top five reasons why having the Restore team visit your premises to build a quote is the best option for straightforward, cost-effective records management:
Andrew Robertshaw,
Implementation Manager, Restore Information Management
1. The benefit of no surprises
Surprise costs are never welcome, especially when your starting point was to save time and money.
A quick quote over the phone could result in additional fees being added later. This is because there are things that nobody can know about your records storage needs without visiting the business first.
Whether it is the condition of your boxes, the number of boxes (businesses often under-estimate how many they have), or what is being stored (some items need to be stored in specialist conditions to ensure they do not deteriorate), it is vital that your records management partner takes everything into consideration.
It might sound obvious, but it’s not possible to truly know the layout of your grounds until they are seen in person, either.
Visiting allows a records management company to assess vehicle access, providing an in-depth understanding of your site’s routes and exits – all of which could impact the cost of collection and delivery.
When Restore comes to visit, we will assess which boxes need to be moved, where to find them, and how they would be transported to our vehicles. The site visit is free of charge and does not slow the process down of getting your quote, it’s a no-brainer!
Leave the technicalities to our experts, safe in the knowledge you have an accurate quote.
2. Get advice on which boxes to destroy – it might even save you money
Unless you have a good database of your records, it needs a site visit to understand how many of your records need to be kept and which could be destroyed. Either way, we will work together with your business to build a plan on how to deal with records that are due for destruction.
That makes a big difference in terms of how many boxes you move to offsite storage and how much you pay for storage in future.
Our secure destruction service for records past their retention date can save money in the long term. Why keep information that you no longer need to store?
3. Build a partnership with real people
If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we need to value real-life human relationships.
A phone call can be a good start, but actually meeting people you plan to work with in the future is better.
Records management can seem cold and corporate, but at Restore we are far from that. We are down-to-earth people who just want to understand your plans so we can do the best job possible.
Building a rapport means we can figure out what kind of records you have, how you’re storing them, and what your storage goals are. It helps build an excellent working relationship for the future, too.
4. Ensure compliance is considered
Not knowing what’s in your boxes can be a compliance issue when it comes to keeping up with UK GDPR demands. We can offer a ‘lift the lid’ service to find out what your boxes contain and provide advice about how to index the contents.
At Restore, we are ‘Ridiculously Regulatory; we understand that compliance is everything. That’s why we ensure our accreditations span everything from ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems Standard to BS 10008 Evidential weight and legal admissibility of electronic information and why we help our clients comply with regulations by offering a safe, secure location to store records without using precious space in your own offices.
5. Identify which records you need access to most often – and build a plan
Assessing your records onsite is the first step to creating a highly accessible offsite archive and to opening a discussion about what your storage and retrieval needs are. Consider whether you need a deep storage solution (long-term), what will need to be retrieved, how often, and within what timeframe.
Some clients choose to speed up access to the files they need most often by utilising our scanning service. Others might want to consider a more comprehensive scanning programme to reduce their inventory in the long term.
Whatever happens, all records will be accurately indexed so that you can retrieve them easily from storage – and we offer a range of delivery options. We see ourselves as a records storage partner, and we’ll work with you right from the very start.
In summary
A site visit is the best way for our team to get to know your premises and records systems inside-out. By seeing them in-person, we can evaluate access needs, build a rapport, conduct a thorough box count and provide you with a quote that is precise and accurate. It’s the start of a working relationship that can last long into the future.
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