I’ve always believed in the power of a Mission Statement because it’s inevitable that there will be days when you will lose sight of why you got into this business in the first place.
The Kollect Mission Statement has admittedly evolved through the years but we finally settled on this nugget: “To create simple ways to have all waste collected and recycled globally whilst always exceeding customer expectations”. It may not be sexy, but hey, rubbish isn’t sexy (don’t say that too loudly around our office though).
Seriously though, in today’s world, operating with a mission is essential to establishing an enduring brand and successful business. Over the last three years, we’ve made early progress towards our two-part vision but very quickly realised that we weren’t thinking big enough.
Waste is absolutely everywhere, and yet, the entire industry seems to exist primarily offline. This is a massive untapped market, with, by our estimations – only 0.2% of business occurring online.
Mission Deconstructed
Step one of our mission – “creating simple ways to have all waste collected and recycled” – is accomplished by allowing customers to find us easily through online search, receive a quote for a job, a date for collection and also the handy ability to book and pay online or with cash. The customer is the boss and in total control of all their waste collection needs. We have created a powerful platform, which we give our customers round-the-clock access to.
Step two is “to always exceed customer expectations”. I’m going to be honest here…we’ve been obsessed about this from day one. If your customer is happy, then we’re happy. If we’re happy, then the office is happy and we get more work done. Good companies make profits, great companies create fans. We have built a company based on a core set of four values: Honesty, Responsiveness, Fairness and a WOW service.
It’s always been important to us that our customers see us as people who are here to make their lives easier. We know from experience that there is nothing worse than feeling like you don’t matter. Have you ever been online for 20 mins only to get cut off, or worse still, to be met with someone who doesn’t know or care much about what you’re asking for and just fobs you off. The day we even get close to doing something like that is the day we pack it all in.
