Bad Politics or Just Poor Customer Service?
I can certainly respect a city’s desire to maintain a clean, orderly look. Trashy neighborhoods tend to attract criminal elements and encourage further unkempt yards and businesses and the cycle continues. In their efforts to reduce unsightly paper waste, the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance restricting the number of collection bins in any given location and mandating screens and weekly pick up.
On the surface, this might seem restrictive and a move that will reduce the amount of recycling in the city. The main reason for the ordinance appears to be to get AbitibiBowater, a commercial paper company that manages 562 recycling bins, to keep their bins from regularly overflowing.
My initial reaction was, “Yeah, stop telling them how to run their business.” However, the more I thought about it, the more I saw that if AbitibiBowater can’t handle serving their customer, the city of Dallas, then they should get out of the business. Most recycling companies recognize the importance of picking up bins regularly and that moving material through the process is the best way to make money.
Letting material sit around, accumulating to the point of overflowing bins not only is poor customer service, it also reduces your cash flow. Both these symptoms are early indicators of a company that won’t last very long. If it continues, it looks like Dallas may need to find another contractor that appreciates the value of good customer service.