Wondering whats the best process and practices while managing your lost and found property? Here are vFound’s and our competitors recommendations/tips on how to manage lost property and particularly disposal at your venue:
Cards (Debit Cards or Credit Cards)
As you may imagine, debit cards or credit cards are among the top items that are lost at a property. Using vFound, firstly you should hide the image when publishing it on your own lost and found web page. This will ensure that all confidential details are kept private and ensuring your process is compliant.
If the card is not returned to the correct owner, you should follow your local laws on how to best dispose of plastic cards. Here are some tips on how to dispose of credit cards.
Confidential Documents
These could be any sort of ID’s or documents like a passport, student ID card, legal or business documents. Again, make sure to be careful when publishing it on your own lost and found web page. While some document images will make sense to publish online, some may not. Make your best judgment.
Ask relevant questions to the claimant about their lost item that only they would be able to answer. If you are not sure, dispose it securely as per policy while paper documents should be shredded appropriately and not binned.
Cash
Lost cash is commonly found at a property. While you should make sure to try and return it to the right owner, it should be kept in your possession for a reasonable amount of time. When the time lapses, you can choose to en-cash the cash, donate it to charity, or use it to offset the costs of operational and administrative handling lost property.
Clothing
Most local charities will happily will take any unclaimed clothing that include: wallets, jewellery, jumpers, hats, etc. vFound gives you a seamless option to mark those items which you want to either dispose off or give it to charity. This ensures correct reporting as you will be able to know which items are in your possession, which items got disposed off and which items were donated to charity. We all love reports, isn’t it?
Electronics
Valuable items like phones, cameras, USB’s and smart watches should be handled differently as opposed to handling things like phone chargers, cables, earphones and more as they contain personal data of individuals and the correct disposal will ensure you are compliant with your laws.
Low value items as described above can be disposed off through your local recycling facility while some can be donated to the charity.
Glasses
It is highly recommended that you don’t dispose of old spectacles in the bin as it could be dangerous. Ask your local opticians if they accept them for those in need.
Sunglasses can be donated to the charity.
Keys
Keys are commonly lost at venues. Most keys can be recycled easily at your local recycling facility.
Medical Items
Medical items must be disposed off securely in accordance with your local laws. You should not bin them or flush them down the toilet as it could be hazardous. The best way to dispose off medical items including medicines, creams or equipment is to get in touch with your local pharmacies or doctors.
Dangerous Goods
Although not common, if you do find dangerous goods like weapons and drugs, you must contact your local police station on how to best handle the situation.
Should I really care on how to manage lost property?
So as you can see, having a correct lost and found disposal process is essential. On top of that, having a digital lost and found property software like vFound can help you manage lost property more efficiently making sure your staff and customers don’t see lost and found as a burden.
Further, it creates a better experience for your valuable customers. If it’s something you have not considered before, we hope that you will after reading this article.