Lost & Found for
21st Century In today’s hectic world more and more people are turning to those handy gadgets and mobile products that can be taken with them anywhere they go. The more things consumers own, more they're prone to lose them. This in mind we actually went out and tested a new service on UK market from Want it Bak. Lets see what Londoners are really made of.We left a Palm m130 PDA on Jubilee Line of London Underground, a Sony Ericcson Mobile on number 15 bus route, a Blackberry “email on move” gizmo down in a local pub in South West London and a rucksack sitting in Starbucks Chancery Lane area. Lastly we left a digital camera sitting out in open in Hyde park. Not easiest thing leaving items lying about in this highly security conscious world we live in these days.
Here in 21st century our lives have become more and more reliant on mobile items. As we go through our days, keeping a mental log of everything we have and where we have it becomes more and more difficult. It is inevitable that some things get lost. In fact as stated in a recent research “Around 62,000 mobile phones were left in London taxis during last six months. That's an average three phones per taxi, according to a survey of licensed London cabbies by Taxi Newspaper and Pointsec Mobile Technologies. Absent minded and drunken travellers also forgot 4,000 laptops and 5,000 PDA’s when exiting cabs”.
So what can we do to have give us some reassurance that we have at least a chance of getting our valuable or even sentimental items back.
In steps lost and found for 21st century in form of Want it Bak. The service is based around belief that most people are actually honest and will do right thing if a method is offered to them. This feel good factor is enhanced by added incentive of a reward for doing right thing.
Anything you can imagine, mobile phones, keys, cameras, PDA’s, laptops, binoculars, backpacks, passports, briefcases, wallets and purses, golf clubs, power tools, textbooks, credit cards, cheque books... you get picture, it can all be protected using their simple system.
How does Want it Bak work? Simple. You purchase a range of security tags each with their own unique id number. You register them with Want it Bak and that’s it. If you ever lose item and someone finds it they contact Want it Bak directly using their website or their 0800 number and they arrange a courier to pick it up and return it to owner for a small admin charge.
One of best things about this service is confidential nature of it. The “Finder” never knows who owner is and vice versa. Reassuring for owners of expensive items, they can now safely retrieve their possessions.
"It's a great incentive for people to do right thing", says Chris Cameron from Want it Bak, "Our research shows that most people are actually honest and biggest barrier they have to returning items is hassle of finding out who it belongs to, arranging delivery or pick up, getting time to drop item off at local police station. Now they don't have to do anything except ring us or visit our website, and they get a Reward for their troubles".
