An Unmet Need

In the UK, it may well be a close to universal frustration that the bins aren't emptied often enough. Or, more accurately, they probably are emptied just enough, but absolutely no more than that. Which means that if you ever miss a collection you're suddenly in real trouble.

This post isn't really about complaining about the bins, however.

One of the many things I've been reluctantly learning recently is about the concept of Customer Needs, and specifically unmet Customer Needs. Basically, it's really hard to sell someone something that they neither want nor have any use for. But if you can provide something that they want, that's much easier. And if you can provide something that they need, and specifically something that they need and can't get anywhere else, well...

Anyway, we have recently returned from vacation, being away from home for just under two weeks. More importantly, we were away on the day of two bin collections - the garden waste bin (which we could probably have managed without) and the paper/card recycling bin (which is considerably harder to miss). (The worst of all, of course, is the general waste bin.)

Now, as it happens we have a good relationship with our various neighbours, and so we were able to prevail on some of them to put the bins out and put them back. But many people are not in that position for one reason or another.

Which brings me to the unmet needs.

It strikes me that during the summer holidays in particular, there are quite a number of teens at a relatively loose end, quite a number of people who need a bin or two put out, and there's therefore an opportunity: "send us a message on Facebook, or similar, and we'll stick your bins out and bring them back in for the princely sum of {whatever} a bin. We cover these streets..."

I mean, there's probably some horrible reason why it just wouldn't work, of course. This is the UK after all, where nothing really works well. But it does feel like a rather neat solution to what might otherwise be a problem.