Keep Your Customers Safe In Winter Weather
As the owner of a small business, you have a personal responsibility to keep your customers safe while they are in your business space. This is especially important during the wet winter months, when wet surfaces cause tragic slip and fall accidents.
By taking time to reduce the amount of ice and water on your property, you can help keep your customers in the upright position.
Here is a wet weather safety plan for you to follow next time the weather is bad:
Exterior Water and Ice Solutions
Water and ice are the two things that will cause your customers to slip on your property. So, the best thing you can do is limit both from sitting on any surface where people need to walk. You can do this by:
- keeping your building's rain gutters clean
- keeping your building's drains clean
- remove all snow as soon as possible
- liberally apply snow melt ice
It is very important that you have your parking lot plowed of snow, and that you take the time to shovel your walkways. Additionally, you need to make sure that all drains and gutters are free of leaves from the fall. This will help to keep water from overflowing out of the gutters and landing on the pavement, where it can turn to ice.
In order to give your customers a safer walkway, you should apply a generous amount of snow melting salt. While rock salt will work, you should purchase the salt sold specifically for melting snow and ice. This salt has a different chemical make-up than table salt does, which makes it much more effective at melting the ice.
Exterior Rubber Mats
There are some nice rubber mats currently on the market which have nice patterns. The mats easily roll-out on the concrete walkway into your store, and they help to keep your customer's shoes off of slick, wet surfaces. This type of mat can go a very long way towards preventing falls from outside your business.
Interior Rugs and a Hot Fan
You should purchase some large, thick rugs to place inside the door of your business. You want to choose rugs that have low edges because they will help to keep people from tripping on the edge of the rug. Since the rug will be used for people to wipe their wet shoes, you need to place a hot fan next to the rug. Aim the heating fan at the rug so that it will help to keep the rug dry.
What to do if a Customer Slips and Falls on Your Property
If you have taken all of the above steps, and a customer still falls on your property, then you need to report the accident to your insurance company. If there are any other issues from the accident later down the road, then you should contact a local personal injury attorney, such as Hagelgans and Veronis. An attorney is the only person legally able to give you advice on how to deal with any lawsuit resulting from this type of accident.
Conclusion
You are to be commended for caring enough about your customer's safety to take steps to prevent slip and fall injuries on your business's property. These type of injuries can be serious, and they can also result in your company being sued.
If someone has already had an accident on your property, then you should call a local personal injury attorney to defend your business interests in court.