How to Prevent Slip and Fall Accidents

Anti-slip Floor Mats

There was a time when floor mats were thought to serve only as a protective layer for expensive flooring, like granite, tile, or hardwood. Today, that misconception is long gone. We live in a litigious society, and property owners learned long ago that commercial safety mats can go a long way in keeping entryways clean, dry, and safe.

For best results, property owners are to pair an outdoor mat with a second indoor mat to ensure maximum debris containment. Outside, a weatherproof “scraper mat” with tough ridges and grooves will dislodge big dirt and debris from shoes. Inside, a wider and longer carpet met will serve as a “wiper,” giving guests a large area to wipe dry while entering the building.

Slip and Fall Caution Signs

Some areas are more dangerous than others. For these areas, property owners might find it beneficial to proactively place caution signs by curbs, uneven floor transitions, abrupt drop-offs, and other disruptions in walking surface that might not be noticeable by first time guests.

By law, property owners are required to disclose information on known dangerous. Failure to do so might be construed as negligence, in which property owners could be liable for accidents that occur. Slip and fall caution signs help property owners avoid this common pitfall, helping to notify guests of known dangers and risks.

Exceptional Lighting

Guests are likely to slip, trip, or fall over 100% of the hazards they cannot see. Exceptional lighting is vital, especially at dusk. Exterior floodlights, entryway lights, and the overhead lighting throughout the facility are just 3 areas to be mindful.

Maintenance Personnel

Safety mats, caution signs, and exceptional lighting mean little if they are not properly maintained. Unlike the property owners and/or business management, maintenance personnel are on the frontlines where accidents are most likely to occur. They see debris accumulation, liquid spills, burned-out lights, and other serious hazards long before anyone else. Moreover, they have the tools and knowledge to fix the problem before it has the chance to cause someone serious harm.

Wet Umbrella Bag Stands

Aside form debris, liquid accumulation is one of the biggest causes of slip and fall accidents. Liquid accumulation is particularly hard to manage on rainy days. Rainstorms have a tendency to cause hazardous puddles and slippery conditions at entryways, even when floor mats, safety signs, lights, and vigilant maintenance personnel are present.

Wet umbrella bag stands give guests a place to store and secure their umbrella, significantly reducing the rainwater and mess they carry past the entryway. Wet umbrella bag stands are available in a variety of different sizes, finishes, and styles to complement most interior décor. When paired with mats and other safety products, umbrella bag stands are the final touch to an effective slip and fall prevention plan.

Sources:

(i) “Workplace Safety Index 2010.” Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety.

(ii) “New Techniques for Slip and Fall Management.” CNA. Download the PDF.

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As we’ve covered in many blog articles and studies this year, one of the best ways to improve customer satisfaction and visitor safety is to focus on making sure floor surfaces are clean, dry, and safe. The importance of floors was highlighted earlier this year when American insurance company, CNA, released a new study indicating that poorly maintained floors were the #1 contributing factor in slip and fall accident cases. For some, this statistic was a departure from conventional wisdom, as many would intuitively guess that slips and falls had more to do with visitor footwear and/or clumsiness.

In keeping entryways safe, customers are sure to feel a firm foothold and a warm welcome when entering storefronts to shop during the 2013 holiday season.

Spreading Awareness for In-store Accident Prevention

The biggest reason we are spreading awareness for visitor safety during the holiday shopping season is simple: Accidents are more likely to occur when storefronts are busy, overcrowded, and offering big sales. Retailers know firsthand that each of those variables has major influence during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, making now the perfect time to re-think storefront safety products and protocols.

Moreover, the snow and rain of winter months has the potential to make entryways even more treacherous than normal. To prepare, retailers are encouraged to be mindful of the 10 days that are predicted to be the busiest this season:

1. November 29th: Black Friday
2. December 21st: Super Saturday
3. December 22nd
4. December 20th
5. December 14th
6. December 23rd
7. December 26th (the day following Christmas)
8. November 30th (Saturday following Black Friday)
9. December 7th
10. 10. December 28th

Tips for Preventing Slippery Floors

With the top 10 busiest shopping days in mind, property owners must shift gears to think about visitor safety from the ground-up. Below are 3 essential tips for making sure that storefronts, particularly high traffic entryways, stay clean, dry, and safe for shoppers.

1. Use floor mats for added traction.

Floor mats are perhaps one of the oldest and most well-known methods of accident prevention. Mats are available in a variety of makes and models, each of which can add a significant layer of traction on which customers can walk while simultaneously drying their shoes.

2. Offer coat racks or coat check services.

Floor mats are just the foundation for a slip-free season, however. It’s important to understand other ways in which snow, ice, and rainwater can penetrate facilities and cause hazardous puddles. One way precipitation is carried past entryways and throughout the storefront is by way of wet raincoats and other outdoor apparel. Offer a place for guests to check their coats, and you’ll reap two benefits: Precipitation control, and customer experience enhancement. Allow guests to easily shed their wet coats, and create an in-store environment that invites happy shopping.

3. Offer wet umbrella bags to guests.

Umbrellas are particularly good at carrying precipitation past entryways, as they are often carried throughout the store with little thought of the mess they make. As property owners, keeping up with liquid accumulation from wet umbrellas can be a challenge that can lead to slips, trips, and falls when left unchecked. Place wet umbrella bag dispensers at all major points of entry, and give guests a convenient way to stow their umbrellas while they shop.

Keeping Things Clean, Dry, and Safe This Winter

Visit Umbrella Bagger for additional information on wet umbrella bag stands, disposable bags, and other safety products. For order information and assistance, call toll free 1-855-328-8100.

Read the full press release by clicking on the following link: PRWeb-Umbrella Bagger Spreads Awareness for In Store Accident Prevention

The post Umbrellabagger.com Announces New Awareness Campaign for a Safe Holiday Shopping Season appeared first on Umbrella Bagger Blog.

Before attempting to improve customer experience, it is vital for all members of the organization to share a clear definition of what customer experience means. By definition, customer experience is a qualitative value that sums each of the interactions that occur between a customer and a business throughout the lifespan of the relationship they share.

Improve Customer Experience with These Tips

The interactions that make-or-break customer experience does not occur exclusively in-store, however. Digital interactions like TV commercials, radio spots, print ads, email campaigns, and social media all make significant contributions to the overall customer experience. Businesses must be mindful of this when creating a customer experience enhancement program.

Make a Good First Impression

Making a good first impression sets a solid foundation for building a positive customer experience. In general, the goal should be to make the customer as comfortable as possible. In return, the customer can more easily be guided to an appropriate purchase that he or she will make with confidence. This can be accomplished through both in-store ambiance, as well as with well-trained customer service professionals.

• Use a color scheme that resonates with the goal of your business. If you are a travel agency, vibrant colors and earthy décor can aid in creating the “escape” experience that your customers desire. For banks and financial institutions, however, a cooler color scheme with blacks, deep blues, and graphite accents can promote feelings of safety and confidence.
• Maintain a professional appearance. Use floor mats, signs, and other safety products to promote a clean and professional appearance during business hours. During fall and winter months, offer customers an easy way to stow their wet umbrellas with wet umbrella bag stands.
• Focus on comprehensive employee training. list (clear protocol for handling specific types of customer interactions, ongoing training to improve service, training to learn about new products/ services, etc) To create an excellent customer experience, employees must be prepared to handle customer complaints—both the common and the rare.

Maintain a Safe Environment

Creating a safe and professional environment is just the starting point. Once created, management must devise practical strategies for maintaining a safe in-store environment.

• Regularly clean floor spaces along heavily trafficked areas, like entryways and elevator lobbies.
• Designate specific members of the maintenance team as responsible for reporting and responding to dangerous conditions, like puddles, faulty product displays, illegible warning signs, and other potentially hazardous elements within the retail space.
• When offering wet umbrella bags to customers on days of inclement weather, make sure dispenser stands are properly deployed and remind maintenance staffs to check them throughout peak hours, re-stocking with additional bags when necessary.

Focus on Touch Points to Enhance Customer Experience

As we’ve seen, enhancing customer experience in today’s digitally connected world requires businesses to identify and connect with customers in both real-world and virtual. While in-store promotions attract customers to physical storefronts, it’s digital channels like social media and email that often nurture customers until they are ready to make a purchase. By considering, business professionals can devise a comprehensive strategy for delivering a higher level of service that ultimately leads to a better experience, both in the store and online.

Visit Umbrella Bagger for additional information on wet umbrella bag dispensers, disposable bags, and other safety products. For order information and assistance, call toll free 1-855-328-8100.

For follow-up reading, visit this article on customer experience via Forrester, a global research and advisory board.

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Umbrellas, Rainwater, and Safety

Many businesses are hesitant to invest in new safety products that do not offer a direct and tangible benefit to the bottom line. In today’s economy, managers and risk management teams are often under immense pressure to focus on technological investments that yield large-scale efficiencies in major areas of business operations like manufacturing, marketing, and research and development.

Visitor safety and customer relationship management are essential focal points for businesses looking to increase revenues and efficiencies, however, particularly those involved in retail sales, property management, and the hospitality industry. For these businesses, wet umbrella bag stands provide numerous benefits at a low cost that is easy to manage.

To more easily make this cost-benefit analysis, it helps to assess the 4 main reasons why wet umbrellas are dangerous for business.

1. Entrance Mats Dry Shoes Only

Businesses that feel entrance matting and safety signs are adequate in preventing slip and fall accidents are wise to reconsider the reach of their safety initiatives. Rubber mats, carpet mats, and other flooring materials are highly effective in wiping the dirt and moisture from the soles of shoes. However, they do not prevent moisture and debris from being carried past the entryway by umbrellas. Moreover, guests who perform the “Shake and Splash” inevitably throw rainwater, snow, and ice well past entrance mats and on to lobby floors.

2. Guests Are Prone to the ‘Shake and Splash’

We’ve all seen it before: A guest quickly enters the building, taking refuge from the storm outside. They carefully wipe their shoes repeatedly, consciously trying to avoid a slip and fall. Then, they vigorously open and close their wet umbrella several times, shaking it dry so they may carry it more comfortably throughout the interior of the building.

The problem: The popular “Shake and Splash” move throws precipitation beyond the reach of entrance mats. Rainwater, snow, and/or ice are left to melt and form dangerous puddles on uncovered areas of lobby floors. Responsibility then falls on the shoulders of the maintenance staff to clean the mess before another guest accidentally slips and falls. And for commercial locations that experience a great deal of visitor inflow/outflow, or for those with limited maintenance resources, the risk of accident increases with each guest who arrives.

3. Slip and Fall Accidents Are a Costly Problem

Slip and fall accidents are a costly problem, and it’s estimated that American businesses lost approximately $12 billion to such insurance claims in 2010 alone. This figure is courtesy of the Liberty Mutual Research Institute, and it was published in the organization’s annual safety report titled 2012 Workplace Safety Index. The report also indicated that slip and fall accidents are 1 of the 10 most costly categories of workplace accidents that has actually increased in cost since 1998.

4. Property Owners May Face Liability

By law, property owners are required to take reasonable measures to keep premises safe for those who visit. Property owners owe the highest level of duty and care for invitees—those individuals who are invited on to the premises. It’s vital for business owners to understand that a vast number of jurisdictions consider customers to be invitees, as the opportunity to conduct business in the store/on location carries with it an unspoken invitation to enter.

And while lawmakers do not require business owners to give guests a disposable umbrella bag on rainy days, they do require property owners to take reasonable efforts to keep the premises safe. This includes covering slippery floors with floor mats that increase traction, as well as proactively cleaning liquid accumulation and dangerous puddles. In this way, wet umbrella bag dispensers keep businesses a step ahead, preventing rainwater accumulation and the liability that comes with it.

Learn More About Wet Umbrella Bag Dispensers

To learn more about our state of the art umbrella bag dispensers, visit our Automatic Wet Umbrella Wrappers online store. Readers are also invited to contact customer service at 855-328-8100.

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