Controlling rainwater accumulation is vital when it comes to maintaining a clean, dry, and safe environment as well. Contrary to popular belief, it is often the condition of the floor that causes the accident—not the clumsiness of the person who falls (i). In this light, staying proactive in controlling wet umbrellas and the rainwater they carry is essential in preventing unnecessary slips, trips, and falls during rainy days.

5 Settings That Are Ideal for Umbrella Wrappers

The following 5 locations are the most ideal settings for these unique safety products.

Residential apartment buildings

Whether purchasing a unit or leasing for the year, apartment complexes are first and foremost judged on the quality of life they provide to residents. Aesthetics, common areas, amenities, and staff are all vital selling points. It’s important to remember that curb appeal is everything, and wet umbrella bag stands are a fine touch that residents and guests are sure to enjoy. Moreover, these devices are highly effective in proactively preventing accidents that can otherwise occur when rainwater is left to form puddles on the floor.

Commercial buildings

Commercial buildings benefit from umbrella bag dispensers for much the same reason that residential complexes do. An important difference, however, lies in the footwear of the guests who frequent the premises. Whether dressing business casual or donning a suit, professional men and women typically wear shoes with smoother soles and less grip than average sneakers. The smallest touch of rainwater or debris can cause a serious slip and fall, making it more dangerous than usual to allow guests to carry wet umbrellas through the entryway, lobby, and interior corridors.

Banks

Security, comfort, and superior customer service are often the three most important values financial lending institutions leverage when competing for new customers. Although umbrella bag dispensers won’t prevent fraud or identity theft, they will make those rainy day trips to the bank a more comfortable experience. After all, no one likes waiting in line with a sopping wet umbrella and their arm.

College campuses

Few communities spend more time traveling from building to building throughout the day than the students, professors, and staff that make up our nation’s college campuses. Add wind and rain to the mix, and it’s easy to see how slip and fall accidents can become a real threat. With such a high level of turnover throughout the day, campus buildings are smart to invest in safety products that keep dirt, debris, and moisture in check. Floor mats are essential, and umbrella bag dispensers are a vital complement, especially in the entryways of auditoriums, fitness centers, and other places that attract high profile events.

Hotels and Resorts

Hotels and resorts are an escape from the ordinary. And although people travel to these destinations to take a break from reality, they still appreciate a warm and comfortable environment. Umbrella bag dispensers are a simple way to make a positive first impression, particularly for tropical destinations that experience unpredictable storms and rainfall.

Learn More About Automatic Umbrella Wrappers

Visit Umbrella Bagger online to shop the Web’s most comprehensive collection of umbrella bag dispensers. Shop our new collection of Automatic Umbrella Wrappers, new units that allow guest to bag and stow wet umbrellas in a single, fluid motion.

Sources:

(i) “New Techniques to Control Slips and Falls.” National Floor Safety Institute. Accessed 23 August 2013.

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Rainwater, snow, and other debris accumulation is most dangerous when it occurs in unlikely places for 1 main reason: It’s hard to spot. For maintenance personnel, accumulation that occurs beyond floor mats or along interior corridors might not be recognized during normal rounds. And for guests, such accumulation can be unexpected and, in some cases, very difficult to see.

Slipper Floors Cost Business Owners Billions

According to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute, slip and fall accidents cost American businesses an estimated $13 billion in total costs. Among those categories of accidents are overexertion, fall on same level, bodily reaction, fall to lower level, and struck by object (such as moving machinery or a dropped tool). The costs illustrated in the infographic above were originally published in the Institute’s Workplace Safety Index for 2010.

Most alarmingly, however, is a figure that is not illustrated above: The cost of slip and fall accidents has actually increased between the years of 1998 and 2008, as reported by Liberty Mutual. Also important to note is that costs for the other top 10 categories of at-work injury all decreased over the same time period.

These numbers demonstrate a simple truth: Slip and fall accidents remain a problem for American business owners. Be it ineffective safety products, lack of proper cleaning protocol, unpredictable weather, or some combination of each of these variables, slip and fall accidents are a costly part of doing business that is preventable.

How to Eliminate Slippery Floor Surfaces

The best way to prevent accidents due to rainy day weather is to take a 3-pronged approach to rainwater accumulation. This includes:

1. Anticipate wet shoes.

Rainy days inevitably cause visitors’ shoes to become wet and dirty with debris. To prevent slips and falls, use indoor and outdoor commercial floor mats to aggressively clean debris and wetness from visitors’ shoes.

2. Remember: Wet coats track water past mats.

Shoes are not the only thing that needs tending to, however. Wet coats can easily track water well beyond floor mats, which can cause dangerous accumulation in hard-to-see places. To combat this problem, use coat racks and “coat checks” to encourage guests to leave wet coats at the entryway.

3. Encourage guests to wrap and stow wet umbrellas.

Like raincoats, wet umbrellas track water well beyond the safe and absorbent surfaces of floor mats. Wet umbrellas pose a greater problem than wet coats, however, because guests shake them dry at the entryway, which showers slick floor surfaces with rainwater, snow, and other debris. Shop wet umbrella bag dispensers to minimize this risk, and present guests with an easy way to wrap-and-stow wet umbrellas upon entering the facility.

Shop Automatic Wet Umbrella Wrappers

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.

Share This Free Infographic

To share this free infographic, right-click on the following link and select “Save as…” to save the embed code to your computer as a .txt file. Then, upload the entire file to your website or blog: Embed Code-Prevent Slippery Floors

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In some cases, investments in customer experience might include physical products that improve the in-store sales process. Accessible product displays, for example, make it easy and entertaining for customers to try products prior to purchase. Vibrant logo mats likewise improve customer experience, reinforcing the company’s brand image while also keeping heavily trafficked customer areas clean, dry, and safe. During rainy months, another new and unique product has rapidly risen in popularity among businesses in our nation’s capital: wet umbrella bag dispensers.

It’s easy to see what wet umbrella bag stands– the units that dispense disposable plastic bags in which visitors store wet umbrellas– are such a popular product this fall. The product itself provides 2 valuable benefits to both visitors and businesses. For visitors, the forward-thinking safety solutions serve to tame otherwise pesky wet umbrellas, making it easy for customers to stay neat and dry while shopping. This function confers a substantial benefit to the business or property owner as well, preventing the accumulation of rainwater on floor spaces that ultimately causes slips, trips, falls, and liability.

Aiming for a Safe, User-Friendly Fall

But just how big of a problem are slip and fall accidents this fall? To answer this important question, we turn to two authorities on workplace safety and accident prevention. The first is the Liberty Mutual Research Institute, an organization that produced a study in 2010 indicating that slip and fall accidents at work cost American businesses upwards of $13 billion in 2008 alone (i).

If the Liberty Mutual statistic isn’t alarming enough, businesses and property owners can look to American insurance company CNA. In 2010, CNA produced a case study in which 57% of property owners reported slip and fall accidents as the most costly and time consuming category of disputes in 2008 (ii).

Read More on Wet Umbrella Bag Stands

Visit Umbrella Bagger online or click here to download the press release.

Sources:

(i) “Workplace Safety Index.” Liberty Mutual Research Institute. Accessed 2 August 2013.

(ii) “New Techniques for Preventing Slips and Falls.” CNA. Accessed 8 September 2013.

The post Washington DC Businesses Welcome Automatic Umbrella Wrappers This Fall appeared first on Umbrella Bagger Blog.

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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