The Art and Science of Managing Slip and Fall Injuries
It’s a typical Tuesday afternoon. You’re a couple of hours away from your laundromat, and your employee calls you. His voice is a bit shaky: “Hey, boss, a guy just fell and hurt himself. He’s pretty mad and says he needs an ambulance. What should I do?”
You’re at your laundromat. There are the normal number of customers in the store for that time of day. You go into your office just for a minute – and, suddenly, you hear a thump and a yell. You rush out and a customer is on the floor, clutching her knee and screaming in pain and anger. As you begin to approach her, she immediately shouts, “You better have great insurance!”
These stories are based on actual events that occurred to real laundromat owners.
In fact, the average cost of a slip, trip, or fall injury reported and settled in the United States is $35,000. In California, it’s $45,000. This is the middle of the bell curve.
One of the scenarios outlined above started at $900,000 and was eventually settled more than two years later at $118,000, because the store owner did a lot of things right.
A simple Google search will uncover law firms touting several high six-figure settlements, as well as many seven-figure paydays. Clearly, this is a very real threat to our livelihoods.
To safeguard your business, preparation is the key.
Use Common Sense
Here are some basic actions to take:
Create an LLC or an S Corporation for your laundry business. This is designed to protect you from personal liability and fault – or, in other words, “from losing it all.”
Be overly generous and kind to your employees and customers. Fill your goodwill bank account early and often, because you’ll need to make a withdrawal at some point. Show that you care. In my experience, most employees and customers are nice, cordial, and generally pleasant to be around. Yes, there are always exceptions – the jerks and the ones who just consistently cause you stress.
Remember that everyone can have a bad day. Take the higher ground. Show some grace under pressure. However, after a second or third incident, politely and with dignity move the customer out of your laundromat, or the employee off of your payroll.
Be sure to carry general liability and workers’ compensation insurance – and pay these bills on time. General liability insurance can be frustrating because it seems like there’s never a return on your investment… until something happens. If you’re not paying workers’ comp or unemployment, any mediocre attorney will have a field day with you.
Also, if you’re currently paying employees in cash, stop it. This will come back to bite you – and it’s not a question of if, but when.
After reading this article, call your insurance company. They have a form that needs to be filled out if there is an accident. In a perfect world, it would be filled out by the injured customer or employee. (Typically, an injured customer will not agree to it.) This form starts the defense process with the insurance company if someone claims an injury. Have these physically printed out and in the laundromat. The insurance company will hire an attorney, send an investigator, and do most of the heavy lifting post-accident.
Train your employees how to respond to any injury. And do this multiple times. After all, the marketing rule of thumb tells us that most people need to hear something up to six times before it sticks. So, have these conversations with everyone who works for you, and have them over and over.
Train your employees to be empathetic with an injured customer. Above all, they should ask:
- “How are you?” This needs to be immediate and sincere.
- “What do you need?” Of course, get the injured person any required first aid items.
- “Do you want me to call anyone, including an ambulance?”
Train your employees to do the following:
- Call you as soon as possible with whatever details are available.
- Take several photos of the accident scene.
- Write, text or voice record everything that happened and everything the injured party said about how it happened.
90 Seconds to 15 Minutes Post-Accident…
If a customer gets injured, seek medical help immediately, if needed. This may involve only a first aid kit. However, if it looks like it could be serious and may warrant an emergency room visit, drive the injured party to the local clinic or hospital, and show him or her every bit of care you would a family member.
Unless it’s a life or death situation, you or an employee should take more photos than you think you will need – get images of the accident scene and the entire store; include everything you think might be even slightly relevant such as signs, water or debris on the floor (or not on the floor), the injured party’s shoes and soles of the shoes, how the person is laying or sitting, his or her driver’s license, any cracks in the floor, curled-up carpeting, and so on. Take as many images at the scene as possible – and then take a few more. In addition, be sure to save the video footage from that timeframe. Keep in mind that a worker’s compensation or general liability case will hinge on negligence or a lack thereof.
Try to get the injured customer to explain exactly what happened in their own words. The key here is timing. The fresher the story, the more likely it is to be factual. Train your staff to write down this information in as much detail as possible. As a 28-year veteran of the industrial safety and workers’ comp trenches, I can assure you that the story changes and gets bigger over time. Also, witness statements can be gold, but be sure to get their names and phone numbers.
Moreover, instruct your employees to note if they smelled alcohol or any illicit substance, or if the injured acted odd – mumbled or incoherent speech, dilated pupils, choppy or “under the influence” movements, etc. What was the injured party’s mood or mental state? Was he or she calm, hurried, drunk, agitated, or nervous?
Get a name and phone number of the injured so that you can call them the next day to see how they’re doing and find out if they need anything. Once again, write down what they say. If your attendant is unable to get a name, ask others in the store if they know who it was or anything about them.
If your employee calls 911, have them stay on the phone until the operator excuses them or EMTs arrive. This will ensure that there’s a qualified medical professional to create a record of the condition of the place of injury, as well as the injury itself and how severe it is. If they go to the hospital, this will create a formal, discoverable record.
After making sure the injured party is receiving medical attention, having remedied any inherent hazard, filling out the incident investigation form, call or email your insurance company. Let them know an incident has occurred that required medical attention. They will ask for the form. After that, just be patient, because these cases can take months or even years. The insurance company will call you. Obviously, if dialogue with the injured or someone with them is maintained, continue to document that status.
If an employee is injured, the scenario doesn’t change much. Of course, you’ll have more information on a staff member, along with a better chance of having him or her fill out an injury report. This is where the care you’ve shown your team should pay off. Most of these incidents turn out OK, and nothing malicious is intended. But, for the exceptions – where an employee may have performance issues, personal finance issues, a pre-existing condition, or has done something like this before – it’s best to closely monitor the status of the injury.
By paying workers’ compensation insurance, you can call your carrier and request a nurse case manager be assigned to the injured employee. This assigns a medical professional to accompany and personally manage the case to make sure the employee is getting proper medical attention when he or she needs it or are scheduled to receive it.
A word of warning: in California, if an injury at your laundromat has even 1 percent to do with aggravating a pre-existing condition, you can be liable for the entire treatment.
Playing Defense
In the hierarchy of risk, the best way to prevent a legitimate injury is to remove the hazard altogether. Here are some tips:
Invest in your floors. New floors are a good investment. They can be depreciated just like new equipment, and they add a tremendous amount of eye appeal to your interior – while also being your primary protection against slips. Additionally, quality flooring can make it easier to quickly clean your store.
Keep your floor dry and free of debris, such as dryer sheets, detergent spills, drink spills, and water leaks. Even the water dripping from someone’s clothes as they’re transferred from the washer to the dryer can pose a hazard. So, always have a mop and bucket ready.
Fix all trip hazards. If your flooring is worn, fill in or cover any cracks or divots, recoat it, or replace it. Grind down any high spots or protrusions.
Develop a simple procedure for dealing with water or liquids on the floor. Immediately mark the area with signage, and then clean it up. Log the date and time of this procedure to indicate that you’ve established a plan to identify and eliminate hazards and have trained your employees on this procedure. Have employee initial and date the logbook once they’ve finished cleaning up the floor.
Also, be sure to place portable “Wet Floor” signs in a conspicuous place in your laundromat so that customers can and use them if they happen drip water or spill something on your floor.
Perhaps look into purchasing floor dryers, which are made specifically for drying wet floors and rugs. They can be used in conjunction with caution signs after mopping.
As an aside, one laundromat owner interviewed noted that she uses rugs on her floors. In certain scenarios, rugs can prevent long stretches of potentially wet areas in a store.
Install a quality camera system. This is a great investment. It’s a no-brainer for keeping your customers and employees safe, keeping an eye on the condition of your laundromat, and protecting yourself should an incident occur.
Have a phone in your store. For a few extra dollars per month, you can install a phone on the wall of your business. List any important numbers next to it so that customers can use it to let you know if there’s a leak, if a machine doesn’t work, or if a machine “ate” their money. I’ve even had customers call to tell me someone was trying to steal snacks out of our vending machine.
Develop a self-service snow- and debris-removal plan. Leave a broom and dustpan in plain sight so that customers can clean up any dryer sheets or other trash that could cause slips and falls. And, for stores located in northern states, leave a shovel and salt out during the winter months. If a customer chooses to clean up even one more time than what is on your typical cleaning schedule, you’re ahead of the game. Plus, having those items available psychologically creates a sense of ownership and pride within your customers.
Look into heated sidewalks. These are great for stores located in colder climates.
Require shoes. Seriously consider posting a “Shoes Required” sign. After all, if you don’t state it, you’ve allowed your laundry’s environment to become hazardous.
A Great Offense is a Good Defense
Develop a good rapport with your customers. If you have a relationship with your customers, they might be more willing to be your “canaries in the coal mine” should anything go wrong at the store or on your property.
Buy them a soda, put a couple of extra quarters in their dryers, stop to chat with them for a few minutes to see how they’re doing, and maybe even ask them what they think you should do to improve your laundromat. Such customers will be less likely to make false accident claims, or more likely to share with you information about someone who has.
Create a Facebook page for your laundry business. And ask customers and employees to friend you. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of social media. But I signed up for Facebook, because it came in handy when trying to find out how my supposedly “injured” employee was doing. (An incapacitated employee taking a Disney vacation?)
Don’t be flashy. Keep cash, including large volumes of coins, hidden from view. The more you look like a working laundry operator, as opposed to some fat cat business owner, the less jealousy you will elicit from your customers – and the less likely they will be to devise schemes like fake slip and fall claims.
In fact, I transfer cash from our store in a plastic grocery bag. I’ve done – and am regularly seen doing – all of the jobs in my laundromat including cleaning the toilets, shoveling snow, cleaning the gutters, cleaning the lint filters, and emptying the trash cans. (However, I’m still terribly at folding laundry!)
Promote your community support. Simply, if you’ve sponsored their kid’s baseball team, it may be that much harder for the parents to attempt to make a false claim.
All in all, managing slip and fall injuries in your laundromat demands a proactive approach that combines common sense, empathy, and strategic planning. The potential financial and reputational risks underscore the necessity of proper insurance coverage and strong documentation. By prioritizing safety measures, fostering customer relationships, and investing in preventive strategies, laundromat owners can mitigate liability and safeguard their businesses. Ultimately, a comprehensive approach to risk management not only protects against legal challenges but also cultivates a culture of trust and responsibility within the community.
