If you have a customer slip and fall in your store, you may have a natural human response to feel bad for them. However, as a business owner or manager, you also need to think about general liability insurance concerns and protecting your business. 

Here are the steps you should take if a customer slips and falls in your store.

Don't Admit Fault 

Just like a car accident, don't admit fault when a slip and fall accident happens in your store. You have no way of knowing what happened. Another customer may have just spilled something, and you couldn't have possibly known to wipe up the spill in time. In more extreme cases, scammers even go around intentionally spilling things and then faking a fall to try to sue the business they're in. 

This doesn't mean you have to be completely cold and uncaring. You can ask the victim if they're OK and offer first aid, if appropriate. Just avoid saying it was your fault it happened.

Don't Clean Yet

While you may want to quickly clean up to keep someone else from slipping and falling, wait. You need to take additional steps to protect yourself, and you don't want the customer to accuse you of trying to hide evidence. Instead, block off the entire area for now.

Document the Incident 

Document the incident as thoroughly as possible. Take down the customer's name and contact information. Write down everything you observed both about what happened, what you saw after, and what the customer's injuries looked like. Have any other employees that saw any other part of the accident or aftermath do the same. 

Take pictures of the spill before you clean it up. If you have video surveillance, don't rely on it having been working, being at the right angle, or capturing enough detail. However, do save any video footage you have.

Notify Your Insurance Company 

If the customer has medical bills you need to cover or tries to wrongfully file a lawsuit, your general liability insurance company should protect you. Notify them of any possible claim as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the customer to take action. They'll tell you what you need to do next to protect yourself and how you can help your customer.