I walked out for a newspaper this Sunday morning and managed to stay upright despite the ice and slippery surfaces on the pavements.
What amazed me though was the fact that hardly any shops on my local high street had cleared the snow and ice from in front of their shops. The more I think about it the more I think that there should be a law to force shop owners to clear snow from the area in front of their shop. There was a mixture of snow, ice and slush which makes shopping a miserable experience and potentially dangerous too. But from the point of view of the shop owners I would have thought that they would want as many shoppers are possible visiting their shops to spend their hard earned cash there, especially in these harsh economic times when people have reduced their spending.
It does not take much effort to clear snow. In my opinion, it is good customer service to make the shopping experience as stress free as possible and if I saw cleared snow from in front of a shop I would think to myself that this shop cares about its customers. Doing something to make your business stand out from the competition is very important and it seems to me that this simple job is being overlooked.
I hear though that snow clearing from shopping areas is not as easy as it seems ! Clearing snow away but leaving the area more dangerous than it was before could land you in legal trouble. Apparantly, legal experts have said that if clearing snow caused injury to someone they could sue under “tort of nuisance”. If you make sure the area is gritted or salted after you have cleared it you should be in the clear. It is easier to walk in uncleared snow than on a slippery iced over cleared patch of snow so if you are clearing snow make sure you do good job of it.
Making Money from the Snow !
I was very impressed yesterday morning when a note popped through my letterbox offering a snow clearing service. Paths cleared for £4 and drives for £6 which included gritting as well ! Now that is what I call enterprising…Well done for the fast thinking !
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