From the school system to the receptionist in a law firm…office and staff safety is an important aspect of your company’s culture. Particularly if you are in a field where you may be more likely to get on visitor’s or customer’s “bad side” for any reason; their bad day will quickly become your bad day. When customer service is no longer working to calm the situation, it is at that time you will wish you had an emergency plan for your staff to alert others that there is an emergency or dangerous situation, or to allow them to inform you or others when they feel threatened.

From sending an All Page with a fictitious name through the office (one everyone will  know means an emergency situation), to having a plan of action in place to keep someone out of your place of business, or to remove someone from you place of business. Having some level of emergency planning beyond your fire escape route could be essential.

Even if you are not working directly out of your office or store (franchise owners, etc.) you should have a plan in place to instruct your staff on how to deal with disgruntled or potentially dangerous customers. It may not seem like a big deal now, but keep in mind it is never a big deal until it happens to you or your staff.

Start planning by meeting with your staff and asking if they have every felt threatened or have been threatened in any way. Discuss possible situations that could arise and brainstorm how to most systematically and safely calm the visitor or call for help. You may even consider purchasing mechanisms to allow the receptionist to unlock the door for each visitor at her/his discretion; or even installing an emergency button system to alert not only other staff members, but also local emergency respondents.

Once you have a plan, run drills as you would your fire drill. The more familiar you are with the process, the safer everyone will feel coming to work.