Whether you run a manufacturing business or sell products, the safety of your customers is your responsibility. Creating and selling defective or dangerous products, therefore, emerges as a major concern for businesses. The fact that you can face lawsuits from consumers injured while using such products makes it even more important to pay attention to their safety. The implications of such claims can be devastating for any business, right from settlements costing millions of dollars to reputational damage and loss of consumer trust.
Obviously, you would want to have a proper strategy in place to prevent defects in the first place and handle the claims if you do face them at any point in time. Although it may sound like a lot of work, the effort is completely worthwhile because your brand’s name and reputation is at stake. Here is all that you need to do for handling product liability implications effectively.
Pay Attention To Product Safety
The best measure to safeguard your brand is to go the extra mile with the quality and safety standards of the products you create or sell. Although ensuring that your product is risk-free may seem like a daunting task, it is a small price to pay for steering clear of legal hassles. The best time to have safeguards against potential liability claims is during the development and production phase itself. Invest in intensive safety reviews and testing as parts of the design process. Further, ensure compliance with industry and government safety standards as well.
Go The Extra Mile With Warnings And Labels
If you sell inherently dangerous products, accidents may happen despite the best efforts for integrating safety in design. In such circumstances, it becomes mandatory to have warning labels on the goods for generating awareness among the end-users. Include the requisite safety instructions as well. Apart from having the necessary information on the labels, it should be prominently visible and easily understandable so that users have a fair idea about handling the item safely. Displaying the right information at the right place shows that you are serious about your brand’s duty of care towards the consumers.
Transfer Risk Through Management Of Suppliers
Brands that manufacture or sell products collaborate with suppliers of raw materials and finished goods. Obviously, there is a possibility of these elements of the product chain being responsible for the dangerous nature of the finished goods. It is a great idea to have a risk transfer program in place for avoiding financial vulnerability to claims resulting from suppliers’ actions. You can seek guidance from the best lawyers in town for having proper contractual agreements with the suppliers. They would recommend that your collaboration with the suppliers should include effective risk transfer, with clauses documented in writing right from the start of business relationships. Proper legal agreements go a long way in assisting you in transferring risk for your brand.
Maintain Essential Records
Another key aspect of preventing product liability implications for your brands is maintaining essential records that indicate adherence to regulations and other precautionary norms. Ideally, you should establish documentation policies that will cover your business on the regulatory front and serve as evidence for product liability claims. Retain copies of product orders and customer design specifications to show that you have followed their design requirements. Develop written procedures that describe the product workflow through manufacturing and quality control steps. The documentation helps in the verification of quality and conformity at each stage of quality control.
Review Customer Feedback
The cases of injuries, property damage, and business interruption caused by defective and faulty products are on a rise. In extreme cases, brands even have to face negative publicity, product recalls, and loss of reputation. Brands can avoid many such incidents if they pay due and timely attention to customer feedback and complaints. So it becomes important to take customer suggestions seriously and implement proactive steps to resolve the issues with products.
By doing so, you can prevent serious injuries and liability lawsuits for your products or business. Moreover, being willing to listen to the customers, presents the brand in a positive light. Making it easy for consumers to share their concerns and taking proactive measures such as regular surveys are some useful measures you can implement.
These strategies offer a tangible approach for brands that want to protect themselves against the legal hassles that product liability claims can bring. Just making some effort at your end can save your reputation and name in the long run, which is something that matters the most for brands and entrepreneurs.
