Customer Service

This is a post I wrote originally for my blog at FirefighterNation.com:

Customer relations are essential for any department operating in this day and age, as our customers (read: taxpayers) are more educated and have higher expectations of the emergency services. These expectations come from watching television shows that portray us in a certain light as well as more information going out in the form of public education efforts.There are considerable efforts being made by leaders in our industry to increase our professionalism. We need to consciously market our concepts in a positive way.

Likewise, there are expectations not only when dealing with the public, but with internal customers as well:In our organization, we have adopted objectives for personnel that read like these:

• Fire and Rescue personnel shall give high priority to customer satisfaction by anticipating customer needs, time constraints and their desired outcome.
• We must listen to customers, seek to understand them, and empathize with the customer’s perspective, especially treating the customer with respect.
• We must strive to consistently respond to customer requests in a courteous, efficient and timely manner.
• Fire and Rescue personnel shall demonstrate a commitment to meeting customer requirements with a sense of urgency, proactively following through to resolve issues.
• We must create realistic expectations and regularly inform our customers of status/progress, provide options/alternatives if needed, and successfully help our customers understand and accept negative outcomes.
• A big part of all of our jobs is to support our other team members in meeting their customers’ expectations.

You all know what good customer service feels like and you all know what it’s like to have bad customer service. I suggest to you that professionalism begins at using our skills, abilities and past experience to improve service quality and to provide excellent service not just to the taxpayers, but to your colleagues.

We need to make it part of our personal mission to exceed at helping people when they need help- that’s why we got into this business to begin with. Often, when we get called, someone else is having a bad day. Our job is to try to help solve that situation, or at least to lend a hand in making it a little better. When supervisors ask you to perform a task, even though sometimes we don’t feel up to it, remember that it’s all part of a bigger picture and realize that we need to serve our customers in many ways, some of which may not be immediately obvious to each of us.

The impact you have isn't just felt in your local departments, but across the nation as well. When you make it known that you are a firefighter, you are, like it or not, representing all of us in this business, career or volunteer. It's a huge responsibility, but something you can handle.

Remember, when you are interacting with that civilian, are you treating that person like you would want to be treated yourself in a similar circumstance? You have an obligation to all of us to represent the profession in a positive light and to try to aid when possible, and to try to assist someone in finding solutions to their problems when you can't.