Customer Service in the Fire Service

The Fire Service has to change now if it wants to be the knight in shining armor that it has always been.  The Fire Service is built upon a lot of great ideals and some of them have been lost as time has gone on.  The one ideal customer service is one that departments are starting to work on again.  It is one thing to talk about customer service but it’s another one to make strides and to start delivering customer service.

Every morning in the Fire House crews get together and talk about the day’s daily activities, daily drills, and usually go over some continuing education topic.  I have yet to hear someone bring up a continuing education topic such as customer service.  Yet, the Firefighters will go over an LODD, ventilation topic, SOP, or something else.  Why don’t they throw in a topic such as, "What can we do to provide great customer service?" every once in awhile.  Some people are naturals in customer service and others need to be retaught.

Some simple ways to start working on your department's customer service:

• When the crew goes out for groceries, help someone put groceries into the car.  
• Opening a door for someone.
• Help make a bed in the ER, when the ER staff is overwhelmed.
• Patience, I know it's hard at 0330 waking up for the fourth time that night.
• Get out of the Fire House and go walk a block to see if people would like their smoke detector battery checked.
• Answer your phone with Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening instead of just Fire Station 47.

These are just a small start.  Brain storm about customer service and see what you can do to provide great customer service in your district.


Why don't you bring customer service up at your next morning line up? 
 

Listening to Directions Part II

Continued from the post on Thursday last week..

So we took off lights and sirens to our call. We had mapped it out and knew where we were going. Unfortunately, this was a frequent flyer con home with ONE drive way. The engine and ambulance always park in the same spot and have a certain way of doing things at this con home.

The engine was behind us and I noticed in my side mirror they had pulled over already. I was at the location but missed the driveway. I had to go down the street and make a u-turn. As I turned, I see the engineer standing on the sidewalk with his arms above his head with a disgusted look on his face. I turned beat red, we messed up. We ran the call and my partner made a few mistakes on an acute call.

At the end of the call and back at the station. We were told we were only going to be gurney men for the rest of the shift. They understood it was my partners first EMT position and that I had experience. The rest of the shift the Captain assigned me to work on my partners skills. My Captain also reminded me about following the rig out of the house for awhile until we knew the area. I responded with "Yes, sir." and did not give any kind of excuse.

I learned a lot and the crew understood it was our first shift and that we were excited. I have a great bond with my crew now and they always joke when tones go off and that address is said. They always ask me if I want directions on how to get there.  It was a great learning experience that I will never forget to listen to directions.