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1 December 2023
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Featured FRI Magazine article: How professional is your fire service? by Lenny Naidoo (FRI Vol 1 no 9)
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https://www.frimedia.org/uploads/1/2/2/7/122743954/fri_vol1_no9_lr.pdf
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: How professional is your fire service? Written by Lenny Naidoo (FRI Vol 1 no 9). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
How professional is your fire service?
By Lenny Naidoo
The American fire fighters are regarded as the people’s heroes and are always known as the friends of the community. They are associated with the term “serve and protect” and each time a survey is conducted regarding service delivery, fire fighters come out on top.
Have you thought about what the public’s opinion of is of your fire department? Is it good or bad, what are the implications of poor public opinion, does it matter?
Let’s take a look at our fire services:
It is clear that in most instances the answers will be no.
Wouldn’t it be great if you were standing in a queue and people insist that you move ahead of them just because you are a fire fighter?
Consider a fire fighter in uniform going into a restaurant to order coffee and being told “no charge, fire fighters are our heroes”.
What can we do to improve our image to gain the support of the community and decision makers?
Be a part of the community; proactively marketing ourselves to our politicians in a professional business manner gains us a better seat at the budget table, rather than casting stones at them once the damage is done.
"A business with no sign is a sign of no business". Fire departments will need to be more creative in community involvement. Open up your firehouses and stop living in a secret society behind closed bay doors, because this is "your house." This is their house too and they need to be a part of it. They need to know how hard you work in training, call volume, hose testing, apparatus and equipment maintenance, physical fitness, stress, sleep deprivation, studying for promotions, public education, company inspections, pre-fire planning, and last but not least, EMS calls.
If you wait until the budget cuts are on the table before you start telling your story and trying to build support, you're too late.
Market yourself now!
It all comes down to using the resources we have more wisely and how we market ourselves.
When we consider the deployment of resources, are we using it to our fullest advantage? What cost cutting measures are we implementing in our departments and how does it affect our business model?
Better yet…what is your business model? These are just a few of the many questions that the fire service needs to be prepared to answer.
Need to change
The deployment model will need to change for many fire services. I was a firm supporter for as many bums on the fire appliance as it will seat and as many in the fire station as it will sleep but that model is changing.
How will departments that have been accustomed to having adequate resources handle a reduction in personnel and changes in their deployment model?
How we market ourselves
We need to look closely at how we market ourselves. Social media is not going away; in fact, it will only develop into new and more creative ways we get information.
What we say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and other forums will continue to get us in trouble. We must maintain a professional image to those who trust us.
How to make your open house successful (by the NFPA)
One of the most successful ways to spread community awareness during Fire Prevention Week is through open house events. Tips to ensure their success include:
The date
Your open house can be held during the day or in the evening but it must be at a time that people in your community are available. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are often most convenient for families and fewer events tend to take place on weekends. However, check the community calendar to make sure there are minimal conflicts.
Adequate staffing/equipment
Emergencies can happen at any time, including during an open house. If your event is being held at a fire station, make sure enough fire fighters are available so that even if a crew must leave, there is still staff available to meet with visitors.
Dress for success
This is your chance to showcase your fire station to your community. Assign someone to dress in the official Sparky the Fire Dog costume. Make sure the station is clean and inviting, with good signage and theme-related decorations to draw attention.
Have handouts ready
Have handouts available for all age groups. Distribute printed materials that reinforce your fire safety messages.
Keep it brief
Generally, the public won't attend an event that requires hours of their time. Visitors should be able to learn at least one positive fire safety action that will help them learn safety messages in 30 minutes or less.
Feed them
Nothing draws a crowd like good food. Arrange for a local restaurant or fast food outlet to sponsor and provide refreshments or have fire fighters cook up their favourite specialty
Make it fun
Open houses should be fun! Hold activities that allow visitors to meet fire fighters, move around the fire station, and learn about fire safety in the process. Human interaction creates a personal experience for people, and is key to an open house's success.
What is marketing?
One definition of marketing is “an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.” If we think of the goods in the form of fire department services, marketing is the role taken in letting the public know what we offer. Keep in mind that the entire concept can be a bit elusive.
Pick up any fire department management text and turn to the index. Look for the section on marketing fire department services and what do you find? Nothing! This is not to say that any of these books do not contain a great deal of information on marketing, you just have to know where to go to look for it.
Most texts contain some sort of information on media relations, community relations and public fire safety education. The trick is in researching some of what fire departments have accomplished in the past, and thinking about expanding these traditional public contacts into “plugs” for the services that we are providing.
What do we need our marketing efforts to accomplish? What follows is a short list of items that you may want to create or improve upon:
These items cannot stand alone or ignore how the department provides services and the underlying theme of meeting the goals of the organisation. Recognising this fact and utilising a synergistic approach to marketing will assist us in accomplishing our mission.
A shift has taken place over the past few years in the use of the media in providing the fire prevention and safety slant in the reporting of fire incidents. Prior to that, we stressed the number of alarms, personnel on the scene, amount of water flowed, and the cause of the fire. We are now seeing information on how smoke detectors woke a family and allowed them time to escape or how fixed fire protection features kept losses to a minimum. We must now do the same for all of the services that we, as fire departments, provide.
Think about how citizen-initiated CPR is making the difference in saving a life and how that training was provided by the fire department.
Your average civilian has no idea that the fire department does more than show up when your house is on fire or someone is hurt. It is up to us to use whatever methods we have available to change that.
Media relations
One of the most successful and low-cost marketing techniques that a department can utilise, is the development of a good working relationship with the media. Here you can use the ideas of other fire services that have initiated successful marketing techniques.
After coming to the realisation that what most people know about their fire department, originates from the media, we should set our sights on educating these folks about who we are, what we do and what we can provide to them in the way of information and assistance. The NFPA guide provides an informative look at the services the department affords, explanations on what reporters may be seeing on the fire-ground or emergency scene, and how to access information during and after an incident. A glossary on fire department terms is also included in the guide.
What had started out as the adjustment of a document that another fire department had developed has led to a greater use of public information officers at incident scenes. Another offshoot has been the hosting of a “media luncheon,” to assure that this partnership remains in place and to educate new folks as turnover takes place. It also allows us to identify the special needs of the different types of news gathering agencies. This includes getting good photos/video of incidents, as well as what type of deadlines these people are up against.
The return on this investment has been tremendous and has solved numerous problems in keeping the media from seeking information from uninformed sources. The benefit of having the media assist us in educating our customers assists us in integrating our other programmes and their associated marketing efforts into the big picture of providing the best service to the community.
Public fire and life safety programmes
From the way your informational handouts look, to the methods that you employ to get this information to the public, these programmes provide a great opportunity to market the department.
Programmes advanced around audience specific groups also show that the fire department is taking the extra steps to address the needs of the community. Knowing who the “at risk” population is in your community and addressing the demographics of the make-up of your citizens will allow you to make the marketing message specific to the targeted group. Along with this is the addition of life safety information and accident prevention education in the message we take to the public.
As with all of the different marketing programmes and strategies, you are only limited by your imagination in what message you take to the streets and the methods used to get the information across.
Opportunities or pitfalls
An easy out from providing any type of marketing for your department is the age-old excuse of a lack of money and staffing. Most of what it takes to effectively market a fire department can be accomplished with little to no cost.
The key here is being able to see the forest through the trees, or looking at potential pitfalls as opportunities to let your community know what the fire department is doing for them. Having everyone in your organisation understand what the basic purpose and the mission of the department is, is a great place to start. Without this, failing community support, lack of confidence in the fire department and the level of service provided can easily take place. If we do not take the opportunity to educate the public about the department at every turn in the road, misperception can become reality.
Getting the most out of your public contacts
Image is everything. “Every employee is an advertisement for the fire department and its quality of service. Personnel can be the fire department’s best or worst marketing tool. Every time we come into contact with the public, our customers are evaluating us. Treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves seems kind of basic, but it will go a long way to enhancing the image of the fire service.
While we have been making great strides in providing speakers for fire safety presentations, we need to make the jump into doing the same for marketing the department. We have been the “silent service” for way too long. What is stopping us from showing up at a Rotary luncheon with a Power Point presentation on what services the fire department is providing to the community? Tradition? Fear? We have to market ourselves to the public. If we don’t, we have the potential of being “downsized” right out of sight.
Customer service
Good customer services parallels a good marketing program. The recent awakening of the fire service to the customer’s needs during and after any emergency will go leaps and bounds in marketing your fire department and its services.
Excellence in customer service will equate to word-of-mouth marketing that no program or money can provide.
Lessons from the private sector
Some of the more traditional marketing concepts utilised by the private sector can easily be converted into use by fire departments. We have to take the best practices and successes that these folks provide and integrate them into our efforts.
Lets all contribute positively.
Stay focussed!
“Fire fighters ensure that even police officers have heroes”
This week’s featured Fire and Rescue International magazine article is: How professional is your fire service? Written by Lenny Naidoo (FRI Vol 1 no 9). We will be sharing more technical/research/tactical articles from Fire and Rescue International magazine on a weekly basis with our readers to assist in technology transfer. This will hopefully create an increased awareness, providing you with hands-on advice and guidance. All our magazines are available free of charge in PDF format on our website and online at ISSUU. We also provide all technical articles as a free download in our article archive on our website.
How professional is your fire service?
By Lenny Naidoo
The American fire fighters are regarded as the people’s heroes and are always known as the friends of the community. They are associated with the term “serve and protect” and each time a survey is conducted regarding service delivery, fire fighters come out on top.
Have you thought about what the public’s opinion of is of your fire department? Is it good or bad, what are the implications of poor public opinion, does it matter?
Let’s take a look at our fire services:
- Does the community we serve and protect really acknowledge us as professionals that are indispensable?
- Does the average citizen understand the work of a fire fighter?
- Do we market ourselves effectively?
It is clear that in most instances the answers will be no.
Wouldn’t it be great if you were standing in a queue and people insist that you move ahead of them just because you are a fire fighter?
Consider a fire fighter in uniform going into a restaurant to order coffee and being told “no charge, fire fighters are our heroes”.
What can we do to improve our image to gain the support of the community and decision makers?
Be a part of the community; proactively marketing ourselves to our politicians in a professional business manner gains us a better seat at the budget table, rather than casting stones at them once the damage is done.
"A business with no sign is a sign of no business". Fire departments will need to be more creative in community involvement. Open up your firehouses and stop living in a secret society behind closed bay doors, because this is "your house." This is their house too and they need to be a part of it. They need to know how hard you work in training, call volume, hose testing, apparatus and equipment maintenance, physical fitness, stress, sleep deprivation, studying for promotions, public education, company inspections, pre-fire planning, and last but not least, EMS calls.
If you wait until the budget cuts are on the table before you start telling your story and trying to build support, you're too late.
Market yourself now!
It all comes down to using the resources we have more wisely and how we market ourselves.
When we consider the deployment of resources, are we using it to our fullest advantage? What cost cutting measures are we implementing in our departments and how does it affect our business model?
Better yet…what is your business model? These are just a few of the many questions that the fire service needs to be prepared to answer.
Need to change
The deployment model will need to change for many fire services. I was a firm supporter for as many bums on the fire appliance as it will seat and as many in the fire station as it will sleep but that model is changing.
How will departments that have been accustomed to having adequate resources handle a reduction in personnel and changes in their deployment model?
How we market ourselves
We need to look closely at how we market ourselves. Social media is not going away; in fact, it will only develop into new and more creative ways we get information.
What we say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and other forums will continue to get us in trouble. We must maintain a professional image to those who trust us.
How to make your open house successful (by the NFPA)
One of the most successful ways to spread community awareness during Fire Prevention Week is through open house events. Tips to ensure their success include:
The date
Your open house can be held during the day or in the evening but it must be at a time that people in your community are available. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are often most convenient for families and fewer events tend to take place on weekends. However, check the community calendar to make sure there are minimal conflicts.
Adequate staffing/equipment
Emergencies can happen at any time, including during an open house. If your event is being held at a fire station, make sure enough fire fighters are available so that even if a crew must leave, there is still staff available to meet with visitors.
Dress for success
This is your chance to showcase your fire station to your community. Assign someone to dress in the official Sparky the Fire Dog costume. Make sure the station is clean and inviting, with good signage and theme-related decorations to draw attention.
Have handouts ready
Have handouts available for all age groups. Distribute printed materials that reinforce your fire safety messages.
Keep it brief
Generally, the public won't attend an event that requires hours of their time. Visitors should be able to learn at least one positive fire safety action that will help them learn safety messages in 30 minutes or less.
Feed them
Nothing draws a crowd like good food. Arrange for a local restaurant or fast food outlet to sponsor and provide refreshments or have fire fighters cook up their favourite specialty
Make it fun
Open houses should be fun! Hold activities that allow visitors to meet fire fighters, move around the fire station, and learn about fire safety in the process. Human interaction creates a personal experience for people, and is key to an open house's success.
What is marketing?
One definition of marketing is “an aggregate of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.” If we think of the goods in the form of fire department services, marketing is the role taken in letting the public know what we offer. Keep in mind that the entire concept can be a bit elusive.
Pick up any fire department management text and turn to the index. Look for the section on marketing fire department services and what do you find? Nothing! This is not to say that any of these books do not contain a great deal of information on marketing, you just have to know where to go to look for it.
Most texts contain some sort of information on media relations, community relations and public fire safety education. The trick is in researching some of what fire departments have accomplished in the past, and thinking about expanding these traditional public contacts into “plugs” for the services that we are providing.
What do we need our marketing efforts to accomplish? What follows is a short list of items that you may want to create or improve upon:
- The department’s viability and survivability
- Providing higher visibility in the community
- Improved communications with internal and external customers
- Creating an understanding as to the department’s services, costs and benefits and culture
These items cannot stand alone or ignore how the department provides services and the underlying theme of meeting the goals of the organisation. Recognising this fact and utilising a synergistic approach to marketing will assist us in accomplishing our mission.
A shift has taken place over the past few years in the use of the media in providing the fire prevention and safety slant in the reporting of fire incidents. Prior to that, we stressed the number of alarms, personnel on the scene, amount of water flowed, and the cause of the fire. We are now seeing information on how smoke detectors woke a family and allowed them time to escape or how fixed fire protection features kept losses to a minimum. We must now do the same for all of the services that we, as fire departments, provide.
Think about how citizen-initiated CPR is making the difference in saving a life and how that training was provided by the fire department.
Your average civilian has no idea that the fire department does more than show up when your house is on fire or someone is hurt. It is up to us to use whatever methods we have available to change that.
Media relations
One of the most successful and low-cost marketing techniques that a department can utilise, is the development of a good working relationship with the media. Here you can use the ideas of other fire services that have initiated successful marketing techniques.
After coming to the realisation that what most people know about their fire department, originates from the media, we should set our sights on educating these folks about who we are, what we do and what we can provide to them in the way of information and assistance. The NFPA guide provides an informative look at the services the department affords, explanations on what reporters may be seeing on the fire-ground or emergency scene, and how to access information during and after an incident. A glossary on fire department terms is also included in the guide.
What had started out as the adjustment of a document that another fire department had developed has led to a greater use of public information officers at incident scenes. Another offshoot has been the hosting of a “media luncheon,” to assure that this partnership remains in place and to educate new folks as turnover takes place. It also allows us to identify the special needs of the different types of news gathering agencies. This includes getting good photos/video of incidents, as well as what type of deadlines these people are up against.
The return on this investment has been tremendous and has solved numerous problems in keeping the media from seeking information from uninformed sources. The benefit of having the media assist us in educating our customers assists us in integrating our other programmes and their associated marketing efforts into the big picture of providing the best service to the community.
Public fire and life safety programmes
From the way your informational handouts look, to the methods that you employ to get this information to the public, these programmes provide a great opportunity to market the department.
Programmes advanced around audience specific groups also show that the fire department is taking the extra steps to address the needs of the community. Knowing who the “at risk” population is in your community and addressing the demographics of the make-up of your citizens will allow you to make the marketing message specific to the targeted group. Along with this is the addition of life safety information and accident prevention education in the message we take to the public.
As with all of the different marketing programmes and strategies, you are only limited by your imagination in what message you take to the streets and the methods used to get the information across.
Opportunities or pitfalls
An easy out from providing any type of marketing for your department is the age-old excuse of a lack of money and staffing. Most of what it takes to effectively market a fire department can be accomplished with little to no cost.
The key here is being able to see the forest through the trees, or looking at potential pitfalls as opportunities to let your community know what the fire department is doing for them. Having everyone in your organisation understand what the basic purpose and the mission of the department is, is a great place to start. Without this, failing community support, lack of confidence in the fire department and the level of service provided can easily take place. If we do not take the opportunity to educate the public about the department at every turn in the road, misperception can become reality.
Getting the most out of your public contacts
Image is everything. “Every employee is an advertisement for the fire department and its quality of service. Personnel can be the fire department’s best or worst marketing tool. Every time we come into contact with the public, our customers are evaluating us. Treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves seems kind of basic, but it will go a long way to enhancing the image of the fire service.
While we have been making great strides in providing speakers for fire safety presentations, we need to make the jump into doing the same for marketing the department. We have been the “silent service” for way too long. What is stopping us from showing up at a Rotary luncheon with a Power Point presentation on what services the fire department is providing to the community? Tradition? Fear? We have to market ourselves to the public. If we don’t, we have the potential of being “downsized” right out of sight.
Customer service
Good customer services parallels a good marketing program. The recent awakening of the fire service to the customer’s needs during and after any emergency will go leaps and bounds in marketing your fire department and its services.
Excellence in customer service will equate to word-of-mouth marketing that no program or money can provide.
Lessons from the private sector
Some of the more traditional marketing concepts utilised by the private sector can easily be converted into use by fire departments. We have to take the best practices and successes that these folks provide and integrate them into our efforts.
Lets all contribute positively.
Stay focussed!
“Fire fighters ensure that even police officers have heroes”