BY BOBBY HALTON
At a time when the fire service is going to great lengths to explain to a very apprehensive and nervous public how valuable our services are to them, it is critical that we always remember the key elements of customer service. Chief Alan Brunacini once said it best when he said that he never received any letters from any customers delighted with how technically efficient we were, how professionally we handled our tasks, or how wonderfully deployed and well-equipped our apparatus were at their home fire. No, quite the contrary! After the fire was over and our work was done, the chief pointed out that every letter he received talked about how kindly we treated the people at the fire, how empathetic we were to their concerns, and how much we went out of our way to make sure that they felt understood and cared for.
Our parents made sure that we understood how important it is to show respect and care for others. Professionally, how we treat people should be a reflection of our foundational moral principles, which, for firefighters, include fairness, duty, self-discipline, and sympathy. We should not do it to influence how they’re going to vote on the fire tax levies. We should not be kind, understanding, and thoughtful for any reason other than that treating people well is the right thing to do.
But often, unfortunately, the folks who work for us sometimes come from the factory a little defective. To paraphrase my good friend Gordon Graham, “If you hire thugs and creeps, they will never disappoint you.” But to be fair, even wonderful people have bad days.
They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and first impressions are very important. Even more important than a first impression, however, is when your impression of someone or an organization is found to be flawed when you have a chance to interact with that person or a member of that organization. When we discover that someone we held to a higher standard did not live up to that standard and, in fact, fell far below that standard, that impression is far more lasting and far more critical than the first impression. We’ve all had the experience of meeting one of our heroes only to find out that he really wasn’t bigger than life after all and that he had warts and shortcomings just like the rest of us.
They call it an emotional bias when you have a feeling about someone or some group. Whether favorable or unfavorable, your feelings will come out, and they will color your perception of their actions and intentions, regardless of what their true intentions may have been. One of the best examples would be a member of one political party automatically responding with skepticism to every action proposed by the other party and continually questioning its intentions.
A few evenings ago, a young married bank vice president with two small children living in a very affluent suburban community saw fire and smoke coming from the backyard of a home two or three houses over from hers. Being very concerned, she informed her husband and proceeded to call 911. The fire department’s response was, as we would expect, prompt, although the first fire truck missed her house by three houses. Three more apparatus showed up and took up positions at various points in the neighborhood.
As the young mom approached the first pumper, several firefighters exited the apparatus. Two walked right past her. She got the attention of the third, who exited from the front passenger seat.
She informed the lieutenant that she had made the call and that it was not her house which was on fire but, as she had explained to the dispatcher, a house behind hers on the next block. She added that it looked as if they were having a large bonfire and she was concerned because of the extremely dry conditions and high wind. The lieutenant did not acknowledge that he understood her or ask her any questions. He simply shouted to his crew, “Back on the truck.” With that, he turned and reentered the apparatus.
After making a two-minute, eight-point turn-around without a spotter, the apparatus sped out of the neighborhood to look for the fire on the next block. As the apparatus sped by, another neighbor noticed that the rear compartment doors were rolled up, and she was concerned. Although there was a cul-de-sac at the end of this block, approximately 100 feet away, the second apparatus began its eight-point turn-around without a spotter, and the concerned neighbor began to wave to them. The second apparatus came to a stop in front of the two neighbors, and the driver rolled down the window. “What do you want? We are trying to find a fire,” yelled the lieutenant.
The second neighbor calmly stated, “You might want to tell that first fire truck that the right rear compartment door is open.” He added that the fire in question was a bonfire one neighborhood over, behind the house to which he was pointing. The second lieutenant rolled up his window without any further recognition of the neighbors and sped off.
Businesses always tell folks, “If you like our service, tell your friends. If you had a problem, please tell us.” Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. If you have a good experience, you may tell one or two people. When you have a bad experience, you will tell everyone you can. This was a really bad experience for that neighborhood, a neighborhood that deserved better from us.
