If we take a hard, honest look at the fire service today, we find that in some cases, it does a very poor job of marketing itself to its communities, which is unfortunate because we have a great story to tell. There are so many outstanding things going on in the fire service today and inside departments all across the country–but very few people know about them.
Throughout the course of my career, I’ve heard that the fire department should be run like a business, which includes public relations and marketing, and I agree. Think about it: How many successful businesses do you know that don’t advertise? How many companies have longevity without marketing strategies? Fire and rescue services are not exempt from using these strategies, although some think they are because we have the lock on emergency services in our community. Some may ask, “Who else are people going to call if they have a fire?” People think we have a market niche, but those folks are wrong. Even though we may be the only game in town for fire and rescue services, our reputation can suffer, funding can be redirected to other departments and our requests for improved capital needs may fall on deaf ears if we don’t employ public relations strategies.
Remember: Although we may be the only game in town today, that may not always be the case. Municipalities across the country are privatizing fire and ambulance services to downsize and save money. We must show our communities the value of our organization and the benefits it provides if we expect to be the business that’s around for the long haul.
What Are Public Relations?
Eric Yaverbaum, co-founder of Jericho Communications, a New York City-based PR firm, describes public relations as “the business of creating public opinion for private advantage.” That is exactly what we’re trying to do for our departments. The advantage we’re seeking, however, isn’t fully private; it’s the betterment of our agency, which involves how well we respond to the public. We’re trying to create a positive public opinion and image for the advantage of our department, and the best ways to do that are to get involved in the community with political and business leaders, build solid relationships with the media and employ strong customer service practices.
Note: It’s important to understand that customer service and public relations are two separate things. Although they’re closely tied together and you can’t do one effectively without the other, they are different. Customer service focuses on dealing with the people we serve, while public relations involves networking, marketing strategies, and dealing with the media. This article will focus on public relations strategies that departments may employ to become more visible in their community. Although this article will not focus on customer service, I do want to address a couple of things regarding customer service as it relates to public relations.
Survey Says …
In the spring of 2013, I conducted a random sample survey of 100 fire departments across the state of Massachusetts, a little less than one-third of all the fire departments in the state. The focus of the survey was to determine the level of customer service and public involvement that departments had in their communities. For the purposes of this article, I won’t discuss the entire survey, but I will highlight four of the questions that were asked because they deal directly with the topic of public relations:
- Question 1: Do you feel that the public understands what we do as a fire service?<>Response: More than 90% of those surveyed said no, they don’t believe that the public understands what we do–a statement that I’m sure you’ve heard around your firehouse before (or may have even muttered yourself).
- Question 2: Does your department make any effort to offer programs to the public that are specifically designed to better explain our jobs?<>Response: More than 75% said no, they do not run those types of programs. A small percentage of people said they didn’t know if their department offered these programs, and some said yes, they do have them. Here’s the issue: How can we complain that the public has no idea what we do when we don’t offer any programs to tell them what we do?
- Question 3: Do you get the feeling that customer service is important to your department?<>Response: A little more than 70% said yes, about 10% said no, and the remainder of the responses was split between “I don’t know” or “never heard it discussed.”
- Question 4: Does your department provide customer service training to its members?<>Response: 75% said no while 20% said they didn’t know. If you don’t know whether your department provides customer service training, odds are they don’t, otherwise you would’ve received the training. So it’s safe to say that 95% of the people surveyed have not had customer service training. How can members of a department say that customer service is important to their department, if they’ve never been trained on it?
So what’s the point? There are two: First, it’s clear that many of the departments I surveyed have no programs in place to educate the public on why we’re here. Second, we can’t expect our members to go to the public and execute effective customer service skills when we haven’t trained them on those skills. To be successful in public relations strategies, we need programs that promote solid customer service skills.
Why Public Relations?
You may be asking yourself, “Why do we need to maintain public relations?” The answer is simple: You’re a little fish in a big pond. All fire/rescue departments are fighting for the same dollar as the other municipal departments in the community. There’s a limited amount of money to go around, and unless we show the public and our elected officials the value of our service, we’ll lose out on funding. Our public safety counterparts in law enforcement have done a much better job over the last several decades promoting their departments through public relations and community policing efforts–and their budgets reflect that.
What You Can Do
One of the first things a department must do before developing a public relations strategy is perform a little self-reflection on your image. Take a hard look in the mirror and honestly answer the question, “Do we have a good public image in the community?” If the answer is no, you must determine why, and some of the first programs and messages established should be aimed at solving that problem. Tip: If you truly can’t determine why, consider assembling a focus group to give you some guidance on your department’s reputation. A simple Internet search on how to run a focus group can help get you started.
Like any business that’s running a public relations campaign, you need to develop and host events such as citizen’s fire academies, community CPR programs, car seat installation programs, senior citizen liaison positions to the Council on Aging, an Adopt a Hydrant program, or a “File of Life” program (or “Vial of Life”) which assists first responders with access to pertinent medical information. All these programs are designed to increase your visibility in the community; at the same time, they help you deliver a prevention and/or safety message that’s consistent with the mission of your department.
As you connect with community leaders, both business and political, you’re “marketing” the vision and mission of the department while also building respect. All of these events and programs that you run will work toward building your “PR equity” (which is important and we’ll discuss more later).
Communication Strategies
Certainly, the best way to educate the public and build relationships with your community is by doing so in person, but we must also employ other communication strategies in order to reach a broader market. Key questions to ask yourself: Does your department have a website? If your answer is yes, is it updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis? If your answer is yes, then you’re doing better than most.
Important: Websites and other social media accounts are living things; they can’t remain stagnant. Look carefully at your website and the information on it. Did the chief who’s listed on the page retire three years ago? There’s so much going on in our departments that things can change drastically every week. Remember to update your site information as much and as often as possible, so your community has current data, statistics, contact information, etc., that they can refer to when needed.
Our websites and social media accounts should be regarded as a source of news for the community. They’re a great forum to show off the department, equipment and staff, so be sure when setting up your website to include bios and training achievements of your members. Note: Managing any website takes time and energy, but social media isn’t a fad; this is how people communicate today. If your department hasn’t yet embraced social media, it is missing a huge opportunity to communicate effectively with your community.
Working with the Media
The fire service needs to seek out media opportunities so that we’re visible and heard in our communities and local areas. If you’re hard-pressed for story ideas, don’t worry. Take note of what’s going on either in your state or nationally and put a local spin on it through a formal press release. Stories that involve carbon monoxide battery life, weather advisories, large fires, etc., can all be given a local angle. Tip: Just be sure to let the residents and business owners of your community hear the message from the local fire chief; don’t let them hear it from someone nine states away with no personal connection to the community. The public has an expectation that they’ll receive information from their elected and appointed officials, so be sure to live up to their expectations.
Working with the media will also help you develop good relationships and contacts, which are critical when you need them to run a press release, so spend some time developing relationships with your local media outlets. Remember: You need them more than they need you. They can always find someone to give them a story, so put yourself in a position where you’re the one they want to call to get the scoop.
Public speaking events are another avenue we can take to make ourselves seen and heard in our communities. Organizations such as the local Rotary Club, the chamber of commerce, the local senior center, etc., are always looking for people to speak at their meetings. But don’t sit around and wait for them to call you; pick up the phone and call them. If you find it difficult to get a speaking engagement from an outside organization, create your own. Again, pick topics that may be timely based on the season and run an educational meeting. Topics such as wood and pellet stove safety could be run in the fall and swimming pool safety could be addressed in the spring. The goal is to get into the community and show the true value of your service.
Crisis PR
Although showing value in your service through an organized public relations strategy is important, equally important is having a strategy for when the department experiences a crisis. We cannot control every aspect of the job; there’s no telling when an employee may behave badly, a call may not go according to plan, a citizen makes a negative accusation toward the department, etc.
It’s during these times when all of your “PR equity” that I mentioned earlier hopefully pays off. I truly believe that the time and energy we spend up front interacting with the community as a whole and building respect for the department is worth its weight in gold when faced with a PR crisis. If the public likes and respects you, they tend to go easier on you and forget more quickly, provided the department handles the situation honestly and professionally. People make mistakes, and as long as you take ownership of the situation and make changes to fix the problem, people tend to forgive. But if you don’t have that relationship with them, they don’t have a reason to trust you at the time of the crisis, and why should they?
Having a PR crisis plan in place that is known by your city manager, town attorneys and your command staff will make handling a crisis much smoother. Some simple, must-follow rules when dealing with a PR crisis include:
- Tell the truth.
- Move quickly.
- Never tell the media “no comment”–it makes you look like you’re trying to hide something.
- Don’t avoid the press.
You can’t change whatever happened, so remain professional in your response and face the issue head on, whether you’re embarrassed by it or not.
A Final Word
The fire service must pay attention to its public image in the community and fix any areas that may not be very appealing. To do this, stage some PR events to get your name out in the public and use your department website and other social media to help promote those events. To market your department’s vision and build community respect, seek out opportunities that will put your department in the public eye.
In addition, participate in local events and create some of your own. We can’t afford to let the public forget about us. If they’re not talking about us (and hopefully in a positive way), we become irrelevant. Remember: We’re a small fish that is one component of a big pond, so we need to seek opportunities to stand out in the community to secure the funding needed to carry out our mission.
