Guidelines to Improve Public Awareness of the Services Offered by the Sedona Fire District

Jayson Coil
Battalion Chief, Sedona Fire District

DRAFT manuscript

Submitted to
Assistant Chief Terry Keller

April 14, 2010
Guidelines to Improve Public Awareness of the Services Offered by the Sedona Fire District
Why We Are Unique The Sedona Fire District cannot be accurately compared with most rural or urban fire departments in the nation. Although we provide the same core services, we also provide a level of expertise above and beyond most agencies. Our unique environment requires we be proficient in swiftwater rescue, high angle rescue, wildland fire, and other disciplines not always associated with fire departments. We do provide a higher level of medical care than is required. The additional costs are commensurate with the added benefits our agency provides. It is easy for people to argue that we are overstaffed when our level of preparedness is compared to the average call volume we experience. Unfortunately, this thinking is inherently flawed. As an organization charged with helping people in their time of need, we do not have the luxury of just preparing for an average day. We choose to focus on preparing for serious emergencies and multiple calls that do occur. This is the very tenet emergency preparedness is based on. Until we can predict when emergencies will happen and exactly how many people we will need when we show up, we will err on the side of caution. We believe the residents of Sedona expect and deserve exceptional service. Yes, we have fewer fire calls, but we also have an active engine company inspection program, progressive fire codes, and sprinkler ordinances. We have chosen to work just as hard at preventing fires as we do at putting them out.
Our Stakeholders The average age of the residents of Sedona is 50.5 years old. There are slightly more women than there are men. Many of the residents enjoy active lifestyles. Businesses in the area are heavily dependent on tourism. The ability to demonstrate our value to both of these groups is essential. Residents need to understand how the services we offer benefit them and much of those benefits come from our ability to get there quickly. Business owners need to recognize the value our level of service provides them in terms of reduced insurance rates. They also need to recognize how important it is to be able to provide service for the tourists that frequent their establishments. If tourists feel unsafe they will be less likely to visit. The internet can be used to spread praise or stories of poor service and delayed responses. Also, through the ineffective management of a large fire, we can ruin the reasons visitors come to Sedona.

The Benefits of What We Offer
This section should include a synopsis of each discipline, the annual training it requires, the benefits to the community (remember your target audiences) and an anecdotal story regarding the discipline and its value to the end user. Structural Firefighting – EMS - Wildland Firefighting– Swiftwater Rescue - Helicopter Rescue – High Angle Rescue – Hazardous Materials Technicians – Confined Space/Collapse Rescue – Engine Company Inspections Public Education - CRM Inspections - Fire Based Dispatch –
Positioning of Services In order for our organization to be successful, we need to take a position on service and defend it. People need to know what we have to offer and how it is valuable to them. We need to build brand recognition for SFD and define what it is we want to be known as.
Communicating with the Public
In order for our effeorts to be successful we need to create an environment where people care about us before they need us. Looking back at the most recent NAU survey, people that have used our services had nothing but good things to say about us. In order for our marketing to be successful, we need to make sure even the people who have not used our service recognize there is value in supporting our organization. Here are some of the methods we can use to accomplish this:
Press releases – we need to be providing frequent updates to media outlets regarding our emergency responses and the events we do annually. Swiftwater training, fuels reduction, annual wildland refresher, and burn building training are just some of the examples of the events we need to provide press releases for. There are free wire services that can be used to get our message out. Some examples are PR Wire, PR Web, and free press release. Are we using these?
Facebook (FB) – Social media is becoming more and more mainstream. Does SFD have a Facebook page? If so, how often is it updated and is the content interesting?
Twitter – Another social media outlet that is free. The benefit of twitter and the sending of Tweets is that it is nearly in real time. This could be used to tell folks about significant calls, or it could be used so people could follow the day in the life of a fireman. All National IMTs have FB and Twitter accounts and use them to communicate with the public. We can too!
Phone System – Instead of listening to groovy music when you are on hold with SFD, create a list of “did you know” items and play them instead. For example, “Did you know Sedona Dispatch was the first fire dispatch center in Arizona?” Use the time a citizen is waiting to talk to the fire marshal or ambulance billing as an opportunity to inform them of what we offer.
Interviews – We need to identify key individuals who will be providing the public with interviews and we need to ensure we are delivering our message to the media. People do not want to see the talking head. They want to see the person that was there, doing the job! With some training on effective interviews, we can deliver two to three key messages at every interview. There is a big difference between “We had a lightning strike which resulted in a fire that destroyed one home” and “Due to the quick response and training in wildland fire, the Sedona Fire District was able to limit the spread of lightning caused fire that destroyed one home. Fortunately, the fire was contained and none of the other six homes threatened were damaged. It took 15 firefighters four hours to contain the blaze, and firefighters will remain on scene throughout the night to patrol for any flare ups.
Calendar – Show the public what we do and how involved we are with different charities. Create a calendar that shows rescues and the beautiful scenery of Sedona. On each page have a little blurb about one of the services we offer. Sell them cheap and make it an annual thing.
Website – We need to make our website a tool that describes what we do and why we do it. Humanize people; get pictures of everyone on there. Talk about our services and make it interesting. Cross market the website in everything we do. We need to be willing to spend money to get it done right and have it maintained. We have excellent videographers and photographers on staff; we should use them to make the website more about service. Streaming videos can be created about our different disciplines and we can run one a month. Tie it into the calendar and if March is swiftwater on the calendar, then have a video on the website in March talking to the guys who do the rescues. Get pictures of the guys in front of the rigs with their kids, wives, dogs, mountain bikes, motorcycles, kayaks, and camera gear, whatever. Let every person see what Firefighter Smith likes, why he joined the fire service, what he does on his days off. If someone wants to see who the firefighter is that helped their sister out, then they can look at the website. Humanize us, romanticize what we do and sell our personalities. Our image is important and the website should be key in defining it.
A day in the life of - when approached by people who do not understand or are critical of what we do, have a mechanism to inform them by providing them with the opportunity to work with the crew for a day. Market the idea of a “day in the life of a firefighter”
Direct mailing – Direct mailing is expensive and needs to be done right to be effective. If we want to share a message with the public, make it stand out. Make sure the message and the fact it is from the fire department clear. If it looks like junk mail and doesn’t get read it was a waste of time. Create a tri-fold brochure that talks about our services. Reference the website.
Charities – many groups associated with the fire department are already doing great things with charities. Make sure that message and the money we have helped contribute is our there! Pictures of firefighters helping kids at burn camp or the community in other ways would be a big help.
Radio and TV Spots – Interviews and commercials need to be professional. Do not be afraid to change things up to make it interesting. The idea is to get people to remember the message. Consider using professional voiceover artists, (Voice123.com). By doing this, we can really stand out. We can also do foreign language commercials easily.
Commission an outside study - Advertise the fact that the Sedona Fire District wishes to commission an outside study to determine if we are effective and cost efficient. Use this study to validate the steps taken by the executive management team to streamline the organization.
The Sedona Way – create a comprehensive video that explains what the Sedona Fire District is, what services we offer, and includes anecdotal stories and a history of the organization. Talk about how we grew and give credit to the volunteers/founders. Maybe include some interviews of members from “back in the day”. Explain how our staffing grew, our ISO has dropped, and what our future plans are to improve service. Educate people on how we got to where we are and how it is good. Offer the video as a free rental at local video places and get it on Sedona TV.
Cost and Resources
After we have determined the items we wish to pursue and the priority for each item, we can define a budget. Marketing is an investment in our organization and increases productivity. Once we have taken the time to craft and deliver a concise message aligned with organizational values, it will be easier for the public to understand why we do what we do. Mistakes increase when people are distracted and in our profession mistakes can have costly consequences. An improved awareness among the public regarding the services we offer will decrease the amount of time firefighters spend worrying about their jobs. This will result in a more focused group of employees who can concentrate on the tasks before them.