A Gem from Jeffrey Gitomer – Put Out the Fire and Protect the Customer
Most people watch fires on the news. The people who don’t are the firefighters and the people whose house is on fire.
Glenn Usdin is the founder and President of Northeast Fire Apparatus, Inc., an affiliate of Freightliner LLC, located in Lancaster PA. His company has over 40 employees: the vehicle sales division buys and sells more than 100 pre-owned fire apparatus a year, they also equip municipal and industrial FDs, and Usdin runs an award winning Command School which conducts real-world training conferences across the US.
Glenn Usdin is a one-of-a-kind entrepreneur that makes things happen, and puts out fires, literally. You see, he also serves as the Fire Chief of the Lancaster Township, Pennsylvania Fire Department since the formation of the department in 1991. The all volunteer fire department protects the 15,000 residents of Lancaster Township, and runs 550 fire calls per year. The Lancaster Township FD has developed an extensive Customer Service Procedure modeled after the Phoenix FD standard. The department has a simple fire suppression benchmark that has never been broken. No fire shall extend one single inch past the point that it has already burnt, after the LTFD arrives on scene. (www.lanctwpfd.org)
As if that weren’t enough, Usdin also teaches progressive media relations, incident management for suburban FDs, fireground photography, and planning for successful strategic outcomes.
One minor problem – Glenn Usdin’s customers are on fire.
In an interview with Glenn, I resisted the sales questions about his company, and instead asked him about customer service as a firefighter. A pretty delicate situation considering when he and his crew arrive on the scene, a house is on fire, people are injured, in panic mode, hysterical and or burned.
His responses were eye-opening and can be adapted to your everyday business situations.
