In an interview with Glenn, I resisted the sales questions about his company, and instead asked him about customer service as a firefighter. His responses were eye-opening and can be adapted to your everyday business situations. Our customers don't have a choice who they call for emergency assistance, but firefighters have a choice in how they treat the customers. That doesn't mean they can't decide how they are going to treat the customers. This is the worst day of the customer's life.
Firefighters see bad situations every single day as part of their job.
It's the first time the customer has been involved in something so serious. Use your experience and compassion to soothe and comfort scared customers. Every customer has a family and is a family member. Treat them like they were a member of your own family. Just about every person in an emergency situation was going to be somewhere or has someone that needs to know about the problem.