According to ComScore, an Internet analytics company, we now spend more time connecting to the Internet from our mobile phones than our computers.
That's a significant shift in digital habits in a short period of time. Consumers are keen on taking care of everyday tasks from their mobile phones vs. their computers because it's easier, faster, and more convenient. Mobile apps, in particular, make it possible for consumers to take care of everyday business, such as ordering transportation or reserving a table at a restaurant with a few taps and clicks from their mobile devices. This shift has permeated far beyond the consumer. Now companies and groups, such as fire departments, are taking advantage of the ease of use, speed, and convenience that mobile apps have to offer.
Fire stations across the nation are embracing mobile apps to better organize their departments and improve their teams' efficiency. Take Charles Kniffen, firefighter and treasurer of Troy (MI) Fire Department Station 5, for example. The station has about 30 active volunteer firefighters, and he is responsible for running the station, providing station training, and managing the budget. Kniffen recently took some time to answer questions about how his department is embracing mobile apps.
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| 1 The TeamSnap mobile app allows the Troy (MI) Fire Department personnel to stay in touch and communicate about everything. The department uses the availability, scheduling, messaging features, and event calendar to automatically send e-mail reminders for training and other events. Recipients can change their availability status for each event, helping the department to better plan and prepare for them. (Photo courtesy of TeamSnap.) |
What are the organizational challenges you face?
Kniffen: It's very difficult to keep track of multiple firefighters, not to mention our alumni, retirees, and widowed spouses. We need to keep track of everyone so we can do our duty and respond when our community needs help. But, it goes far beyond that. It's not easy to stay coordinated with all of the activities, training, and general schedules. In fact, these were some of our specific challenges:
- Training-some of which is mandatory-is held at our station every Monday. As you can imagine, it's hard to keep firefighters informed about mandatory training dates, locations, and start times.
- Figuring out how many members will show up for the training, which obviously has an impact on the type and effectiveness of the training.
- Figuring out how many members will show up for dinner meetings. This can affect our meal planning and budget.
- Keeping our extended community, including retirees and widows, in the know about upcoming events and news.
Staying organized is half the battle. There's also the larger issue of communication. How do you inform so many people on your squad of a change? Imagine the chaos that results when this doesn't go as planned. It's extremely frustrating, and we lose time. In our line of work, time is mission-critical. So, the fact that we could not communicate about sudden, last-minute changes was hard. As a fire department responding to crisis, "last-minute changes" are expected. Things change and come up all the time. We needed to find a technology or tool that could help us stay coordinated. E-mail and texting were not efficient for us. It's inefficient and frankly a chore to e-mail or text more than 30 people at once and be doing it constantly. We needed something a lot easier, faster, and more convenient.
How did you learn about the TeamSnap mobile app?
Kniffen: I was already using TeamSnap, a mobile app, for my daughter's soccer team. The app helped us keep on top of calendars, game schedules, and tasks-such as who is bringing refreshments or paying the coach for a jersey-very efficiently. I thought we could leverage TeamSnap in a similar way at the fire department. It absolutely worked and has been the key to fixing several of our challenges.
How are you using TeamSnap? How has it helped?
Kniffen: The app allows us to stay in touch and communicate about everything. We use the availability, scheduling, and messaging features quite a bit, along with the event calendar. For example, the app automatically sends the e-mail reminders for training and dinners, and it allows recipients to change their availability status. As a result, we can better plan and prepare for these meetings-who is coming, how much food we will need, and so on. It's had a direct result on our efficiency.
The app is much easier than using e-mail or text-no lengthy e-mail lists or phone numbers to keep track of. No one has time to sign up for e-mails anymore; signing up for an app takes a few taps on your phone. When all of the information you need is at your fingertips on a mobile app in your phone, then it becomes pretty easy to stay organized and in sync with each other. That ultimately frees us up for more important things like fighting fires.
are you using the TeamSnap app for anything else?
Kniffen: In urgent situations, information can be sent via text in the app immediately to the entire station, allowing us to plan accordingly. It makes it easy to communicate fast and on the fly about emergencies and any sudden, last-minute changes to a plan.
Do you think mobile apps are becoming more useful to fire stations?
Kniffen: Absolutely. Time is of the essence. The reality is that mobile apps are very fast and convenient to use. It actually surprised me how many firefighters and retiree firefighters signed up for the TeamSnap app in our station. They said they preferred it to the older ways of e-mail and text communication. At the end of the day, it's just easier to sign up for an app. Also, and this is an important point, mobile apps are pretty natural to use. What I mean is there's no huge ramp-up process or learning curve, which comes sometimes with learning a new tool or technology. It's easy and something you would do in your regular personal life-for example, ordering a book with Amazon.com's mobile app. Because it feels natural, it's something we expect our team to stick with.
Last, I've discovered that mobile apps are great platforms to deposit knowledge. There is so much knowledge that retiree firefighters have from 20 to 30 years of fighting fires. Where does that knowledge go? If we lose that knowledge, it's a missed opportunity for the next generation. When you have an app and everyone uses it, that knowledge can be quickly communicated, shared, and saved in once place. I definitely see more fire stations adopting apps like TeamSnap.
RAKSHA VARMA is the founder and principal of Rakstar Media Group, a PR firm that advises startups and midsize growth companies on their public relations efforts and overall communications strategies.