Looking to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the company’s service operations, FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA (Fujifilm) has adopted the industry leading Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards to benchmark service performance and to gain a competitive edge in a highly aggressive market.
The company has leveraged the best practices and benchmarks of service excellence defined in the SCP Standards to establish a solid framework for continuous improvement and long-term customer success. With FUJIFILM Medical Systems Technical Assistance Center and Field Service operations fully certified under the SCP Support and Field Service Standards, the company is now adopting the standards in its professional service operations.
Part of the FUJIFILM Corporation – boasting 70 years of imaging experience and more than $28 billion in annual sales – FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA is a leading provider of diagnostic imaging products and network systems designed to meet the needs of healthcare facilities today and well into the future. The FUJIFILM Medical Systems broad array of products – including film processing equipment, digital x-ray systems, women’s imaging solutions, the Synapse® brand of radiology, cardiovascular, and information systems solutions – offer clinically-proven solutions for acquiring, processing, presenting, managing and storing diagnostic images in a variety of healthcare environments.
The Challenge
While Fujifilm has always had a solid service delivery foundation in place, the company recognized a need to drive service performance beyond that of the competition. Feedback from internal and external sources suggested that customer expectations were increasing as the company experienced tremendous growth of the installed base.
[pullquote] The SCP Standards have become the benchmark of service excellence for manufacturers in the industry” – Ken Burden, Executive Director of Service for Fujifilm[/pullquote]
The management team understood that in order to satisfy the increasing expectations of a growing customer base, existing service delivery processes would need to be enhanced. Fujifilm recognized the need for fundamental changes in such areas as customer interaction management, electronic services, infrastructure for service
delivery and customer satisfaction measurement. In response, the management team set about researching programs, methods and standards that would enable them to structure, implement and accelerate their service improvement goals.
The Solution
After an extensive search, Fujifilm made the decision to adopt the industry leading Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards as a framework to drive the desired improvements. The SCP Standards provide a suite of service capability and performance standards designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of customer support, field service, professional services and eservice operations. A consortium of leading technology companies created the internationally recognized standards in cooperation with Service Strategies Corporation.
The standards define best practices for delivering world-class service and support, quantify performance levels, and establish a foundation for continuous improvement. Certification requires comprehensive annual audits to confirm that companies meet a rigorous set of the requirements defined by the standards.
“We wanted to find something that was proven to be effective and was widely deployed by industry leading service organizations,” said Ken Burden, Executive Director of Service for Fujifilm. “The SCP Standards have become the benchmark of service excellence for manufacturers in the industry. We recognized that in order to take our services to the next level, we needed take advantage of industry best practices and benchmark ourselves against a globally accepted standard.”
With world-class service and increased customer satisfaction in mind, Fujifilm aggressively adopted the SCP Standards and set out to certify the company’s Technical Assistance Center and Field Service operations — an extensive process that has since shown considerable improvements in service quality and customer satisfaction.
With a firm commitment to adopt best practices, Fujifilm welcomed the SCP Standards into the service organization. Service Strategies Corporation, the program administrator, helped FUJIFILM Medical conduct an in-depth assessment of service operations. The goal was to identify opportunities for improvement, develop an innovative solution to accelerate change, enhance training programs and provide a roadmap for continuous improvement and success.
To ensure the successful deployment of the SCP Standards, Fujifilm first had to sell the program internally. To comply with the benchmarks set by the SCP Standards, the employees’ daily tasks would have to be monitored and improved, if necessary. For instance, SCP Standards required documentation of performance versus program criteria, which would show the efficiency of the Technical Assistance Center.
The Benefits
A number of initial adjustments were made as a result of adopting the standards, including more detailed documentation of service activities and enhanced performance tracking. Orientations were held to help the staff understand that the new goals, procedures and tools would help to ensure exceptional service delivery, faster response and provide enhanced reporting to measure operational and employee performance, which in turn aided the adoption process. Once the staff understood how the SCP Standards would benefit the company, they adjusted their methods and behaviors accordingly and participated with enthusiasm.
“The changes that have resulted from our efforts are much appreciated by the staff. They can feel the improvements under the new system,” says William Prutting, Manager of Support Systems. “They now have the tools and processes necessary to deliver a high quality experience to our growing customer base.”
Securing a standards-based system unified the service organization, holding employees accountable like never before. Employees were incentivized to have an evaluation system that would measure all areas of the operation. With a clear definition of roles and responsibilities, and a renewed sense of accountability, employees are better prepared to handle the increased service demand that accompanies rapid growth. The company has seen more consistency in the service delivery process through more proactive communications with customers, and better methods for setting and managing customer expectations.
Adopting SCP Standards provided the edge the company needed to surpass its competition. Improvements in service operations accelerated as a result of the adoption of SCP Standards. The company now has a comprehensive improvement plan based on the standards and a way to measure success through the SCP audit process.
“SCP has helped us refine our policies and procedures and makes sure that we follow them on a consistent basis.” said Annie Ho, Service IT Project Manager. “The standards have personalized everything for us, taking away any guesswork and allowing us to benchmark ourselves against service leaders around the world.”
Since achieving certification initially for the Technical Assistance Center, then for the Field Service organization, Fujifilm can attribute quantifiable improvements to the adoption of SCP Standards. As a result, the company is enjoying positive
recognition from prestigious organizations in the medical industry. One measure of this success can be seen on the company’s KLAS rankings, a key benchmark in the medical systems marketplace. The Fujifilm rankings have improved from seventh to third in the KLAS benchmark since becoming certified, a major accomplishment.
“While we take great pride in the quality and innovation of all our medical imaging systems, we recognize the importance of delivering the highest level of customer service and support to keep those systems up-to-date and performing optimally for the highest quality care,” says Bob Cooke, Vice President of Network Business Development. “Adopting industry standards and passing the comprehensive certification process is a testament to our commitment to excellence in service.”
As a result of the effort FujiFilm has invested in adopting the SCP Standards, the service organization has been able to efficiently handle an increasing number of customer interactions resulting from the rapid growth of the business. “The SCP Standards have helped us take our service delivery capability and performance to another level,” says Prutting. “We are now in an excellent position to deliver a consistent, high quality service experience to our customers even during a growth for the company.”
Most notably, survey results have shown a marked improvement in customer satisfaction, with close to 90% of respondents indicating they are now satisfied with their service experience. In addition, approximately 30% of those surveyed noted an overall improvement in service over the past six months. “This is outstanding and we are very encouraged since the majority tends to select the status quo,” comments Burden.
Committing to Continuous Improvement
Through the adoption of SCP Standards, the Fujifilm service organization has become a showcase for the company. To broaden the vision for service excellence beyond the Technical Assistance Center and Field Service operation, Fujifilm executives have committed to replicate their successes in other areas of the company, most notably in the area of professional services, which is now working towards certification under the SCP Professional Service Standard.
“Each and every day we strive to deliver world-class service and support, and passing the rigorous requirements necessary to achieve certification against the SCP Standards is confirmation that we are succeeding in this mission and achieving high levels of customer satisfaction,” said Burden. “We remain unwavering in our commitment to not only continue delivering top quality customer service, but to also add new and more effective ways to serve our customers’ needs.”
Learn More About SCP Standards
The world’s leading service providers use Service Strategies’ Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards as a roadmap for service excellence and a qualitative and quantitative measure of success. Read more about SCP Standards.
For additional information email info@servicestrategies.com, or call 858.674.4864, toll free in North America 800.552.3058.
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