A twelve-minute investment makes a real difference
Annual customer feedback from Elekta annual survey drives major change
Elekta scientists, engineers and operational staff spend a tremendous amount of time and resources developing the most advanced cancer management solutions in the world. Coming up with innovative solutions and improving service offerings happen continuously. Elekta relies on a mixture of feedback channels, including its global network of clinical partners and, equally important, Elekta customers. The company reaches out to customers to ask them directly what they like about Elekta’s clinical solutions and services and about aspects of both that could be enhanced.
On an ongoing basis, Elekta harnesses the insights gleaned from the annual Elekta Customer Survey to discover new ways to improve treatment systems and planning software and to innovate novel or better approaches to customer service.
“The key thing customers should know about the annual survey is that Elekta takes the feedback extremely seriously.”
The importance Elekta places on these surveys cannot be overstated, according to Valerie Howe, Director, Global Marketing & Customer Intelligence.
We place a significant amount of resources behind the Elekta Customer Survey,” she says. “Dozens of Elekta representatives, called ‘Customer Champions,’ representing all product areas, support functions and regions are involved. We dissect and analyze the opinions and insight from customers each year to understand what they’re telling us: what we need to do or develop or improve. This feedback is then translated into operational plans that will result in the realization of customer needs and desires. It could be a project that takes only weeks to finish or a complex project that can take months or years.
“The key thing customers should know about the annual survey is that Elekta takes the feedback extremely seriously,” Howe stresses. “We read every customer comment, we have workshops to delve into the data, and we develop clear action plans that improve the customer experience through our products and services. I appreciate that twelve minutes can represent quite a bit of time for some customers, but we respect this investment by ensuring we fully utilize the results.”
Curious how we have recently taken input from the Elekta Customer Survey and reinvested on behalf of you, our customer? Here are some recent examples.
Treating patients is the priority
Because maximum system uptime is critical, Elekta Customer Survey respondents have placed high importance on “resolution-response time,” a key performance indicator for equipment service, according to Mark Coward, Elekta Vice President Service Operations.
“The heightened visibility of a system that is down has translated into an accelerated resolution-response time.”
“Based on the emphasis customers were communicating to us about the cost of downtime, we examined our ‘P1 System Down Process’ and determined we could enhance it by increasing the visibility of a system ‘out-of-action’ status to the management level across the regions,” he says. “The heightened visibility of a system that is down has translated into an accelerated resolution-response time.”
While over the years respondents have clearly expressed the importance of getting systems back in action rapidly, they also placed a high value on predictive maintenance to avoid downtime.
“These insights have reinforced Elekta’s commitment to continue investing in IntelliMax®, our remote system support solution, which enables personalized, proactive support and predictive maintenance for Elekta linear accelerators,” Coward observes.
He adds that customer survey feedback has also resulted in changes to Elekta’s field service training programs, modifications designed to make field service engineers even better equipped to resolve issues faster.
A fast track to clinical go-live
A common theme among many survey respondents during the last several years has centered around the desire for faster installation and commissioning of a new linac. It was this input that resulted in the development of Elekta’s Accelerated Go-Live (AGL) program, according to Carlos Castilleja, Elekta Vice President, Global Order Fulfillment Operations.
“Installation and commissioning of a linear accelerator can take weeks, a time commitment that can result in significant treatment delays if patients can’t be transferred to another system,” he says. “Accelerated Go-Live is an Elekta offering that can eliminate the disruption to the hospital and patients by shortening these processes significantly. We can dispatch an AGL team of engineers and physicists that will help the customer fully realize the time savings, in an ultra-efficient manner.”
“The survey helps us understand what customers want and this inspired us to develop AGL.”
Castilleja cites Swedish Covenant Hospital AGL experience. Through AGL, the installation of an Elekta Infinity™ system and provision of a standard data set enabled Swedish to be up and running in a significantly shorter period of time than it would have taken with a “conventional” installation/commissioning process.
“The survey helped us understand what our customers want and this inspired us to develop AGL,” he says.
Continuously improving support excellence
Through the annual survey, Elekta gained a better appreciation of the impact of employee attrition on its Elekta Care Support Center functions.
“Elekta Care Support Centers are dedicated to maximizing the availability of Elekta solutions to deliver high-quality treatments to patients,” says Barry Eaton, Head of Elekta Care Support Centres, Global Service Excellence. “Response and resolution times are key enablers.”
“Focus has been placed on customer support excellence through the sharing of global best practices to harmonize standard and efficient operating procedures. Elekta has continued to invest in placing the right knowledge, where it’s needed, when it’s needed, with technologically advanced learning delivery and knowledge management solutions,” he says.
Twelve minutes helps improve your experience
According to Howe, the annual Elekta Customer Survey – combined with transactional post-engagement surveys regarding individual interactions – represents a “gold mine” of actionable information that Elekta can use to improve the customer experience in countless areas.
“With twelve minutes of their time every year to complete the survey, each customer can play an important role in shaping our organization.”
“Our clinical partners have collaborated with us for decades on the most advanced cancer management solutions in the industry,” she says. “However, that’s only part of the story. The ongoing flow of customer opinions and desires reflected in surveys is constantly molding how Elekta relates with our customers. With twelve minutes of their time every year to complete the survey, each customer can play an important role in shaping our organization.”
At the end of February 2020, all Elekta customers will receive email invitation to participate in the 2020 Elekta Customer Survey.
