Golden Tips from Field Service Medical 2020 & COVID-19 Impacts to Service
Recently, the 2020 Field Service Medical Conference took place in Rancho Bernardo, CA, where top medical device service leaders gathered once again and shared learnings and best practices on addressing the challenges they've faced in the industry. Over the past few years, companies have used various methods and tactics in addressing market trends, and it's fascinating to see much of the progress. The central theme of the conference focused on the customer experience, and its paramount importance. As more companies grow and merge, they must not lose sight of the individual customer.
Service organizations have never been more challenged and felt more pressure to achieve their goals and objectives. With the uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus, this could affect how you achieve your business goals in the coming year. After compiling dozens of topics covered, we have highlighted three specific topics that carried the general theme of the conference relating to the effectiveness and evolution of today's services organizations. With the recent impacts of COVID-19, embracing some of these tips and suggestions could be vital in outlasting this new virus as it will continue to disrupt global supply chains across all industries.
Increased Competition Creates Pressure to Cut Costs
Rick Brandl, Sr. Global Service Operations Director, Medtronic
Stagnation Is Not an Option: The Link Between Technology and the Evolution of Field Service Organizations
Marc Coleman, Head of Midwest and Western US Field Service, Millipore Sigma
Remote Diagnostics and Self-Help Capabilities
Gregory Burchman, Head of Service Effectiveness, Millipore Sigma; Jatin Thakkar, Director, Global Service, and Sales Carestream, Shikha O'Brien, Strategic Alliances, Rare Genomics Institute
To best address these challenges, medical device manufacturers are engaging contract partners to outsource a portion of their operations to ensure a seamless customer experience while maximizing ROI. While cost reduction is important, it's not as crucial to a company’s bottom line as providing predictable, repeatable results. Medical device manufacturers want to work with a trusted outsource service provider that will act on their behalf, and treat their customers as if they were their own.
In order for a company to operate at maximum bandwidth, everything comes down to effective resource allocation. Whether it’s capital, people, or facilities — companies can only maintain so much, and being able to utilize the resources of a vendor is crucial in times of uncertainty and fluctuating demand. Scaling up or down with in-house employees or permanent facilities can be costly and cumbersome. Reacting to an unplanned event will catch any company off guard, but partnering with an experienced service provider can lessen downtime and mitigate risk in otherwise stressful times.
Meeting a manufacturer's operational challenges is what Quest International specializes in, and adapting to each client's individual needs is what we do best. With nearly 40 years of servicing medical products, Quest is prepared to discuss strategies you can implement to embrace these practices as well as alternative paths to support your customers in all markets.
Contact us today to learn more about how Quest can help meet these challenges for you and your customers.
