The Yin and Yang of (Ultrasound) Service

The Yin and Yang of (Ultrasound) Service

 

Usually this column deals with the technical aspects of ultrasound support but would be remiss if I left out an equally important component of service which is the relationship and communications you need to establish with your customers.

 

 

Recently, we were interviewing candidates for a field service engineer position at Conquest and I was asked to screen several individuals and my focus was not if they could fix an ultrasound system; it was whether they could fix a customer. The majority of readers of TechNation are technical people which can be art alone but when combined with the ability to communicate well and form a relationship with a customer combines to make a good service engineer a great one.

 

As a former service engineer with 25 years field experience, I became very good at my craft. Did I fail occasionally? Absolutely! We all do but what separates a mistake or failure from a catastrophic customer loss is having a relationship with your customer. They are much more forgiving with a friend than a stranger and they are much more likely to share with you any problems or risks in your business relationship if you have a personal one.

 

Ongoing communication is also critical to a solid working relationship with a customer. How many times have you or someone you know gone to a customer site, walked straight into a room past a multitude of people and closed the door to get to work? When creating our Preventative maintenance process many years ago, the first and last step we instituted involves a customer interface. At the beginning of every PM, the customer is interviewed to find out how the system is performing and if any issues need to be addressed. At the end of the PM, the customer is told exactly what was performed, any action items are identified and finally, thanked for the opportunity to serve them.

 

As in all relationships in life, good communication is critical to maintaining them in good and not-so-good times.

 

 

This article on The Yin and Yang of (Ultrasound) Service was originally published on ConquestImaging.com.