The Case Study on Customer Experience at Suraksha Diagnostic Labs in India

                 

                                     


Source of the images above - http://www.surakshanet.com/index.php 

Suraksha Diagnostic has become a household name in Kolkata. The chain offering diagnostic services, along with certain value added benefits makes the brand a novel one, especially when the modern day patients are in the look out for "everything under the same roof" kind of service provider. Furthermore, the patients of all hues wants quality service in terms of timely service, error free diagnosis and assistance to the segments of patients who are aplenty, viz. senior citizens and those requiring special needs. As far as hygiene is concerned, diagnostics sector is right there in the top. Suraksha, with their punch line Aarogyam Anandam is trying to tick most of the above boxes, and one should indeed compliment the brainchild of this emerging brand in the state of Bengal, Delhi, NCR and Patna, where healthcare and education forms the backbone of the society at large. The case study below presents insights on the basis of personal experience and observation as a dependent of patients, visiting one of the centers in the salt lake area of Kolkata. The patients were being treated by the doctors of a reputed hospital in South Kolkata and the reason for opting for Suraksha, rather than the hospital was the serpentine queue present in the latter. 

The reason for yours truly being advised to visit the salt lake center was the availability of all possible diagnostic services under the same roof, in addition to the cleanliness, error free reports, economical packages for senior citizens and timely delivery of reports. With time constraint and difficulty in moving around with geriatric patients (read parents, aged more than seventy years of age and ailing with various health related complications), it was indeed a challenge to drive down from South Kolkata to Salt Lake, especially when  the dependents mom  is diabetic with a host of associated complications  and was fasting since the last night, in order to complete a whole range of diagnostic tests. To be specific, she had taken her dinner at 8 PM last evening and had waited till 3.30 PM the next day to complete all her tests! Although, yours truly reached the Salt Lake center sharp at 7.00 AM, and initial few tests were done quite rapidly, the USG and few other tests took a long time due to the unavailability of the doctor who was supposed to perform the operations/processes. Moreover, for a sequence of tests, the follow up for expediting the process, by pointing towards the ailing senior citizen patients had to be done by the patient's dependent, as the customer service department was too concerned catering to the fresh footfalls. This was the case, when the patients dependent had registered the names of the patients, a day before the tests were too be performed. The staff members in the center were courteous, but were probably not trained on the aspect of following a process which ensures the completion of one patient before moving into the other. Moreover, the patients who had to be escorted, like the mom of yours truly were not done in the right way! It used to be the dependent himself donning the role of an escort while being moved from one floor to another, so as to perform the tests. The time delay when it was pointed out to the front office staff, they were blunt in blaming the patient, saying the patient was not ready for the procedure, whereas, the truth was that the doctor came and performed on a few patients and then left. It was evident that the center did not have a full time doctor/technician to do the task(s) and they were accumulating patients, before calling him/her to conduct the procedures on a good number of patients. While this sounds good for the economics of the business center, it is absolutely shabby on the part of the consumer, especially when one considers the patients to be ailing and are senior citizens, that too who had been fasting since 8 PM of the last evening! At one point of time, when the dependents of the patients were trying to remind the front office staff, there was complete ignorance as they knew they were helpless in the absence of the expert who was supposed to do the procedure. However, here one need to make special mention of a front office staff Sunanda Saha, who was quite cooperative and active in the whole ordeal. Even Dr. Monica Prabhakar, Consultant Pathologist was the one who showed some kind of concern for the aged ailing patients as they were waiting from dawn to dusk to complete all the procedures. A call at the HO and an interaction with the customer service head, Ms. Mrinalini, did improve the coordination and assistance for the patients at the fag end of the day, however, there were still glitches existing in the whole process. Some of those voids have still not been filled, for example, the reports were supposed to be emailed to emailmanishankar@gmail.com , but till today not a single email reached the destination's inbox. If they would have sent it, they can forward that old email to prove this blog wrong. Secondly, Dr. Monica was supposed to email the conclusions and advice to the patients, derived after the completion of all the reports on the same id, as the patient and their dependents stayed outside Bengal, but till today the same has not been done. Even the collection of the reports, collectively needed more than three days, as the delivery of reports by different executives at different days, for different diagnosis was not a coordinated affair. Everyone it seems were worried to complete his or her task only and none actually thought about the end user experience and thereby the concept of one's output forming the input for the next staff was totally absent. The physical evidence, the range of services offered, the courteous staff, the extensive distribution of the brand all across the city of joy and reports which are reliable can definitely be counted as some of the USP, however, if one does not look into the overall customer satisfaction and delight, Suraksha might go down as many other's in the past who had "over promised and under delivered"! Is the senior management listening? The website of the company http://www.surakshanet.com/ has the following to say-

Home > About Us > Company ProfileCompany ProfileEastern India’s largest diagnostic chain

Established in 1992 as Suraksha Diagnostic & Eye Centre (P) Ltd. in Kolkata, we started as one of the first diagnostic centers in Kolkata to provide all pathology and radiology services under one roof. This convenience, along with our unwavering commitment to accuracy and service, resulted in steady growth and popularity. Within 3 years we could confidently open a second Center at Siliguri, in North Bengal, which remains the largest such facility in the region, and today caters not only to patients from North Bengal, but also neighbouring States and countries. Since then we have grown steadily across Bengal, Bihar, and Delhi NCR.

The best of technology and knowhow

Committed to deliver world-class quality, Suraksha’s Diagnostic Centres are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment from GE, Schiller, Beckman Coulter, Siemens, Roche Diagnostic, Biorat D10, Variant Turbo, Biomerieux, Phillips, etc. The technology is backed by high caliber diagnosticians: radiologists, bio-chemists, pathologists, microbiologists as well as skilled technicians. Diagnostic services range from radiology to pathology and histopathology and molecular biology.

Setting benchmarks in service

Service has always been the distinguishing factor in Suraksha’s popularity. Whether it is the comfort, convenience or courtesy at the Centres or in delivering quick, accurate reports, we have led industry practices in India. Today with services such as online reports and SMS alerts we continue to lead the way in leveraging technology for better services

The neighbourhood polyclinics

Suraksha Polyclinics, where specialist doctors can be consulted directly by patients, is another aspect of Suraksha’s service. All Suraksha Diagnostic Centres have an associated Polyclinic. Most polyclinics include super-speciailty clinics for Diabetes, Blood Pressure and Pain Management to provide holistic treatment.

It's for you to read and experience and share your experience as part of comments to this blog, which would not only enhance the quality of Suraksha, but would also provide more confidence to all the patients waiting to get diagnosed done at the centers. 

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