Quality Customer Service
Performance Measurements
Benefits to Customers
Commendations
Providing quality customer service is one of our top priorities to ensure the success of the trading fund, and make our services more competitive. Customers will judge us not only by our technical expertise, but also by our customer service. In view of this, EMSTF introduced a number of programmes last year to enhance our customer service. Some of these are outlined below.
Service Level Agreements
A number of Service Level Agreements (SLA) have been established with our customers. Under the SLA, customers will pay EMSTF a fixed annual fee in return for a full range of services covering, either all systems at specific locations, or a group of systems or equipment.
In 1996/97, approximately 68% of the trading fund's services were under this arrangement. The advantage is that maintenance standards and performance levels for each service package, and the customer's service priorities are written into the agreement. This is the customer's guarantee for delivery of consistent service quality.
Additionally, customers are able to control their budgets more effectively as well as avoiding unnecessary administrative work.
As an integral part of the Service Level Agreement, regular meetings with customers are held to review performance and to solicit their feedback. This arrangement has been well received by the customers.
A Customer Support Unit was set up on 1 August 1996 to support EMSTF in delivering customer-oriented services. Among the priorities of the unit are conducting customer opinion surveys on an annual basis to collect customers' views on our services, and to identify their needs and concerns through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires. The survey results will be used to devise and implement appropriate improvement measures.
We recognise that sorting through complaints has not always been easy due to our divisional structure. A complaints handling system has been developed to centralise this process so that customers need place only one phone call with our dedicated hot-line, and our customer service staff will review the situation and co-ordinate the necessary correctional and improvement measures.
To understand our customers better, EMSTF has established a number of communication channels at different levels to find out more about customersÕ needs and requirements.
Firstly, client managers at Assistant Director level have been appointed to look after the interests and concerns of each individual client. As part of this process, there are regular meetings between the EMSTF client manager and senior management of our customers to review our performance and collect feedback. Similarly, monthly or quarterly working level meetings are arranged so that customers can have a better understanding of our services and progress of major works.
Secondly, surveys with some of the customers were conducted to assess their satisfaction level, their concerns, their suggestions and other comments. These survey results have helped to identify our strengths and weaknesses which form the basis of our improvement programmes.
In order to provide our customers with a better understanding of our services, information booklets about EMSTF services were published and distributed to customers.
The results of EMSTF's customer-service initiatives are being measured through our ability to respond to and rectify fault calls, and deliver services to our customersÕ satisfaction. Performance targets have been agreed with each of our customers and stipulated in the service level agreements. They have generally been achieved in all six of our business areas.
* Remarks: The performance regarding fault rectification time is less than satisfactory. Immediate action has been taken to rectify the situation. Since February 1997, the service hours of the general electronics maintenance workshop have been extended to cover weekends and public holidays. Performance is expected to improve in 97/98.
Benefits to Customers
Delivering quality customer service is in the interest of both customers and EMSTF. We have been making progress in enhancing our services to customers in terms of cost, quality, and reliability. With the streamlining of our processes, we will be able to reduce our service fees in the coming year as listed below:
- a reduction of Service Level Agreement fees by more than 2.5 % for the same level of services;
- a decrease in professional fees for building services from 20% to 16%; and
- an increase in only 5% in hourly labour rate , which is lower than the inflation rate and salary increase this year.
Below are more examples, selected to show how EMSTF has enhanced services to customers:
- The pilot regionalisation scheme at 18 attended venues of the Urban Council (UC) and Regional Council (RC) has led to a reduction of the fault response time of visiting services from 3 hours to 15 minutes, with a compliance ratio of almost 100%.
- To enhance our maintenance service to UC unattended venues, three dedicated fault attendance teams have been set up since 3 March 1997. Reported faults can be attended within 30 minutes.
- Essential spare parts have now been stored at 12 major UC unattended venues to minimise possible delays caused by lack of spare parts.
- When preparing proposals for customers, we are mindful that alternatives should be explored so that the same requirements can be met but at lower costs. The project for upgrading the electronic scoreboard system in Kowloon Park Swimming Pool best illustrates this. We have meticulously studied the requirements and successfully negotiated with the contractor for a partial upgrade instead of replacing the entire system. This has resulted in a saving of more than $5M for the customer, while at the same time we have satisfied their operational requirements.
- The availability of ambulances for Fire Services Department has been improved from 88% to 91%. This was made possible through the Business Process Improvement exercise to reduce the time required to keep a vehicle in the workshop. This improvement is equivalent to enabling seven additional ambulances to operate on the streets everyday.
- Vehicle maintenance is an area which demands both safety and compliance with environmental regulations such as emission standards. EMSTF is dedicated to providing services in an environmentally-friendly way and has put in place an ongoing environmental audit, with procedures for handling scrap tyres, batteries, used lubricants and asbestos materials in a green manner.
- EMSTF has assisted various hospitals to reduce consumption of energy and to improve reliability of energy-saving equipment. One example is the modification of the lighting system in the Main Block of Queen Mary Hospital. Since the lighting units used have a short lifetime, we redesigned the system and proposed modifications to the hospital which have resulted in an annual cost saving of $467,000 in electricity fees and lamp bulb replacement cost.
- Programmes are in the pipeline to replace conventional lighting ballasts with high efficiency ones for some hospitals. It is expected that a 25% energy saving will be achieved after completion of the replacement exercise.
Our efforts to improve service have been recognised by our valued customers:
- EMSTF's Hong Kong West Medical Electronics Maintenance Centre was one of the top ten outstanding units of the Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) to win the Award for Excellence in Customer Service 1996/97. The honour was awarded, based on votes collected from customers from more than a hundred clinical and administration units at QMH during the period from June 96 to February 97, and the result of a surprise visit to the contestant's workshop.
- An appreciation letter was issued by the Transport Department for our professional advice and service in securing the operational vehicle fleet ahead of schedule and within budget for the opening of the Tsing Ma Control Area.
- An appreciation was received from the Urban Services Department for retrofitting the bank note acceptors for swimming pools in the urban area under an extremely tight project schedule.
- A commendation plate was presented to the General Manager of EMSTF by the Chinese representatives of the Joint Liaison Group on 26 March 1997 for the successful completion of the military projects at Stonecutters and Shek Kong.
- A letter of commendation was issued by Government House for our professional support to the preparation of a press conference in Government House on 23 December 1996, when the Governor met the Chief Executive (Designate) of the SAR government.
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