Providing excellent service

Environmental NEWS - Spring 2008

by J. Wilson Hershey, Ph.D., President

When was the last time you experienced excellent service? If you are like me, it’s far easier to recount stories of poor service.

Three instances of lousy service immediately come to mind. The first two relate to a cell phone and a 3-in-1 printer for a home computer. The first two printers had to be returned; the third one actually works!

A recent trip for a critically important business meeting illustrates poor and excellent service. Airline #1’s issues:

2.5 hour maintenance delay.
After boarding, the pilot found that the mechanics had reinstalled the steering mechanism incorrectly.
Before maintenance could correct the mistake, the flight crew timed-out.
Although the airport was now empty except for us, it took 90 minutes for luggage to be retrieved.

An all night drive by car with three fellow airline passengers got me to the meeting on time.

Back at the airport I found that the return flight was on a maintenance delay, and we wouldn’t get home that night.

Enter Southwest Airlines.

Southwest had direct flights from a nearby city, had me booked in a matter of minutes and gave me tips on driving to the other city, including where I might find hotels and restaurants. Over the top service!

Which airline will I fly next time? What will happen if Southwest disappoints me in the future? I’ll overlook it since I received excellent service the last time.
Providing excellent service is difficult. All of us have more to do and less time to do it. Further, analytical methods and state regulations seem to be constantly changing.

Providing excellent service starts with a can-do attitude and is supported by really good people and good systems.

At Lancaster Laboratories, we are implementing two new systems that should enhance our service. They are called Project Cycle and Project Definition.

Project Cycle includes a long checklist of information needed from the client to set up new projects.

Project Definition is a major enhancement to our Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Key features include:

Client specific and/or project specific compound lists, reporting limits, action limits, units, fees, bottles, analytical methods, comments and unique quality control requirements.

Our goal is to provide excellent service.