bioMérieux’s Support and Services: Enabling the Promise of Our Technology

Interview with Philippe Prouff, Global Customer Services Manager

bioMérieux’s solutions aren’t solely focused on technology —they’re rooted in a steadfast dedication to quality service. Every day, our goal is to serve our customers as fast as possible to optimize the uptime of our equipment and ensure the business continuity of our customers’ operations. 

My team’s name is “Transformation for Service Performance” because we truly believe that we can innovate how we deliver services – through process improvements and new ways of working – to improve our overall performance. We provide our customers with end-to-end support, from the first moments of discussion all the way to the acquisition of a solution and beyond.

We work hand-in-hand with our customers throughout the lifecycle of their equipment. Before any acquisition, we launch a consulting phase comprised of a deep analysis and recommendations to demonstrate the added value of our solution and how to optimize the return on the investment. 

Once the equipment is acquired, we stay in close contact, from installation to the routine use of the instrument.

We follow a set of qualification and validation activities to ensure that the expected performance of the equipment is reached. Our field application specialists and engineers carry out tests at each production site to make sure the new technology complements the workflow of their lab. We  also take the time to train our partners on how to best use our solution. 

Finally, once the performance of the equipment is validated, it enters its routine phase, during which we provide ongoing maintenance and address any technical issues. 

To me, the differentiator is our network of experts. We have more than 40 subsidiaries around the world, and 1,500 to 2,000 field agents, services engineers, and application and IT specialists, who are all qualified to take our customers’ requests into account. These team members are continually trained and coached to make sure they have the competencies and hard and soft skills to deliver best in-class service. 

In the countries where we are not present, we have built a network of rigorously selected distributors, whose teams are also trained to perform the same level of services. Overall, we provide a high customer service and our responsiveness is top notch We are proud to be ranked among the Top 3 suppliers on these matters by our customers.

We hold the principle that customers’ satisfaction isn’t the responsibility of only specific people within the organization, but that it belongs to everyone. The Customer Service teams may be the front line, but our sales forces interact with customers and share accountability for excellent service, as well.

We believe in the quality of the relationship with our customers throughout the entire journey. It takes time, effort, and a continuous display of our commitment, but we are committed to building trust. This trust can sometimes be tested when our customers face an issue that we don’t have an immediate answer for. In this case, the key is to acknowledge the importance of the problem and to be transparent on how the steps we are going to take to find a solution. We have planners and schedulers in our subsidiaries; they know who to mobilize to best serve our clients. And if an issue persists, our field experts can rely on our Regional and Global teams to further support them with investigations. Our objective is to provide total end-to-end support.

We also continuously integrate our customers’ feedback and suggestions into the design and development of our instruments. We have a specific process to gather their results and ideas and dispatch them to the right people in R&D, Manufacturing, Sales, Marketing or Customer Service. This is how we ensure we have the best systems that are easily serviceable. 

We aim to transform the way we perform and deliver our service offering. 

We consistently do this by integrating the lessons we’ve learned and adapting. Therefore, it is often a question of change management — also, it’s critical to be aware of the latest and most innovative technologies. For instance, we have explored the evolution of training methods, remote access possibilities, and the power of Generative Artificial Intelligence, to see how our teams and customers may benefit from them. Technologies and services go together; they are inseparable. The support and services we provide to our customers enable us to deliver on the promise of our technology.