#Flexibility Matters: Adapting to the needs of the changing NHS landscape
Offering our customers both choice and flexibility to best support their needs is a huge part of what we do. Adapting to the shifting landscape across the NHS means our teams have to be equally adaptable in their approach. Within Facilities and Office Solutions we have a dedicated Implementation and Adoption team, who support our customers with identifying savings, implementing new products, and finding the right route.
We sat down with the team to find out more about how flexibility matters to them.
How important is offering flexible options to customers?
Head of Implementation and Adoption Liessa Newnham said: “We have such a variety of NHS customers, it is unlikely one option will suit everyone, so it is important that our frameworks offer a suitable variety of products, and we take the time to fully understand each individual customer’s requirements before making suggestions for alternative options. We may offer a full solution, but a trust may only have the capacity to make incremental changes, so we need to adjust the implementation process accordingly to work at their speed and ensure minimal disruption to their workspace.”
Senior Implementation and Adoption Manager Simon Pugh said: “With such a wide variety of products and options to choose from, it can be difficult for a trust to know what the best option is for them. Different circumstances and settings may require a different solution which requires a flexible and dynamic approach from the I&A team to get the best outcome for the trust. Through our analysis, we look to present the trusts with a range of options, whilst still presenting benefits across them all, the trusts still have the option to choose what works for them.”
Implementation and Adoption Specialist Joshua Wardell added: “The drivers and decision-making process varies from trust to trust. With that in mind, offering flexible solutions to customers helps us to adapt to the everchanging needs and requirements of each customer, creating solutions to problems.
Implementation and Adoption Specialist Saffron Stockwell said: “Flexible options are extremely important, it is imperative that we provide all of our customers with a good, better, and best option when switching products and services.
“On the surface, it would be very easy to assume that a trust will switch in order to make a saving, but in reality, it has to be signed off by a number of stakeholders who all have different priorities, such as finance or infection prevention control.”
Why is it important to be flexible and adaptable as part of your role in building customer relationships?
Simon said: “By looking at different options and presenting a suite of solutions, the trust then has the flexibility to choose the most effective product for them. This flexibility afforded by delving deeper into the data helps to find the best solution for the trust and build the confidence in our approach.”
Liessa added: “Our customers come from a range of specialties. They can be procurement teams focussing on compliance and efficiency, supplies teams wanting regular and guaranteed deliveries on a particular day or in a particular pack size, or they can be clinical teams wanting the right product for their clinical areas, so we have to be aware of what is important to each of these customer groups and adapt our approach and information accordingly.
“Understanding each workstream’s pressure points is essential to provide the right solution and we need to work closely with all elements of the trust team when making our recommendations. We have known some of our customers for a long time and building trust to allow partnership working is essential as we want to enhance and support the work they do.”
Joshua said: “Flexibility enables our team and I to adapt to every scenario and address customer needs to clarify what is important to them. This keeps the service we provide consistent and relevant to achieve a positive outcome.”
Saffron added: “Customers are at the heart of what the I&A Team do every day. A clinician has different priorities to a colleague in Estates and Facilities, so we need to ensure that we are adaptable in our approach at all levels in a trust setting.”
How does the wider FOS team support you to deliver flexible solutions to our customers?
Liessa said: “We are very fortunate to be part of a wider team who put the customer firmly at the centre of everything we do so we are able to feedback customer insights which help ensure our product offering matches the customer requirements, so we get the right product to the right person and at the right price.
“The team know the market which allows us to offer the best range possible from our frameworks, whilst driving competitive pricing so that trusts can be sure they will receive high quality products, suitable for their requirements whilst being fully compliant as all suppliers on the framework have been put through a full procurement process.”
Joshua said: “Experience and product knowledge enables us to address problems and solutions in a multi dynamic way, bringing more solutions to present than just the obvious. For example, delivering solutions beyond price and addressing sustainability solutions and ways of operating away from the day-to-day trust normality.
Simon added: “By having accurate data combined with inhouse product knowledge we can build up an appropriate way of working for our trust customers.”
If you would like to discuss switching or savings opportunities, please contact the Implementation and Adoption team.