Auriga Hong Kong supports Baxter with home delivery for chronic care

Sometimes, opportunity knocks on the door. In 2015, Baxter appointed Auriga as their sole distributor of renal dialysis solution in Hong Kong - a complex home delivery healthcare product which appeared to be a fairly new market for Auriga to explore.

Baxter's operations included receiving, picking and delivering prescription orders to hospitals and thousands of patients’ homes in order to help them manage chronic illness with privacy and convenience. The warehouse and delivery operation was particularly critical as the nature of the product and direct delivery left no room for error. Every order had to be 100% correct, every time.

Despite the inherent challenges, Auriga recognized the opportunity to apply unique precision supply chain techniques and advanced customer service.

The process design was built around understanding the needs of all stakeholders. Before setting up the systems, Auriga conducted face-to-face meetings and joined patient focus groups to collect detailed order behavior and user feedback. Even more importantly, Auriga called up each active patient in advance of the launch to introduce the company and the new service.

A call center was built in 2015 and the roll out began in October after a trial period. For the first three months, the average call time exceeded five minutes, which was well beyond the initial KPIs. Auriga’s management quickly intervened to investigate the overload. As it turned out, rather than simply placing an order, most patients were asking the service representatives about the product, the company and the new program. The service teams were able to build trust with every caller by carefully addressing their concerns. Within six months, call times dropped to back to the expected level but service levels continued to exceed expectations. The one-on-one interaction helped each individual feel personally cared for and confident their needs were being fully met.

In addition to attentively serving end-user needs, Auriga had to develop a thorough methodology and culture of excellence from the call center floor to the delivery truck. While there were meticulous processes in place to ensure every item was picked correctly, checked 100% and scanned at each home for delivery without error, establishing a perfect delivery record became the team’s ethos, with every team member working hard to do their part.

Two years later, the Auriga team continues to support Baxter and our home-delivery customers with consistency, accuracy and the best possible care we can deliver.