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Happy Birthday Nicole
We asked our employees to comment on 2 things this year as they celebrate their birthday:
As I approach the latter stages of my thirty-eight-year career in radiology I’ve been asked to share a highlight and two came to my mind immediately. First would be the transition from the analog film days to the digital equipment in use today. I started my career with Picker International in 1985 as a film processor service technician. Early on in my career we heard rumors of this new technology that would put us out of work someday. One evening I was having dinner with several of my fellow technicians after a day of training on film processor quality control when the subject came up. Most of us were quite young and concerned about our futures. The older, grey haired instructor sitting at the table assured us that we would all be able to retire working on film processors. Well for me he missed it by 10 or 12 years.
2007 seemed to be the year that we saw it here in Iowa. Every hospital that was still on film decided to buy a CR system that year. I’m convinced that if digital mammography would have been viable then, Z&Z Medical would not have survived the rapid change. As it turned out every one of our customers that was performing mammography had to keep one film processor on site and as you may remember mammography film processors were very high maintenance units. This bought us just enough time to make some major changes to our business and allow Z&Z Medical to remain a viable entity in the radiology world. So many aspects of our business were tied to film beyond just the service of equipment. Film and chemical sales became just a fraction of what we used to do. Silver recovery service, gone, the sale of reclaimed silver, gone, illuminator, film bin and safelight sales, gone, filing and mailing supply sales, gone and scrap film sales would be gone in few short years. What were we to do now?
That brings me to my second highlight. When Craig and I started Z&Z Medical in 2000 we did not deny the fact that if we didn’t address the coming digital revolution, we’d soon be riding a dying horse. I’ve seen a lot of our competitors that didn’t heed the warning and are now nowhere to be found in our industry. We asked ourselves who in our industry would be the last customers using analog equipment and how could we make them customers of Z&Z Medical? We concluded that it would be chiropractors and veterinarians, but the amount of film and chemical they would use in a year an average hospital would use in a couple of days. It would really change the scale of our operation and we couldn’t justify the cost of sending a salesman out to knock on their doors. Our answer was an ecommerce site on the internet that would push our boundaries well outside of the state of Iowa where we’d worked in the past.
We had dabbled over the years selling x-ray accessories to our customers so we had all the connections we needed make that part of this site as well. We also made a pretty bold move at the time and put our prices right on the site so anyone with a credit card could make a purchase. It took us about a year to get the site ready and I’ll never forget our first order was from a customer in Missouri that purchased two film bins from us. I think those may be the only film bins we’ve ever sold on the site.
That was in 2005 and at that time there wasn’t a hospital in America that would think of buying radiology accessories on an ecommerce site. We managed to plug along selling analog supplies to the chiropractors and vets and some medical clinics. Many of our local hospitals in Iowa would use our site as a catalog and then send us a purchase order. Sales from the site continued to grow year after year and eventually the hospitals did come around. We always felt that it was as the old purchasing agents at the hospitals retired off and the new staff coming in embraced the change. We often joke about the new purchasing staff asking the older staff “What do you mean I have to use a catalog or wait for a sales man to show up? I’ve got everything I need right here in this computer.” Today about 80% of our annual revenue comes either from our ecommerce site, or from customers outside of Iowa that found us through our site.
That’s a lot of change in thirty-eight years, going from those old mechanical monsters that reeked of developer and fixer to a DR panel with lightning quick results. There were also the hours spent printing purchase orders to fax to our vendors, to now having an ecommerce site that can work 24/7 for us. When I started with Picker in 1985 I thought I’d do this for ten years and then look to change to something else. I guess thirty-eight years later I never made that change, but the job actually made a huge change around me.
Welcome to our blog post on the celebration of National Iowa Day!
National Iowa Day is an annual celebration that takes place on February 8th and recognizes the state of Iowa and its contributions to the United States. Iowa, also known as the Hawkeye State, is located in the Midwest region of the country and is known for its rolling hills, rich agricultural history, and diverse culture.
At Z&Z Medical, we are proud to be based in Iowa and to be a part of the vibrant community here. We understand the importance of supporting our local community and are committed to being an active and engaged member of the Iowa business community.
There are many ways to celebrate National Iowa Day and show your pride in this great state. Some ideas include:
We hope that you will join us in celebrating National Iowa Day and all that our state has to offer. Happy National Iowa Day!
We asked our employees to comment on 2 things this year as they celebrate their birthday:
Brothers Kevin & Craig Zabel began servicing x-ray equipment for the same company in 1994. They mainly serviced film processors, silver recovery equipment and daylight film handling systems. They were confident with their work and the service they offered their customers, but they always felt they could provide better customer service than the company they were working for. After six years with the same company and much debate, they decided to take a leap of faith and open their own business. On January 1, 2000 (Y2K, the day the world was predicted to end) they founded Z&Z Medical in Cedar Falls, Iowa. They had no way of knowing if any of the customers from their previous employer would follow them and convert to doing business with Z&Z, but they had to try.
The Zabel’s rented an old two stall carwash in town to serve as a warehouse for chemicals, equipment, and scrap x-ray film. The space was very minimal, but it was just enough to get started. They sold film processors, developing chemicals, x-ray film, silver recovery systems and radiology accessories. Service was Z&Z’s bread and butter so much emphasis was placed on the repair of film processors, chemical mixers, silver recovery systems and daylight film handling equipment. In an effort to save money on postage stamps and envelopes, all service invoices were handwritten on the spot for each customer and left with them for later payment.
The warehouse they rented wasn’t big enough to have space for offices, so both Kevin and Craig operated remote offices from their homes. To stay ahead of the office paperwork and free up time for both brothers to stay on the road servicing equipment, Craig’s wife Connie offered to take care of Accounts receivable and payable. This also was done by sharing office space with Craig from the basement of their home.
After opening for business, they began notifying people of their new venture and the services they offered. It was a great feeling after two weeks of being in business to finally receive their first check from a customer. Things started slow, but before long customers started to use Z&Z’s services. After a few months they decided to add Kevin’s son-in-law, Brian as a third service technician and digital expert. Business continued to grow at a slow but steady pace and before long they added a full-time salesman and moved into a larger building. Service was expanded to include x-ray and digital imaging and sales were expanded with the addition of an on-line e-commerce web store.
Business continued to grow at a steady pace, and as they say, “The rest is history.”
~Craig Zabel, Senior Partner
