Apollo 24|7: Digitally transforming healthcare CX with a unified omnichannel approach
95%
omnichannel delivery rate
15%
higher conversions
Challenge
Digitally transform healthcare services to become more accessible and patient-centric
Apollo Hospitals has been at the forefront of the private sector healthcare transformation in India, working hard to create a more patient-centric approach. To match their brand’s legacy, they launched Apollo 24|7, a digital healthcare platform to improve the delivery of healthcare services.
This was in line with the shift in patient expectations to receiving personalized healthcare services at their fingertips.
In their bid to digitally transform the healthcare sector, Apollo 24|7 allowed patients to book appointments, access medical records, and receive medical advice remotely, all via a mobile app.
However, to do so effectively they needed an omnichannel communications approach to ensure patients and the healthcare services were well-connected to deliver better efficiency.
Their aim was to provide:
- Efficient operations: Streamlining their healthcare operations with a cost-effective solution.
- Enhanced communication: Improve communication by allowing patients to easily interact with them and access services over their preferred channels.
- Increased customer engagement: Utilize digital channels for engaging and fostering customer loyalty.
- Improved outcomes: Deliver better results and satisfaction by providing data-driven insights and personalized treatment options.
- Personalized re-engagement: Automate payment reminder, cart abandonment, and appointment booking use cases to avoid patient drop off.
Overall, they wanted to boost the digital adoption rate among their customers and partners and build a resilient and future-proofed healthcare system. For that, they need an omnichannel communications provider that allowed them to orchestrate personalized patient journeys across multiple channels and provide conversational experiences.
Solution
CPaaS omnichannel solution to provide end-to-end patient care
Apollo 24|7 chose Infobip’s omnichannel communications platform in a bid to bolster their app and provide round-the-clock service over channels their patients prefer.
Infobip provided Apollo 24|7 a unified omnichannel solution along with leading CPaaS capabilities over a single robust communications platform empowering them to create customized journeys through:
- Unifying patient data with our customer data platform, People CDP to trigger personalized messages, send reminders and give customer care agents a view of the patient’s history.
- Automating messaging flows and triggering events in real-time with our customer engagement solution, Moments for personalized campaigns and sending notifications in real-time.
- Providing always-on assistance with an intuitive chatbot using our chatbot building platform, Answers for assisting in replying to common healthcare queries.
- Delivering live support with our contact center solution, Conversations and to route calls to the right practitioner.
To cater to their patients’ preferences, it was essential for Apollo 24|7 to ensure that their healthcare services were readily available on the patient’s preferred channels. Namely, WhatsApp, RCS Business Messaging, Voice, Instagram, Messenger, and Live Chat.
Apollo 24|7 was able to seamlessly integrate these channels with a single API, helping them scale operations, maximize efficiencies and avoid hardware investments. Infobip’s CX Consultants helped Apolo’s team implement the right use case over the right channel, leading to a personalized approach for:
- Checking symptoms
- Booking and managing appointments
- Getting lab test results
- Running loyalty and marketing campaigns
- Delivering live support
To allow patients who are feeling unwell, or who see the need to visit a doctor, Apollo 24|7 designed a symptom checker. All patients need to do is fill in their details and select the symptoms to get appropriate guidance and next steps. To make it more accessible, Apollo 24|7 built a WhatsApp chatbot using Answers to give patients quick access to the Symptom Checker.
The chatbot made the process interactive, just like talking to a personal practitioner.
The digital transformation of private healthcare services included crucial components, such as:
Appointment booking and management
Integrating Voice as a channel helped provide a personalized approach and ensured patients were routed to the right consultant. Voice API was integrated to their customer care center to contact patients who dropped off or were disconnected while booking appointments.
Patients were then called back with options to route them to the right consultant or person who could answer their query.
In the first half of 2022, Apollo 24|7 used RCS to remind patients of upcoming appointments. These rich messages, set up in Moments, included the time and date of the appointment, name of the doctor, and the location. Patients could then confirm their attendance or reschedule the appointment with the call-to-action buttons in the RCS messages.
Lab test results
Regular checkups are important, and Apollo 24|7 endeavored to provide patients with the ability to book lab tests and receive the results at their convenience over a channel they were familiar with – WhatsApp.
Flows created on WhatsApp Business Platform helped customers book lab tests. Once the lab tests are booked, the customers would receive updates regarding sample collection and reports on the same platforms.
Automation
Apollo 24|7 used People CDP and Moments together to deliver personalized messages over the right channels for maximum engagement. Through Moments they were able to craft communication and campaign flows with the right triggers over the patient’s channel of choice. Apollo 24|7 could efficiently craft:
- Surveys: Post-purchase or lab test results surveys were automatically triggered over WhatsApp to check customer satisfaction.
- Appointment reminders: Nearing the scheduled date, appointment reminders and alerts were sent to patients via RCS with SMS as a failover channel.
- Campaigns: Targeted campaigns over RCS were orchestrated to boost patient loyalty.
- Lead generation: To attract new patients, Apollo 24|7 ran a phygital contest over WhatsApp. They advertised the contest in newspapers, encouraging people to opt-in to Apollo 24|7’s WhatsApp channel. Once opted in, people were directed via triggered prompts to upload a selfie and securely submit their details, which were stored in People CDP.
Live customer care
To provide round-the-clock support, Apollo 24|7 added Live Chat via Conversations to their existing customer care center. Through Conversations, agents were able to get a single view of the patient’s history, and able to provide personalized service.
Our local team of CX consultants, brought all the above use cases together to form an omnichannel strategy that took patients from awareness to conversion.
Result
Results: Improved patient experience with a 95% message delivery rate across all channels
With Infobip’s communications platform and omnichannel capabilities, Apollo 24|7 achieved significant business impact.
- Improved patient experience: Apollo 24|7 was able to provide a better patient experience by enabling them to offer more convenient, personalized, and accessible solutions.
- Decreased contact center workloads: With Voice API the number of calls to their customer care center decreased by 20% and resulted in quicker query resolution.
- Reliable messaging: From awareness to driving sales, Apollo 24|7 saw a 95% delivery rate across all channels.
- Increased conversion rate: Loyalty campaigns saw a 15% increase in conversions.
- 67% of chatbot sessions were engaged.
Infobip’s solution provided Apollo 24|7 with a significant competitive advantage by enabling them to operate more efficiently, improve the customer experience, access valuable data insights, become more agile, and improve communication and collaboration. Infobip’s solutions helped Apollo 24|7 deliver healthcare to their patients’ fingertips, over their preferred channels.
We were undergoing a massive transformation to expand our digital presence, streamline operations, and improve customer experience. Infobip came in as a communications partner for Apollo 24|7 to help us deliver an omnichannel approach and achieve our business goals quickly. The local team of CX consultants were prompt and were able to help us in real-time. The service, solution and experience with Infobip has been brilliant.”
Prateek Tomar
Vice President & Head of Digital Technology, Apollo 24|7
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Company Profile
Apollo 24|7
Apollo 24|7 is a leading healthcare platform, a subsidiary of Apollo Hospital groups, offering a wide range of patient services in India. Through the platform, patients can avail of a variety of healthcare services, including online consultations with doctors, home health services, medicine delivery, and health insurance. In addition to its online services, Apollo 24|7 has also launched a chain of physical stores called Apollo 24|7 Healthstores that offer healthcare products and services, including medicines, medical devices, and health supplements.
