Among the chief economic sectors, healthcare has been relatively late to the digital party. While technology adoption has been exemplary on the surgical equipment and pharmaceuticals front, it hadn’t quite made a mark on patient experiences until the last few years.
As digitalization and customer awareness increased, self-scheduling healthcare applications came to the fore, with easy-to-use interfaces and features such as integrated patient management, round-the-clock support, digital recordkeeping, and automated reminders.
The traction is such that the global medical scheduling software market is expected to be worth $738.6 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 13.67% year-over-year. The growth is underpinned by the platforms’ cost-saving potential for all stakeholders, besides apparent benefits like less paperwork and life-cycle patient engagement.
However, the medical marketplaces are not without operational challenges. Notably, they are plagued by no-shows — customers not showing up on time, or at all, without rescheduling or giving prior notice. As the window of opportunity to fill in another customer is small, the scheduled slot often remains unfilled.
Such occurrences become the source of differences between app aggregators and medical professionals, in turn affecting revenues and the entire business structure. Likewise, marketplaces also face the scourge of abandoned carts and uncompleted orders.
Against this backdrop, customer retention and greater engagement — not acquisition — take precedence. Discerning marketplaces in the MENA region are now beginning to see a ray of hope.
The Vezeeta story
Founded in 2012 by Amir Barsoum, the current CEO, Vezeeta is a single point of care for digital outpatient services. It offers convenient, and unparalleled experiences to patients through three key outpatient touchpoints namely doctor consultation, online pharmacy, and diagnostics. While Vezeeta found considerable success in acquiring new customers, it was equally keen on retaining existing ones.
Important to note that, while customer retention is manifold cheaper than acquisition, it is not necessarily as easy. Retention hinges on multiple critical aspects such as customer experience, loyalty, engagement, and personalization. With the reactivation of existing customers as the utmost priority, Cairo-headquartered Vezeeta turned to WebEngage.
A full-stack service provider specialising in customer retention, engagement, and automation, WebEngage is known for its many successes in the MENA region and beyond. It was recently in the news following the release of its Trends & Insights Report 2022, which shed light on some of the best-kept secrets in contemporary user engagement in MENA. According to another report, WebEngage’s Retention Operating System was instrumental to Saudi-based retail brand eXtra’s 33% increase in sales.
For Vezeeta’s part, however, upon careful analysis of objectives and core competencies, WebEngage launched push notification campaigns and designed/streamlined journeys, including new-user installation, product booking confirmation, and product repeat booking.
For instance, the campaign involved engaging users periodically at different junctures. If the user initiated the journey but did not complete it, a consultation push notification was sent after 15 days of abandonment. If it didn’t elicit a response, another push notification was sent after 15 more days. Similarly, push alerts were sent out in the span of 60 days between each as follow-ups.
The reactivation campaign on a static list of customers was coupled with the promotions. Such efforts led to a 47% increase in pharmacy orders and opened cross-pollination opportunities between appointment bookers and other customers. In addition, Vezeeta made significant strides in customized user engagement and streamlined patient experiences.
The implications
Commenting on the success, Mohammed El Mougi, Chief Product Officer at Vezeeta, said: “WebEngage is the platform that perfectly did justice to the goals and visions of Vezeeta. Besides automating Vezeeta’s marketing strategies and designing relevant journeys, WebEngage also stands strong when it comes to user engagement and retention as it understands the importance and nuances of the subject.”
Mougi’s belief was echoed by Fady Barsoum, Product-Patient App at Vezeeta, said: “WebEngage is one of the most user-friendly platforms I have used. It allowed us to create personalized and delightful experiences when it comes to communicating with customers through different channels like push notifications. Not only could we engage our customers with contextual messages but also analyze campaigns against various performance indicators to understand their impact on user engagement, conversions, and revenue.”
While a 47% surge in pharmacy orders and cross-pollination of appointment bookers is significant in itself, Vezeeta’s success finally boils down to the demonstration of retention-led growth — which has implications for the future of the company and the industry at large. As retention is a corollary of superior patient experiences, its emphasis by medical platforms like Vezeeta is an encouraging development. It also enhances the chances of solving some of the pressing issues — such as absenteeism — in the contemporary medical scheduling market. Most importantly, Vezeeta and WebEngage’s success is a testament to the increasing efficiency-driven approaches by marketplaces in MENA. This has implications for the region’s overall socio-economic growth and prosperity in the digital era.
