Practo: Your home for health

Practo is a SaaS based company that connects consumers to healthcare providers through an independent medical website. Their aggregator
based system allows patients to search for healthcare providers according to speciality, location, name, area, timings, recommendation or any other
specification.

Started in 2008, Practo has grown considerably and holds approximately 90% market share in India, today. The company has been steadily growing
and has now expanded base to over 15 countries worldwide.

Practo is trusted by millions of people around the world. From assessing health conditions and finding the right healthcare providers to storing health records and ordering medicines, Practo guides them along each step of their progress towards a healthier lifestyle.

With the company now sizing up with 200,000 healthcare providers, 25 Million patients making 50 Million appointments every year, scaling up and making sure that the doctors and patients are kept informed about their appointments and schedules was an area of concern. Doctor-patient communication became a challenge over the years as their growing customer base demanded a more comprehensive and efficient approach. Along with which it became largely important to make sure the right message reaches the right audience. 

A gap in Healthcare 

Practo’s success after it’s launch in 2008 was tremendous and they slowly realised that the next logical step was to introduce a platform that could help them communicate reliably, store their customer database safely, and drive end-to-end customer communication securely. After making a mark locally, Practo was now growing and expanding its base to other cities within India while looking at entering other countries across the globe.

Providing updates on lab test results, reminders etc. to both patients and doctors in real-time basis, for a continuously growing target audience became daunting.

Kaleyra’s expertise in triggering and storing enormous amounts of messages within a single platform allowed Practo to communicate with their healthcare providers and patients in real-time.

Kaleyra’s seamless to use and highly detailed platform helped Practo reach out to the right customers at the right time ensuring that patient care does not end at the doctor’s clinic. From sending out appointment schedule and reminders to follow-ups with healthcare providers, and feedback, Kaleyra has provided Practo with a platform that has grown parallel to it.

Kaleyra saves the day

With a capacity to deliver more than 2.5 billion text messages per month, Kaleyra crafted its messaging solutions to meet Practo’s needs of catering to an ever-growing customer base. It allowed for seamless communication with customers through text messages that could be sent globally. With features that can be modified to meet regulatory obligations specific to different regions, Kaleyra made engagement with customers hassle-free, secure, and efficient for Practo.

With Kaleyra’s easy-to-use platform, Practo now sends out 12 different types of messages, that each serves a different purpose in connecting patients to healthcare providers seamlessly. In such a way, Practo ensures that both its patients as well as healthcare providers stay updated and have access to all information at their fingertips.

Booking confirmation SMS – Doctor and Patient

Patients:

To reassure the patient that their appointment has been scheduled, Kaleyra provides immediate confirmation messages post bookings. As a result patients have all information about their appointment including the doctor’s name, number, time etc. in one place.

Doctors:

To help healthcare providers plan out their schedule and know which patient is coming when, Kaleyra also sends messages to healthcare providers with all the information about the patient regarding purpose of visit and other details, etc. This helps them prepare in advance for the patient’s visit.

OTP SMS

One Time Passwords serve as a second layer of authentication to the login process, making it fully secure. By providing the customer with a unique OTP, Kaleyra ensures that each patient’s information is private and can only be accessed by authorized users. Moreover, it also makes Practo fully secure against fraudulent login attempts.

Transactional SMS 

Kaleyra sends over 5,000 messages every second. As a result of this vast capacity, Practo is able to provide personalized service to all its patients and also keep its healthcare providers aware of all payment transactions.

Patients:

Once payment is made, patients automatically get an alert message about the transaction with all the details.

Doctors:

As soon as a patient makes a payment, the credit balance is instantly messaged to the doctor with all the required information.

Reminder SMS

To make sure that the process is smooth, Kaleyra also helps send out reminder messages to patients as well as healthcare providers.

Patients:

This ensures that fewer appointments have to be rescheduled as patients are reminded about their visit.

Doctors:

It also means that the doctor’s time is not wasted waiting for a patient who isn’t going to show up. He can now utilize his work time optimally. 

Missed call notification SMS

When a patient calls a doctor and is unable to get in touch, a message is immediately triggered to the doctor alerting them about the missed call. This message includes the details about the patient, when the call took place and the number to get back to the patient. In such a way these messages ensure that healthcare providers do not lose any interested patients. For Practo this means that all of its customers are catered to efficiently.

SMS for rescheduling appointment

Practo allows patients and healthcare providers the flexibility to reschedule appointments in case of emergency. This is why Kaleyra sends out rescheduling details to both the parties via messages to ensure that there is no confusion about the actual appointment and all the meetings are carried out hassle-free.

Cancellation SMS

Patients are also given the option of cancelling their appointment if necessary. This allows them to get healthcare at their convenience.

Patients:

Patients can cancel their appointment by logging on to their profile on the app or directly replying to a long code message sent by Practo. Once the appointment is cancelled, the patients immediately get a message confirming the cancellation. This ensures that they have full information about their appointment status, clarifies that they have not cancelled by mistake, and avoids miscommunication.

Doctors:

Once a patient cancels an appointment, the information is also sent to healthcare providers. In such a way they are kept updated about all their patients.

SMS to access laboratory reports

When a patient calls a doctor and is unable to get in touch, a message is immediately triggered to the doctor alerting them about the missed call. This message includes the details about the patient, when the call took place and the number to get back to the patient. In such a way these messages ensure that healthcare providers do not lose any interested patients. For Practo this means that all of its customers are catered to efficiently.

Feedback SMS

Feedback gives key insights into the patients’ experiences and helps identify areas of improvement. For a company like Practo, it’s first priority is to ensure that all its patients are satisfied with their services. So, it is important that the healthcare providers are rated according to their treatment methodology. This is why Kaleyra sends feedback links to customers via messages right after their appointment. It also means that patients can view the reviews given to healthcare providers by others on their respective profiles and select a healthcare provider for themselves accordingly.

SMS to schedule follow-up appointments

Patients are provided service even after their first round of interaction with healthcare providers. Once their first meeting is completed, patients are sent messages about scheduling follow-up appointments. This ensures that patients receive complete care, are reminded about follow-ups and can easily schedule the appointment. Through regular checkups, healthcare providers can also ensure that their patients are completely cured and see desirable results.

Promotional SMS

By sending promotional messages through Kaleyra, Practo was able to effectively connect with its global customer base instantly. In a cost effective way, patients were informed about product launches, special offers, discounts, etc. in a fraction of the time. This helps drive traffic onto their website, increases number of patients using their platform, and also adds value to their organization. These messages are also sent to potential customers on their database, in such a way they can expand their circle of influence and turn leads into customers.

SMS to allow unsubscription

Patients regularly receive messages through Practo’s long codes. If a customer wished to unsubscribe from these services, they can reply to these long code messages with the specific key words to opt-in or opt-out.

Bridging the gap between Practo and customers

Through the specific Messaging solutions offered by Kaleyra, Practo was able to provide customized service and stay connected to every customer. As Practo grew over the years, so did the solutions offered to them by Kaleyra. Today, Practo sends approximately 15 lakh messages per day. Kaleyra has effectively taken the concept of bulk messaging to a whole new level. By providing patients and healthcare providers the answers to all their questions even before they arise, Practo has been able to cater to such a wide audience. Through Kaleyra any business can send the right messages to their customers and constantly interact with them, making it the one-stop solution to all business messaging needs.

Key Takeaways

Why restrict growth when businesses can manage a large customer base without any additional infrastructure or cost? Bulk messaging ensures that the information sent to clients is read in real-time basis. One can also automate all communication processes, reduce operational costs and understand their audience better, simultaneously.

In a time when people are always on the go or on their phone, communication through SMS for marketing, updates, promotions etc. is proven to work, ensuring that customers are completely engaged with a business’s products and have access to details about it. Through Kaleyra, businesses can always stay connected to their customers, no matter where they are!