Locobuzz Ceo Explains Why Healthcare Thrives During Covid On A Saas Platform
The first word
We know that a SaaS platform can bring about huge changes in the way companies or brands handle the technological infrastructure. A SaaS company, like Locobuzz, can help brands across sectors streamline operations in a way never achieved before. A SaaS company comes in handy in a pandemic world.
2020 demanded quick adaptation, new innovation, and an expedited acceptance of technology. To guide you better, today we’ll share thoughts on how a SaaS Listening and Analytics tool can help industries like pharma and telemedicine.
The following questions have been answered by Locobuzz Co-Founder and CEO Vishal Agarwal.
- Online pharmacies are the new playing field in the current market. Can a SaaS platform like Locobuzz call this an opportunity to be leveraged?
It’s a great opportunity! When consumer-facing businesses want to scale up, they see Customer Service queries rise in quantum. When said businesses are medical-care services, the nature of queries is continuously deemed critical. So, for Locobuzz, it’s an opportunity to do more than liaise for the simple use case of “where is my order” and “my order was delayed.”
Social Listening can facilitate a huge opportunity in product discovery, such as reliably responding to a “Can I buy this product for this need?” or “Do you have that, as well as this?” Notably, we as a country are also rapidly evolving into telemedicine; a place where doctors are increasingly consulting over WhatsApp.
Locobuzz recognizes this shift and has already invested in large high-scale development for brands such as Titan on WhatsApp for their specific requirements. The technology framework that can help aid a process for Pharma and telemedicine here is extremely relevant.
- In terms of customer engagement, retention, and lead generation, what does Locobuzz advise brands in the industry to bring out of AI Tech today?
The biggest problem that comes with the scaling up of operations is the consistency of service. For example, some people swear by some brands, and some will say ‘never again’. It’s the challenge all consumer-facing start-ups in India face. When you have this insane pressure of scaling up very fast, then somewhere there is a strong chance that you drop the ball in customer support and engagement. This is where AI can stabilize the scale-up process and provide consistent CX across the customer base.
The application remains the same: Whether product discovery, query, or complaint resolutions, AI can play a fantastic role for large-scale engagement and retention – a solution that’s currently underutilized. Surprisingly enough, I don’t see any formidable engagement where AI is being leveraged in a manner that’s meaningful for both brands and customers. This is probably also why the trust factor with American brands is different from Indian brands. They invest heavily in customer service and after-sales support.
- How do you feel Indian brands can use AI technology to build this level of trust where the agenda is beyond just marketing or marketing activities?
Use a little of your marketing budget in customer experience and watch the magic it can create.
- Do you think people will place blind trust when it comes to a competitive market like SaaS platforms, especially in India?
India is a very complex market. Selling in India has never been easy for anyone. Selling in India is more difficult for SaaS, especially because people relate the money they pay to the amount of literal labor work that you do for them. In SaaS, the labor aspect is not visible, so people find it even more difficult to invest.
The outcome is always measured in per person cost, but in AI there are no people. People think if the SaaS model or the AI engine is already created, why pay more? What’s overlooked is the sheer amount of infrastructural investment that goes into keeping it running; the team built to sustain this infrastructure; resources to build product capacity; to build that intelligence; to rebuild and evolve a model. Ignoring this makes it hard for SaaS businesses to appeal to people in India, but that’s alright because ultimately the value proposition will matter and that’s what people will relate to the most.
- How would you define scalability and profit opportunities to a previously traditional industry like pharma, and how would Locobuzz highlight the importance of understanding a customer base that is now largely online on social media?
Pharmaceutical companies are tricky. They’re not specifically interested in talking to customers directly online. Locobuzz can work with pharma companies when they want to understand what people say about ‘obesity in India’ or about ‘Insulin usage in India’. This is what we call ‘Category Listening‘.
Pharma companies can talk about preventive healthcare measures and what are people saying about them. While Product Listening may not give direct results in this industry’s structure, Category Listening can help them understand and decide the marketing strategy or positioning of the product. For instance, Locobuzz conducted a study on insulin where we discovered many myths surrounding ‘Insulin’. People often have this perception that it makes you habituated, and that it doesn’t really solve anything, etc and with the unfolding of this study, we were able to present facts that busted open severe myths.
This kind of myth-busting can be done by pharma companies only if they listen to what the myth is. Sometimes myths can change with language. It can be different in the Hindi heartland versus the Tamil heartland, or the English heartland. It’s important to listen to categories and chatter in different languages.
- Would it be interesting for a PharmEasy or NetMeds who talk about a certain category to be invested in Social Listening?
As eCommerce players operating in the pharma vertical, companies like PharmEasy or Netmeds can use Locobuzz to understand what people talk about them and what the competition is doing. It also helps ensure real-time engagement with customers; make sure orders are delivered on time; and what people feel about online telemedicine delivery. All these things can be achieved using Social Listening.
- Advice for healthcare players – how to choose a SaaS platform?
If your focus is primarily on usability, scalability, and security, you need to zero in on a platform that can get your job done. This should be a platform that can integrate with diverse system integrators and your in-house systems. Locobuzz is the largest homegrown company in this space without any external funding, and that speaks volumes. We’ve aided many large companies that have used our platform to connect with customers.
The amount of investments done by Locobuzz in terms of data science to be future-ready is phenomenal. Here in India, our relationship with Twitter beats anyone else from our ecosystem. Our after-sales service is brilliant; that’s why we have the trust of some of the key players in the economy. From a tech perspective we have proven ourselves, so take a trial and experience it for yourself.
