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Customer Story

Freshdesk as a Growth Catalyst for Appo

Appo’s focus on digitalization leads to increased customer and employee satisfaction, as well as significant company growth by leveraging Freshworks software
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Related services
Freshworks, Freshdesk

Industry
Healthcare

Company
Xebia

Appo is a national player in pharmaceutical services in the Netherlands. Parent company Appo includes four physical pharmacies and pick-up points at general practitioners, plus Nationale Apotheek: an online pharmacy that delivers throughout the country.
Appo works with hundreds of general practitioners, and over fifty hospitals rely on their pharmaceutical care. In total, Appo services more than 15,000 patients.
Appo’s purpose is to allow people who rely on medication to live as normal and comfortable a life as possible.
Why
To be able to deliver the best service to customers and to enable company growth at the same time
What
Focus on a digitalization strategy
How
Implementing smart and intuitive Freshdesk customer service software that streamlines work processes

Fulfilling the Mission

Appo is anything but a traditional pharmaceutical company. After the acquisition of National Apotheek by Appo, the company grew so fast that they needed to digitalize and automate the customer service process. This way, they could deliver the best possible customer service to a diverse client portfolio to fulfill their mission: to allow people who rely on medication to live as normal and comfortable a life as possible.
At the same time, this approach would also enable and facilitate Appo’s ambitious growth strategy.
“If it wasn't for Freshdesk, we wouldn't have been able to grow as we did. That's really important, because the overview Freshdesk gives us, makes this possible.”
Appo-Logo
Monique van Poppel Pharmaceutical Process Manager

From Traditional to Innovative

Most pharmacies still work in a traditional way these days: one lead pharmacist and multiple pharmaceutical assistants who not only service clients in the pharmacy, but also take care of administrative and logistical tasks. This includes non-pharmaceutical customer service related tasks such as registering new clients, and answering their questions on when their delivery would arrive.

Before the acquisition of Nationale Apotheek, such customer service tasks were handled via Outlook. But this wasn’t feasible anymore when the company started growing and expanding as fast as it did.
Appo’s innovative strategy to move away from the traditional way of working, and the desire to deliver more streamlined and qualitative customer service, led to a brand new digital approach.

Boosting the Customer Experience

“Customers are really pleasantly surprised when they call and they don’t have to repeat their name and date of birth.”
Appo-Logo
Monique van Poppel Pharmaceutical Process Manager

A Fresh Approach to Customer Service

Appo decided to implement Freshdesk Omnichannel to centralize customer contacts. All client queries, whether from email, phone, chat, or web contact forms, enter the central platform as a ticket.
Those tickets are then automatically routed through "scenarios" to the right person to solve the customer query.

Right from the start, Appo noticed the many benefits of working with Freshdesk Omnichannel. One of the main ones is the improved customer experience. Van Poppel: "Customers are really pleasantly surprised when they call and they don’t have to repeat their name and date of birth.”
In addition to more satisfied customers, the 360 degree client overview on the platform also saves a lot of time, which in turn leads to an improved employee experience.

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