What does the Home Depot hardware store have to do with MED?

Guest commentary by Dr. Jochen Tham

Finding and purchasing specific products has become rather difficult lately. Ideas such as "Click & Meet" and "Click & Collect" are helpful, but they do not necessarily make it easier to buy the exact product you want or to speak to someone at a store. One possible solution to this problem are apps that gather and provide information and which can potentially be used to reserve the products you want. All large commercial chain stores — like Home Depote — have made considerable investments in app technology recently. With the help of discount offers and sales, these apps have spread quickly. They provide the companies with access to their customer groups and help generate extra business by means of targeted offers. The more data the companies are able to collect, the more they are able to personalize their offers and even predict when demand will go up. It is surprising how easy and effective it is to advertise lawnmowers and hedge trimmers to home and garden owners right before a sunny weekend. The data these apps use comes from regional weather forecasts, and the information about the home situations of potential customer groups is requested when users sign up.

Apps and user portals have also become the standard in durable consumer goods in recent years. Not a single refrigerator or washing machine arrives on the market without an accompanying app, and the number of features available in cars today is astounding. The focus is on making the device easier to use and enhancing the customer's experience. Because ultimately, no one is going to read the user's manual to learn how to use all of the device's many features. In many cases, targeted explanations of specific features, as well as brief step-by-step videos, are provided through the app itself. These apps also collect data about their users and their behavior in order to provide assistance in a manner which is as specific to the situation as possible. An especially important feature of technical devices today is the ability to handle problems through the app. The app can help you search for the cause of the problem, it can connect you to a call center, and it can automatically book you a service slot. Spending loads of time searching for the right person to contact is no longer necessary. All of the information regarding the repair process is provided in a manner which is transparent and verifiable, and some apps even provide an integrated feature which enables you to easily pay for repairs as well.

But what does all of this have to do with ZEISS Medical Technology as a supplier of products and solutions in the healthcare industry? Demand for digital support in the form of customer portals is also rising among medical personnel. When asked, our customers say that what is important to them is the availability of relevant information in a single (digital) location and quick access to information so that they can make decisions fast and reliably. In October of last year, we launched the first overarching portal for our medical customer groups: MyZEISS. Over 4,000 users are already taking advantage of the learning materials, marketing materials for medical practices and selected clinical publications offered by the portal. In the next expansion phase existing digital services, such as the ability to digitally manage clinic devices and to place service calls, will be integrated into the portal as well. The MyZEISS portal is automatically personalized thanks to the user data it collects. This means that a cataract surgeon, for example, sees content which is related to her field and to the ZEISS devices in her clinic. And this personalized content is different than the content that a neurosurgeon will see.