Bumrungrad is an internationally accredited, multi-specialty hospital, caring for over 1.1 million patients from more than 190 countries annually in Bangkok, Thailand. Additionally, Bumrungrad International Hospital has been a global pioneer in providing world-class healthcare services and international patient support for over four decades.

With such a diverse patient base, Bumrungrad realized that traditional communication methods, like phone calls and emails, were no longer meeting the needs of all of their patients due to language barriers and time zone conflicts. This challenge also surfaced another pressing need: finding reliable methods to handle patient engagement at scale.

That is why Bumrungrad decided to revolutionize its patient communication strategy by offering communication channels as diverse as their patients’ needs, all while ensuring each channel is as efficient as possible.

The Problem: The need for Omnichannel communication

While local patients might prefer traditional methods like phone calls, international patients often found these options inconvenient or cost-prohibitive. These patients instead preferred communicating via online messaging apps like Line and WhatsApp. Some patients, especially from the Middle East, preferred sending voice notes over text messages. Bumrungrad also found that its younger patients preferred more modern forms of communication, such as chat.

These patient trends ultimately prompted Bumrungrad to seek out contemporary, chat-based channels to answer the needs of its more modern patient base, while still maintaining existing channels. The Bumrungrad Team knew it needed an Omnichannel approach that allowed customers from all over the world to contact them through their preferred channel.

On top of demonstrated patient demand, another huge motivator for Bumrungrad to make a change was the overall healthcare market in Bangkok; it is competitive, and falling behind in communication technology would lead to a loss of patients to local competitors. The need to diversify their communication channels wasn’t just a matter of convenience, but a necessity for staying relevant in the healthcare industry.

The desire for enhanced channel protection and centralized visibility 

In the healthcare industry, ensuring patient confidentiality and data integrity is crucial. Bumrungrad also needed to ensure that any new communication channels would safeguard sensitive patient information. When handling patient data, there’s no room for potential privacy breaches. Bumrungrad sought out a system that could maintain high standards of compliance in line with strict regulatory requirements and best practices in healthcare.

In addition to secure channels, Bumrungrad needed centralized oversight of these channels, instead of fragmented conversations across disparate accounts and locations. Bumrungrad was using Salesforce to monitor patient interactions through chat and email, but it could not integrate with Line to see the Bumrungrad team’s communications there. No centralization meant no comprehensive ability to monitor the effectiveness of patient communications, which affected the overall quality of patient care and service.

The solution: Becoming a modernized healthcare provider for the patients of today

The hospital selected Bird as their secure, Omnichannel communication platform to offer support via a large variety of channels. Bumrungrad knew Bird would need to integrate seamlessly with Salesforce so that the Bumrungrad team could use Salesforce as a centralized hub for viewing all patient interactions as cases.

Bird’s established reputation for handling sensitive data at scale and providing high-quality support made it a standout choice for the Bumrungrad team. It also was the only vendor on Bumrungrad‘s shortlist that could support all three channels that Bumrungrad’s patients preferred: Line, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, without any intermediary vendors. 

The Results: 

“We are genuinely inspired by the remarkable strides Bumrungrad International Hospital has made with our solutions. At Bird, we believe in the power of bringing people closer together through communication, and witnessing Bumrungrad transform patient care through our platform is a testament to this belief,” shared Danielle Ong, Head of Sales APAC at Bird.

Before implementing Bird, patient communication was disjointed, and Bumrungrad was missing opportunities to connect with international patients. After implementation, Bumrungrad no longer misses a single patient interaction. With a streamlined, secure, and efficient patient communication platform, Bumrungrad has become a more responsive and patient-centric healthcare provider for the modern age.

Diversified chat channels for an equally diverse patient base

Bumrungrad with the help of Bird, implemented a multi-channel chat solution that now caters to the unique needs of each patient demographic. Line, the most popular chat platform among the local Thai population and a significant number of expatriates, is one channel patients can use to digitally interact with the Bumrungrad team. Meanwhile, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger are channels of choice for other patients across the Middle East particularly countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

The Bumrungrad team went one-step further and integrated AI language detection into their chat system as well, with dedicated teams for Thai, English, Japanese and Arabic language speakers. Moving forward, Bumrungrad plans to add a Chinese language team as well. 

In short, no matter where patients are located or what their preferred method of communication is, they can now contact Bumrungrad via their favorite chat app, all in their own language. 

Chat interactions at scale, with complete visibility

Unlocking new chat channels is just the start for Bumrungrad. With more ways for patients to connect with Bumrungrad, they noticed a massive influx of patient inquiries. Bumrungrad needed a system to efficiently manage a high volume of patient interactions, while making sure that every case received the attention and visibility it deserved.

When customers send a message via their chosen chat platform, they receive a warm welcome message outlining available options before being directed to the relevant chat representative.

Each conversation is categorized to ensure that inbound patient messages are efficiently directed to the most suitable representatives.

With Bird, each new chat becomes a ticket in Inbox, which syncs out to Salesforce, creating a matching case. Closed tickets automatically update the status of the case in Salesforce, which saves the team time because there’s no need to manually update multiple systems.

This process allows Bumrungrad to use Salesforce as their single source of truth, enhancing visibility for leaders and turnaround times for patient cases.

A new era of patient engagement at Bumrungrad International Hospital with Bird

Bird has significantly improved how Bumrungrad communicates with its patients across the world. 

In the future, Bumrungrad intends to roll out chatbots that can perform sentiment analysis to quickly distinguish between a patient’s simple needs and more complex requests that require human intervention. They also want to deploy FAQ bots in multiple languages to field customer questions and free up time for their agents to focus on more complicated cases and personalized patient care. The Bumrungrad team is excited about Bird’s AI capabilities, specifically AI translation, in helping agents communicate with patients more effectively across language barriers. 

Overall, the Bumrungrad team is excited to have Bird by their side, playing a crucial role in delivering meaningful healthcare experiences. With Bird's cutting-edge tools, Bumrungrad is positioned to bring more smiles to patients' faces and redefine the way they approach patient care and communication.

About Bird

Bird is an AI-first CRM for marketing, services, and payments. 

Our mission is to create a world where communicating with a business is as easy as talking with a friend. We power communication between businesses and their customers — across any channel, always with the right context, and on every corner of the planet. If you’ve ever ordered takeaway, returned a package, contacted customer service, or requested a login code, it’s almost guaranteed your interactions have been powered by Bird’s technology.

Our platform, our applications and our APIs help businesses streamline conversations through their customers’ preferred channels — like WhatsApp, Email, SMS, Voice, WeChat, Messenger, Instagram - and build powerful and engaging experiences. Bird's out of the box functionality and omnichannel expertise tips the scales for knowledge workers and helps them be productive right away, with tools to build great marketing campaigns, customer service experiences, or automated business processes.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Bird processes over 6.5 trillion interactions for 50,000+ customers, including Google, Facebook, and Uber. 

About Bumrungrad International Hospital

Founded in 1980, Bumrungrad International Hospital is a leading healthcare institution located in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Renowned for its world-class medical services, Bumrungrad offers comprehensive care across more than 70 medical specialties. With a commitment to excellence and innovation, Bumrungrad International Hospital continues to set the standard for quality healthcare in Southeast Asia and beyond. For more information, please visit www.bumrungrad.com.