Chronic conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes and hypertension are common, but still a black box for many.  In India, 60% medicines sold are to people living with chronic conditions. That's a medical system that thrives on pill treatments. Not only are costs crippling, but also administered without attention to lifestyle or behavioural changes that are crucial to living healthily with these conditions. 

Two IIT Mumbai alums are changing that. A direct-to-consumer model with a tech backend, zenoHealth's retail stores are committed to bringing better care to neighbourhoods where the healthcare system has let people down. By compulsarily imparting health information, making lifestyle interventions easily accessible and using simple diagnostic tools, zenoHealth has brought a trusting, one-on-one relationship to the big, scary healthcare system – in a manner designed to empower people to take care of their health. It’s a personal and rewarding interaction with your neighbourhood store, not pills from the nearest chemist. The dialogue between the retail staff and customers is authentic and rooted in delivering real value.

“Our biggest challenge is to motivate customers to take charge of their conditions instead of immediately resorting to pills, despite the latter generating more revenue. Customers can see that we are not after their money. 40% of our customers are repeat. This kind of customer relationship is the only way to build value over the long term.”

Sid Gadia

Knowing customers' conditions, anticipating their future medical needs and exceeding their expectations results in lasting behaviour change rather than dependence on pills per a prescription that inevitably requires continuous, expensive visits to doctors and hospitals – and  perhaps most importantly uncomfortable daily life that persist despite the medication. 

To do this, zenoHealth is now building an interconnected set of products, services and expertise that will give people greater awareness and control over their physical conditions. And by collecting and analysing data of their interactions with customers, they are forging stronger customer relationships as well as insight into customers' medical trajectories – paving the way for the company to excel at delivering customer intimacy and personalization.  

The first wave of healthcare startups in India focused on delivering tech-enabled convenience. We are now seeing the beginnings of an ecosystem that is focused squarely on holistic, preventive healthcare. Alternative systems of medicine are increasingly accepted when delivered in a “branded” environment. 

Ultimately zenoHealth wants to make healthcare surprisingly enjoyable – and in doing that help democratise preventative healthcare neighbourhood by neighbourhood.