Introducing Nerve, the fastest way to order medical supplies in Africa.
A few months before LifeBank was launched in Lagos, Nigeria, with the goal to save women dying from bleeding after birth (postpartum haemorrage), we came to a quick realisation. Even though women were dying due to a shortage of blood in hospitals, blood banks routinely discarded blood because of its short shelf life.
We knew technology could help build the marketplace needed to properly match supply to demand. We also knew we could do this for not just blood but other critical hospital supplies.
This realisation spurred us to build a tech-enabled infrastructure to ensure that the hospitals can order medical supplies and have them delivered on time and in the right condition.
Six years later, we are processing orders, managing inventory, predicting demand, and serving hospitals in 13 African cities.
Over the last few months, we have worked hard to replicate the ease and technology that drives our internal processes for our customers. We want them to experience the same speed, convenience, and reliability that powers our internal process.
This is why we are excited to announce the launch of Nerve, an app that digitizes the order and fulfillment process for the hospitals we serve. The Nerve App provides access to all our current products ( blood, oxygen, and medical consumables) allowing hospitals to sign up, get verified, and place an order in seconds. The products are then delivered directly to the hospital with an in-app tracking feature informing hospitals of the status of their orders at every point.
The launch of Nerve aligns with our mission of empowering hospitals in emerging markets to deliver the best quality of healthcare. It provides a cheaper, faster, and smarter way to order medical supplies for the 1300+ hospitals we serve in 13 African cities and an opportunity to experience a seamless procurement process for thousands of other hospitals across Africa.
Why Nerve? Speed, Efficiency, Reliability.
Prior to the launch of Nerve, our order and fulfillment process was managed by a 24-hour call centre. This centre processed orders and provided status updates to our customers. While this process served us for years, this system was characterized by an informational gap because customers had to call repeatedly to get updates on their orders while call centre operatives had to call riders for status updates.
As a result, customers were spending crucial minutes waiting for updates on the phone or waiting to be connected to available call centre operatives when there was a high call volume. This process was expensive, with every minute spent waiting for a response costing customers an average of ₦40. Our customers were losing valuable time and money.
In a bid to improve customer experience, we built multiple apps for customers to access our different products but across these apps, our user experience was poor and customers were exhausted by the prospect of logging into different apps to order individual medical supplies.
The Now
For our customers, the need was clear, they wanted a reliable way to manage their orders in one place. They wanted to access status updates without needing to reach out to different parties. They wanted reliability, ease, and a great user experience.
This is why we built Nerve in collaboration with them, ticking off all the requirements that they had and resolving the complaints that had accompanied our previous attempts to digitize our order and fulfillment process. Nerve provides an end to end service defined by ease, access to information and speed.
Nerve’s in-app tracking feature removes the need to call our customer centre for updates. Now, users can see the status of their order at all times.
Nerve’s interface is designed to provide the best user experience possible. It prioritizes selection by tapping buttons over filling forms to input details. This way, orders can be placed without typing anything. Users can simply tap their way through their orders only stopping to type if they want to leave a reason for why they canceled an order or input a special request that is not covered under the provided options.
The procurement process of the hospitals we serve was also taken into consideration in building the app. Every hospital can sign up with only one account. The account details are verified and whoever creates the account is designated as an administrator. This administrator can add three other administrators and an unlimited number of associates. Every role can be customized by the administrator to restrict access to the type of products the role can order. This means that there can be designated associates for every product or an associate that has access to order every product.
How does Nerve work?
To start your journey to a faster and cheaper way of ordering medical supplies, follow these steps;
- Open Google Playstore
- Search for the “Nerve” app on the Google Playstore
- Install the Nerve App
- Register your hospital on the Nerve App
- Complete the verification process
- Place your order
Unlocking possibilities with Nerve
Nerve is another vital step in our quest to enable hospitals to deliver the best quality of care to their patients. From its current iteration that simplifies procurement of medical supplies, we look forward to an exciting future where Nerve houses everything that hospitals require to thrive. From equipment management to cold chain transportation and full hospital setup, the possibilities are endless and we are just getting started.
