TTG + FastbracesAsia

Customer Experience Research, Strategy, and Design
Project Overview
TTG Dental is a medical technology distribution startup based out of Bangkok, Thailand. Their market is the hardware and services that surround Fastbraces, a based state of the art disruptive orthodontics technology that sits in the mid to high end price bracket.
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In addition to Fastbraces hardware and accompanying products, TTG also offered training and continuing education classes to support their products.
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When I joined, TTG was in their fifth year and running into a growth plateau. Early adopters had been introduced and closed yet new and larger clients were not engaging.
My Contributions
Tasked with creating a cohesive and empathic customer experience strategy, I audited training programs, sales calls, and trade shows; as well as facilitated strategy and branding workshops.

My research gave me a complete picture of the company across all divisions and the market as a whole. Facilitating workshops, and co-creating + testing multiple offerings paid off.

Since the project's inception, TTG has maintained 40% year over year growth, tripled its customer list, and sold more than 25,000 cases. They are a thriving brand in an emerging market.

This was not accomplished alone, I worked closely with the CEO, department managers, and their teams to create a viable and reliable customer model and branding strategy.

The fruits of our labor are being developed into a proprietary management software and will be published upon its release.

Timeline + Scope

Setting down with the CEO and key decision makers we outlined the key objectives as a complete sales and marketing audit, end user research, market analysis, and a roadmap.
Scope
Project Launch
Discovery
  • Identify the challenges TTG is facing
  • Establish the current customer journey and highlight the key pain points
  • Isolate key information missing from TTG that is preventing them from moving forward

Market Research

The market segmentation breaks down into two areas: Prospective patients and dental/ortho practitioners. TTG sells exclusively to the dental professionals while positioning its products in front of end users, creating awareness and demand.
Target Demographics
Research + Analysis
Industry
Thai dentistry and orthodontics is a heavily guarded market and difficult to break into with disruptive technology. There are 3 main players currently in the sector, Daemon Braces (worldwide leader), Invisiline (disruptive tech leader), and a host of small generic brands that make up a significant share. We broke down the business models for each competitor to see what made them work. Large marketing budgets and established distribution networks became clear indicators for their success.

Many Thais want braces but can't afford to buy quality products. As an emerging market in the medical industry, it was ripe for disruption but finding the seams were the goal for our first stage of the project.
Market Analysis
Research + Analysis

User Research

Dentists were a bottleneck in TTG's service. Upon workshopping with employees and interviews with clients, it became clear that trust was the biggest hurdle. While English is near universal among big city dentists, there was a significant underserved sector that quickly lost confidence due to lack of Thai language support. We laid out plans for Thai language sales calls, educational materials, and dentist training experts.

In terms of process streamlining, we tracked all customer interactions. Utilizing this data became crucial to prototyping and testing new initiatives and strategies.

Sales Force was implemented to increase conversion rates and standardize funnel and pipeline tracking.
Dentists Journey Map
Empathy + Design Thinking
December 2019
Problem Identification
  • Inconsistent product and service information
  • Inconsistent follow up tracking and data documentation
  • Confusing training program structure and incentives
‍‍While not the primary customer, TTG's social media following had engagement among Thai users. With an existing referral pipeline to entice dentists to enroll in training but no follow through on the back end to quantify their efforts, we began qualifying dentists with expectations of documentation and the commitment to continue to send customers to their offices.

Additionally, we began striking partnerships with Thai influencers with large followings in the health and beauty sector in order to fill our referral pipeline and create inexpensive and highly effective marketing content.
New Patient Journey Map
Empathy + Design Thinking
December 2019
Problem Identification
  • Incomplete referral program process
  • Communicating the benefits of Fastbraces to end users in relatable ways
  • Follow up and documentation processes

Sales + Marketing Development

Upon workshopping the sales and marketing processes, our goals quickly settled upon consistent sales plan, follow up, and documentation.

Within my scope, a coherent brand strategy on current and new sales materials was established.
Internal Operations Development
Efficient Networks and Pipelines

Branding

The first touchpoint for many dentists was the sales deck. I updated the 28 page presentation including in both English and Thai languages. Market specific research on the future of orthodontics in South East Asia. On brand and on point.
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Sales Deck
Digital
Dental offices require various formats of printed and digital materials for distribution to patients. Educational pamphlets, standees, flyers, and more.
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Marketing Materials
Print + Digital Assets
Part of the TTG program is to train new dentists and hold quarterly continuing education seminars. I sat in for a weeklong dentist training session, observing, asking questions, and surveying participants.

Utilizing Fastbraces resources and insights from my own training, we compiled a 70 page user friendly training workbook in English and Thai to accompany class and training videos.
Training Materials
Print + Digital Assets
Part of the training roll out was a 7 episode series of shorts for Youtube. Dr. Tom, our resident expert outlined the 7 steps of Fastbraces procedures in clear and sussinct terms for digestible educational content.
Training Videos
TTG Youtube Training videos
I facilitated sales and marketing workshops between stakeholders as we tackled the revenue plateau. We shored up analytics, roles, responsibilities, and expectations into a streamlined strategy that optimized our conversion and retention rates by nurturing relationships at each touchpoint.

Testing promotions, media campaigns, and incentive programs, we began to learn and document what worked and what didn't in the Thai market and recording the data.

Dozens of dry whiteboard markers and pounds of coffee later, we put together a flexible 3 pronged strategy that revolved around an end user referral program, influencer partnerships, and tiered education and purchasing platform that utilized the marketing gains from referrals and influencer partners.

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Marketing + Sales
Strategy

Customer Outreach Program in Action

While TTG sells directly to dentists, end user marketing was a large part of their effort when I onboarded. Research identified a demographic of potential end users who purchase medical services based off of trusted social media influencers who partner with brands they identify with. Specifically, we reached out to influencers that had tough cases for traditional technology and had jaw reconstruction recommended to them - something Fastbraces was designed to eliminate.

TTG was able to partner with multiple Thai influencers with 250,000 + followers across multiple platforms and match them with potential dental clients. With TTG's sponsorship, we were able to dramatically increase their digital marketing footprint, and increase sales by at least 40% year over year since the programs inception.
Outreach Program

Wrap Up + Reflection

Revisiting our previous work, I mapped the streamlined Dentist Journey Map and service blueprint to reflect where the company is now. Having these diagrams handy allows the TTG team to troubleshoot customer issues, order of operation lapses, and quickly resolve them.
Updated Maps
TTG Youtube Training videos
What We Accomplished
  • 40%+ growth year over year since 2019
  • 450+ Dentist Sign Ups
  • 25,000+ Cases Sold
  • Optimized Human Centered Marketing and Sales Processes
  • Thriving disruptive brand in an emerging market
What I Learned
Working with TTG was the single most amazing and challenging project I have ever undertaken.

The most rewarding challenge was understanding the bias inherent in being American. Culturally we communicate with different nuance, emphasizing different aspects of the customer service experience and asking for help in slightly different ways - especially regarding medical and financial choices.
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My time there showed me many of the things I thrive at and highlighted some struggles. Working in a foreign culture is a wonderful learning experience that I'd recommend to everyone.
Copyright 2022 John Helkenn
Instagram @john.designs