Tend’s Chief Product and Technology Officer Josh Robb has been with the venture since its inception in 2019, which was formed with the goal of reimagining healthcare in New Zealand.

“In Aotearoa you can date, bank, travel and interact with one another online, but when it comes to seeing a doctor, you still have to sit in a waiting room or move across town in gridlock traffic to get to your appointment. In other parts of the world consumers have access to modern, digitally native healthcare services and products, and as founders we knew that something needed to be done for Aotearoa. We wanted to help strengthen the health system and be a part of improving it for our future generations. This was the birth of Tend,” says Robb.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced healthcare services to offer patients different modes of consultations, but this quickly reverted post lockdowns due to a lack of integrated systems and customer journeys. Tend’s vision is to create a seamless, simple experience designed around customers and their whanāu.

“We started from a blank slate, performing our own primary research, surveying thousands of Kiwis with Colmar Brunton – prototyping, user testing and iterating. What we discovered was that the most common pain points of primary care, for customers and clinicians, would require us to invent entirely new digital products and operational processes. This included better accessibility, smarter and more scalable contact channels (especially during the high points of the pandemic), improvements to timeliness, booking, payment and post appointment follow up,” says Robb. 

The team decided to build their own app (Tend), and a customer interaction platform for their front-line teams (internally called Tender), partnering with an existing vendor for an off-the-shelf Patient Management System to integrate with.They built these on top of well-known and understood APIs and platforms like Twillio and AWS. 

The Tend app replaces clunky web portals with a simple system that allows patients to choose to have their appointment online (via a secure video call within the app, similar to FaceTime) or in one of Tend’s two clinics. Users sign up in under two minutes with an 80% completion rate, which Robb says is testament to the UX discovery, design process and team.

With the user front of mind, the team created functionality to let patients securely contact their doctor directly with any questions they had pre or post appointment, as well as letting patients know if their doctor is running late. Payment is also done through the app. At the conclusion of each appointment, customers are able to rate their experience, and this helps address customer issues and informs development priorities, says Robb. 

Since the app was launched in October 2020, the Tend team have responded to more than 170k messages in the app and seen thousands of patients for appointments. Rolling out the Tend App to their Symonds Street medical centre dropped our incoming call volume by 80+% resulting in significantly less customer frustration and an average response time of around 30 mins to customer messages.

As a founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer, Robb sits on the senior leadership team and the executive team. 

“Tend is a tech + healthcare business, it is imperative that we have a strong tech voice across all functionalities and this being a board observer as well. Our Product Roadmap is presented at each board meeting, detailing where the app and the supporting backend systems will go in the upcoming months. This roadmap is developed collaboratively with our clinical, customer experience, marketing and operations teams and feedback from our customers and clinicians (who we also treat as our customers) is central to our prioritisation process… Put simply, our business doesn’t exist without technology and the feedback channels and data it provides.” 

Outside of Tend, Robb coaches emerging and early-stage technology leaders, speaks at community events and is an active participant in the NZTech community.