How Al Hilal Houri Medical Equipment caught up with its WhatsApp enquiries

Al Hilal Houri Medical Equipment, based in Abu Dhabi, supplies hearing aids, laboratory equipment, diagnostic instruments and medical consumables across the UAE, sourced from manufacturers in Europe, Japan and the USA. Its hearing-solutions business alone goes back more than four decades.

Its customers include healthcare facilities that need fast answers on availability, specifications and urgent orders, and patients looking for the right hearing aid. For that mix, a late reply costs more than a sale: it can hold up care.

WhatsApp volume outgrew the team. Messages were spread across different staff phones, and important enquiries were lost or answered late. In the company's own account, it simply couldn't reply to customers on time.

It had tried the short message templates in the WhatsApp Business app. They cut typing time for common answers, but they couldn't deal with questions that needed a person to look at them, and medical equipment enquiries often do. Staff were stuck choosing between a quick but thin answer and a proper one that came too late.

The company compared two other WhatsApp platforms before picking Gallabox, and names three reasons: comparable features, pricing, and a hands-on support and success team.

The rollout was deliberately narrow, with two goals: streamline customer communication and automate first-line support. Chatbots were the main tool.

The bot handles the opening of each conversation. It points people to the right product category, gives basic specifications and captures the detailed requirements a complex order needs. It also tells an urgent order from a healthcare facility apart from an individual patient's question, and routes each one to the right place, so the facility isn't queued behind a general enquiry.

Gallabox reports that business growth improved by 60%, first-time conversions grew 25% and employee productivity rose 50%. It ties the conversion gain to quick, accurate first replies that build trust early, and the productivity gain to staff spending their time on detailed consultations instead of repeat questions about availability, specifications and order status.

That shift matters most on the hearing-aid side, where patients often need a longer conversation to choose the right device.

Kuwait's medical suppliers, pharmacies and hearing and optical centres serve two very different customers on one number: a hospital buyer with a deadline and a patient with a worry. Put the triage question first, so a facility order jumps the queue and a patient reaches someone who can explain. Keep medical advice with qualified staff and let the bot collect details, not diagnose. If you later add an AI agent for product questions, Meta's rules allow AI that serves your own customers, but test it on Kuwaiti Arabic before it goes live.