“We provide 360-degree elder care” – Dr. Mamta Mittal Founder- Seniors First (Interview)

Seniors First is India’s premium online marketplace for senior-care tools, services, and products. We started serving in August 2020 and are blessed with a vibrant team of healthcare veterans, eminent advisors, experienced technology professionals, and passionate service providers.

Seniors First provides a safe and secure, yet easy-to-use service-based platform, for health care and other lifestyle businesses to reach seniors, in the comfort of their homes. It is sharing the ideology to make senior citizens’ lives easier and more convenient than ever. Keeping in mind the convenience of the seniors, Seniors First provides free app and registration to the senior citizens along with exclusive discounts and offers through our partner services to the registered members.

It caters to senior citizen’s essential needs, by providing them premium services in a single click using Geotagging technology through a progressive web application. The coherent technology not only extends help to seniors for connecting with the right service providers (vice-versa) but it is also a destination for entertainment, mutual care, and engagement, with a healthy community experience. It is an option for Indian seniors who are 60+ and look for medical and nonmedical assistance, physical attendants, homecare workers, nurses, doctors, cabs, grocery, companionship, lifestyle products, and emotional support. Seniors First enables them to book services directly through the platform or take assistance from the call center.

Seniors First broadly cater to six categories, such as Emergence, Health, Safety, Convenience, Lifestyle, Social and Engagement activities. It is a social initiative taken and works towards a noble cause to add good health and happiness to senior citizen’s lives.

Dr. Mamta Mittal is the Founder of Seniors First, she has conceptualized Seniors First to transform the lives of seniors through its initiatives. She completed a Healthcare management degree and traveled across many countries to closely understand the advanced system of senior care there.

Upon her return, she realized the gap in the elderly care sector in India and created an innovative and extraordinary blend of positive engagement, entertainment, and e-commerce platform providing 360-degree care to seniors.

To know more about Senior First, recently we interacted with Dr. Mamta Mittal, here are some glimpses of what we got to know.

 

 

1. How did you come up with the idea of starting Seniors First?

The COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdowns have hit older adults harder than other age groups. Besides being more vulnerable to complications and higher mortality, suddenly; their daily routines were disrupted and access to care was cut off. They faced difficulty in adapting to technologies like telemedicine, and isolation leads to loneliness, anxiety & depression. My parents were one of them. They did not know what to do. Suddenly, domestic help stopped coming, hospital appointments were canceled. And they were stuck indoors for straight eight months. Since I and my parents were ignorant of any information or access to senior care services available in the vicinity, we started listing the services required by them and realized that for each service they required, we needed to download a different app, and each had a different way of working. It was impossible to manage. I am a doctor and already aware of problems faced by the elderly population and suddenly I realized a gap in the market.

I decided to build in one user-friendly elder care app, where all services are provided by the verified service providers, and services are available at a click of a button, at their doorsteps. The same app must have medicine reminders, care tools & community & engagement tools. So, our parents need to learn to use only one app and get help whenever required, in a single click. This is how Seniors First was born.

 

2. What are the changes you are bringing into the market through your services?

With fast-changing demographics and the increasing trend of nuclear families, elderly parents are left alone to manage themselves in their silver age. The world is changing at a rapid pace. There is pandemic around, rapid adoption of technology, more focus on health, and a deep sense of care. With our venture, we are enabling our senior citizens to remain independent, engaged, and lead a fulfilled life, with all assistance, care, love, companionship, and community support at their fingertips. We are empowering seniors (reducing dependency on others), changing their outlook towards a retired life, and adding life to years!

 

3. Tell us about your services.

Seniors first (www.seniorsfirst.in) provides one-click access to care by connecting the senior citizens with the right service providers (and vice-versa) but also becomes a place for entertainment, mutual care, and engagement, with a healthy community experience.

Seniors first provide 360-degree elder care –

• Medical services -Emergency care- ambulance services & hospital admissions, home care solutions – Home attendants, nurses, doctors, medical equipment’s (Rent or sale), home delivery of medicines, blood test (home collection)
• Non-medical Services – Home Maintenance, Home Security, Legal & Finance, Daily assistance- Grocery, car maintenance, couriers & gifts, cabs, Astrology, Holistic &Wellness, beauty &spa, Funeral services, etc.
• Senior care products & devices
• Entertainment and online events, webinars & educational programs
• Free Consultation and unbiased guidance in choosing Retirement homes.
• Convenience, lifestyle, social & Engagement activities enabling them to lead a healthy, dignified, and fully engaged life.

 

4. Whom do you see as your potential competitors and what makes you stand out?

The Indian Senior care market is at a very nascent stage. There is enough room for everyone to serve. Most of them are catering to one service sector. We are different because we are utilizing the ecosystem of the senior care industry, to provide the best-curated lifestyle senior care packages and ala carte services to our senior citizens. Hence, our parents need to learn to use a single app (seniors first) to get access to all the services provided by everyone working in the senior care industry.

 

5. Please shed some light on the active and passive technology support involved in Seniors First.

Seniors First is built on a highly advanced, dynamic, and responsive, yet user-friendly platform. If we click on the ‘add to Home screen’ command, it adds on the home screen of mobile and desktop and works like an App. The website is bilingual (English& Hindi) and in large text. We have integrated a highly advanced chatbot, which can answer most of the queries instantly. We have crafted text and video-based tutorials and step-by-step guides in our media section for their help. Call Centre24x7 is ready to serve anytime they need help.

 

6. Where do you see Seniors First in 5 years from now?

The senior care industry is slowly gaining attention. All our partners and associates in the senior care industry are working tirelessly for a common cause – to fulfill every need of the elderly population by providing easy, accessible solutions. With this thought in mind, I intent to take Seniors First to a level where every individual in the senior citizen category has access to the Seniors First app enabling them to lead an independent, happy, engaged, and fulfilled life.

 

7. What kind of challenges you have faced till today? And what you have learned from them?

We have started our work in August 2020, presuming that worst of the pandemic was over. The second wave arrived and jolted our healthcare system, our economy, and our social fabric. Uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic, economic disruption caused by it, difficulty in hiring and retaining the workforce, and frequent lockdowns affecting the delivery of services, are the biggest challenges we encountered. However, we learned to be agile and capital efficient. We devised strategies to deliver quality services from trusted service providers at an affordable cost. We are learning to be resilient, as there is a bumpy ride ahead.

 

8. Let us talk numbers, in terms of traction, user base, traffic, how do numbers look like for Seniors First, and what are your plans in terms of scalability?

So far, we have had an overwhelming response. Over 4500 senior citizens and 750+ vendors, in over 11 cities are registered with us. Scalability for us means an increase in customer base, customer satisfaction, and an increase in service orders, for now.

 

9. What are some of the new offerings that are in the pipeline which we can see in the coming months?

We are planning to tie up with big brands and provide premium services at discounted rates to senior citizens. We recently partnered with Center for sight to deliver premium eyecare services including home visits, optical, diagnostics & surgeries at a discounted rate. Similarly, we are connecting with insurance companies, Hospitals, Ambulance providers, Retirement homes, etc. The lack of affordability should not hinder access to any service. We want to give the best to our seniors because they deserve the best.