“First, You Have to Truly Understand What the Customer Needs”
When customers encounter an approach that listens to them and offers a solution that fits their needs, that experience has a positive effect on both the sales process and long-term loyalty.
Could you share your career journey with us?
After graduating from the Department of Sociology at Middle East Technical University (METU), I took my first professional step at TÜBİTAK. Following that short stint, I made a radical decision to change course and moved into sales, a field whose dynamism I loved. My journey began in a commission-based role at an advertising agency in Ankara; I quickly gained strong momentum by adding leading brands such as MAN and Rixos Hotels to my portfolio.
On the back of that success, I received an offer from ING Emeklilik and entered the insurance sector. I started in a field sales position, and thanks to my performance I was promoted within a short time, first to Team Leader and then to Branch Manager.
Then, 12 years ago, came the most important turning point of my career: through a recruitment firm, my path crossed with DoktorTakvimi and the Docplanner group. I started at the company in the field once again, but within 3 months I was appointed Regional Manager. The 8-person field team I took over then grew, in just 2 years, into a strong 30-person organization actively selling both in the field and by phone. As a result of that momentum my responsibilities expanded: I took on the building and management of the company’s sales operations and marketing teams. While running this structure in Turkey, I also provided remote strategic support to the Mexican and Brazilian markets as part of the Docplanner group’s global projects.
At the end of this exciting adventure full of learning, I took on the role of General Manager. Now in my 5th year in this role, I take great pride in leading our Turkey team and growing this success story.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on the relationship between sales and customer experience.
I believe the priority in the sales process should not merely be to present a product or service, but to understand the customer’s need correctly. When customers encounter an approach that listens to them and offers a solution that fits their needs, that experience has a positive effect on both the sales process and long-term customer loyalty.
Could you briefly tell us about DoktorTakvimi’s recent activities?
Artificial intelligence is a major focus of our recent work. At DoktorTakvimi and Docplanner, we have long positioned AI as a strategic priority at the heart of our business. In line with this, in 2025 we launched our AI assistant, Noa, to make the daily workflows of healthcare professionals more efficient. Noa is a digital assistant that supports clinical processes and reduces the administrative burden on physicians and specialists so they can devote more time to their patients. Noa’s Noa Notes feature analyses the information that emerges during a consultation in real time using medical speech recognition, turns it into a structured clinical summary, and significantly speeds up the manual note-taking process.
In 2026 we introduced Noa Evidence, an AI-powered medical literature research assistant for physicians. Noa Evidence gives physicians access to thousands of peer-reviewed articles and up-to-date clinical guidelines within seconds, supporting clinical decision-making with current scientific evidence. It helps physicians reach the relevant scientific information without losing time across different sources when seeking answers to clinical questions, and to evaluate that information through verifiable sources. In this way we position AI not only as a tool that speeds up business processes, but also as a support that makes it easier for healthcare professionals to access knowledge.
Do you have any predictions about the changes you expect in the sector in the coming years?
I think the impact of digitalization and artificial intelligence in the healthcare sector will grow even further in the coming period. This transformation will not be limited to the wider use of technological tools; it will reshape many areas, from patients’ access to healthcare and appointment processes to healthcare professionals’ workflows and access to information. A particularly important development will be digital solutions making healthcare more accessible and helping healthcare professionals use their time more efficiently.
At DoktorTakvimi, in line with this transformation, we will continue to develop solutions that both simplify the work processes of healthcare professionals and improve patients’ access to and experience of healthcare. Alongside AI-powered solutions such as Noa, and as digital channels develop, I believe we will move towards a structure in which we can respond to our users’ needs faster and in a more personalized way. This transformation will also be reflected in our call center operations. Moving routine, repetitive tasks to digital channels may allow call center teams to focus on more complex, personalized matters where human communication adds more value.
Could you share your views on the use of technology in customer contact centers?
I think technology will make processes in customer contact centers faster, more efficient and more personalized. Especially as AI and automation are used more for routine tasks, we are heading into a period in which contact centers will focus on understanding the customer’s need better and providing higher-quality support.
Hakan Türkoğlu is Country Manager at DoktorTakvimi. A graduate of METU’s Sociology Department, he began his career at TÜBİTAK before moving into sales, holding roles from field sales to branch management in the advertising and insurance sectors. He has been with DoktorTakvimi and the Docplanner group for 12 years, starting in the field, then leading a region, and later building and managing the sales operations and marketing teams. He has led the Turkey team for the past 5 years.