If a couple of years ago, AI-consultants could handle basic queries like providing info on the available services or office’s working hours, today they have significantly matured and can engage patients. As a result, healthcare organizations get a reliable virtual customer support officer that helps solve diverse problems, from bookings to initial symptom analysis with consequent redirection to the right department. This improves patient services and, therefore, boosts patient satisfaction and retention rates at lower costs.
Five years ago, Juniper Research suggested that in 2022 90% of queries in healthcare would be handled by chatbots, resulting in cost savings of up to $0.70 per query. While there are no precise figures on chatbot penetration in 2022, industry leaders observe the technology boom in healthcare as a result of COVID-19 when virtual assistants provided online consultations and even treatment.
What are chatbots capable of?
Imagine you deliver first-rate functional medicine testing to patients and healthcare providers in Canada. But your customer service isn’t efficient enough: patients struggle to find useful information and aren’t engaged. That’s the problem Convergine’s Client, Rocky Mountain Analytical (RMA), faced. They decided to go innovative and come up with a functional solution to streamline customer services, improve service delivery efficiency, and scale up the efforts. We designed a custom virtual assistant that delivered the following benefits:
Quick and accurate responses, on or off peak
Since a website has evolved into a communication channel where users can ask for service details via a live-chat form, chatbots have become catalysts of enhanced customer service. Unlike humans who handle query per query, a virtual assistant has no limit and keeps providing accurate, personalized replies even during peak times.
What is more, AI can easily hone in on frequently asked questions about working time, addresses, coverage status, user account issues, and more. This frees up human assistants to deal with more significant queries and keeps patients from waiting in line for hours to get customer-centric information.
Simplified website navigation
Some users may fail to navigate across your website correctly to book an appointment, complete payment, or issue insurance. Others may not want to scroll through web pages and instead turn to an assistant for help immediately.
A virtual assistant efficiently deals with popular queries, including those regarding carrying out tests, sample collection, appointment booking or rescheduling, payments, pricing, and taxes. Bots not only explain, let’s say, how to book a blood test but can ask for all the required details to complete a booking on their own, without any effort on the patient’s site.
You can also add several user journey maps. For example, the RMA’s chatbot asked if it was a patient or healthcare provider on the other side of the screen and adjusted the conversation accordingly.
Besides the mentioned benefits, modern chatbots can also facilitate quick support and treatment. For example, Babylon Health, a British online subscription service, launched a bot to analyze symptoms and propose possible causes and further actions (if you have to book a doctor’s appointment, etc.) Prompt help and accurate healthcare analysis, together with instant bookings, boost patient acquisition and retention.
Tips to develop a performant chatbot
Here are Convergine’s best practices to run an efficient chatbot that will convert and engage users, not scare them away:
- Enrich its knowledge base. The larger it is, the more functional your chatbot is. It’s best to populate the knowledge base with curated questions and answers to provide accurate and relevant responses to as many queries as possible. Consider follow-up questions that may arise to keep the conversation going.
- Align the tech stack. If your website, knowledge base, and chatbot UI utilize the same cloud environment, you are likely to face fewer bugs and little-to-no latency in fetching and processing responses. This way, a virtual assistant answers instantly, which eliminates frustration and speeds up customer service. Convergine, as a Microsoft Gold Partner, designed RMA’s bot and website under the Azure framework.
- Equip it with a natural navigation order and intuitive UI. Although users get used to dealing with bots, they value quality conversations. A natural navigation order and intuitive UI allow a patient to be the one in control of the dialog. This also facilitates data comprehension and streamlines the user experience, as it’s easy for users to find what they are looking for.
Summing up
Virtual assistants are reliable customer support employees who are always there to provide quick and accurate responses, facilitate website navigation, and even provide basic treatment. To run an efficient chatbot, enrich its knowledge base, adhere to a single tech stack, make it intuitive, and add a natural navigation order. After this, your bot will easily handle any query and conduct logical and informative conversations that improve customer service or may speed up patient acquisition.
