VCC’s AI Voicebot Solution Serving Patients: Use Case

In May 2021, an international medical company turned to VCC to address inefficiencies in their appointment confirmation process. Patients often failed to cancel appointments, leading to wasted time for physicians and nurses and increased operational costs.

The task of confirming appointments had previously fallen to receptionists, consuming valuable time across numerous facilities. VCC, a polish contact center services provider saw an opportunity to enhance this process using their advanced voicebot, Primebot. This initiative aimed not only to implement the bot but also to ensure it could interact seamlessly with patients. This article delves into how VCC’s innovative solution improved efficiency, reduced costs, and optimized customer service.

CHALLENGE

An international medical company needed additional customer service support. In May 2021, they approached VCC with the following problem; patients were not canceling their appointments, so advance communication was needed to confirm them. If there were unused appointments left on the schedule, it was generating inefficient physician and nurse time and therefore additional costs.

Prior to VCC’s voicebot implementation, test confirmations were handled by receptionists at the facilities, which also took up valuable time. Making phone calls took an employee at each reception desk about an hour a day, which, with dozens of facilities in Poland, was a field for optimization. In this situation we saw a huge potential for using our bot. We approached the client with the initiative of optimization using Primebot. Our challenge was not only to implement the voicebot, but also to create a transcription of the conversation, the schema, so that patients would want to talk with our bot.

SOLUTION

We proposed to the client to conduct a pilot, initially in two facilities. We established a dialogue, then started internal testing, which consisted of conversations with the bot. We taught it medical terminology, reactions, proper intonation of words, dialogues. We corrected errors on an ongoing basis, analyzed the conversations with the bot and caught all kinds of misunderstandings. After the tests we started a pilot in two institutions. At this stage our bot was already able to talk freely with patients, without major misunderstandings.

The process implemented by Primebot involves confirming attendance at a test. The bot contacts a few days before the scheduled examination between 10 am and 6 pm and asks if the patient confirms their attendance. The recipient has the choice to confirm the appointment, cancel, reschedule, and call the consultant. Also, during the call, the bot gives advice on how to prepare for the study, which is interesting because each facility and each study may have different requirements for preparation, so we teach the bot how to talk.

TECHNOLOGY

The Primebot, AI voicebot solution,  used to implement the process in this project is a conversational bot developed using machine learning methods. It can conduct a non-linear dialogue, responding to the customer’s natural speech, not just to specific commands. Primebot can replace a consultant in repetitive customer service processes, improving the quality of service, reducing the workload of company employees, and improving the functioning of the company – regardless of its size or industry. Technically, the bot can make an unlimited number of calls. Currently, it supports 20 simultaneous calls to meet the needs of the client associated with the daily load.

EFFECTS

The implementation of Primebot has improved customer service and has enabled the optimization of costs and time of facility staff. The voicebot implemented by VCC collects valuable information for the customer about confirmation or cancellation of visits. Handling the process with the voicebot is on average 50% cheaper than the work of consultants.

Earlier information about the cancellation of an appointment allows to find a replacement and fill the vacated “slots”, which does not generate downtime and thus unnecessary costs. Facility staff have more time to work with patients. Additionally, the system provides full statistical/analytical reporting with Microsoft PowerBI tool data visualizations. Throughout the one year project, Primebot has confirmed over 211,000 visits.