Chatbots in healthcare – efficient, interactive, cost-effective and customer-friendly

For many people, visiting the websites of healthcare providers or health insurance companies is a frustrating experience. They find a lot of information, however, it is often difficult to find the information they are really looking for. This causes a problem as healthcare providers or insurance companies want to help their customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. Using a Chatbot may be the ideal solution. Why? We would like to explain this further in this blog post.

An interactive and responsive communication

Nowadays many of the websites related to healthcare are still quite passive in their communication: the website offers a lot of information, the client searches and receives almost no help. Sometimes there are certain tools, such as search engines, but still the interaction comes almost exclusively from the client. The big advantage of a Chatbot is that they are interactive and can have a real conversation with the users. The interaction comes from both parties and the Chatbots can navigate the clients with great precision towards the information they need. It is an efficient, responsive and inclusive way of communication. And both users and providers benefit from the bot: users find the required information much faster and organizations have a practically free customer service that is available 24/7.

Okay this sounds great, but of course clients want a personal and appealing interaction. Can a Chatbot offer such a service? And don’t people mind chatting with a “robot”?

What do people think of communicating with Chatbots?

When people have to choose between navigating a website with a mouse or conducting a (semi) conversation with a Chatbot, many people generally get a more comfortable feeling when interacting with the bot. Chatbots ensure that they take clients into the conversation and thus also include them into the process of their health care. And this is important for many people as it is a subject that is very crucial and personal: someone’s health. Chatbots provide a more human communication, so they can be used well for the so-called “conversational health care”. This gives clients a personalized and proactive experience. And people in general experience this as very pleasant. Furthermore, Chatbots also have their advantages over the real human contact with a customer service, because clients do not have to wait endlessly on the phone or be redirected from department to department. Is there anyone that doesn’t mind this? Right, nobody. Everyone wants to receive information as quickly as possible and Chatbots can be of great help.

Are Chatbots safe?

We already indicated it earlier, healthcare is a personal and important issue for everyone. Logically, this is also the case regarding the information that care providers and health insurers handle. Personal data must be handled carefully and safely. Can Chatbots do this? It is certainly possible, Chatbots can be developed with the highest standards of security. The security of Chatbots can be compared with that of large companies. They not only offer improved security, but they also offer the possibility for managers to exclusively supervise Chatbot distribution and use. Furthermore, many Chatbots also support all cryptographic security needs to protect the data of an institution.

And that’s not all …

Chatbots can do more than just provide information. The bots have many functionalities: they can also help with supporting the team of the health care institution or insurance company. For example, they can organize the information provided by clients and also alert the staff if the patient needs help or information when there are urgent changes in the status of the client.

Chatbots are also ideal for the boring routine jobs that the front office of your organisation has to conduct. For example, streamlining admission, resignation and transfer requests, scheduling appointments and sending and receiving references. They can also update the medical history systems and send notifications about prescription refills. And when a patient comes by for an appointment, Chatbots can automatically send all necessary information to the parties involved (such as the doctor, the reception, etc.). This way, it is possible to ensure that the institution’s system runs even smoother. Market researchers predict that the savings from the use of Chatbots in the healthcare sector will increase sharply in the coming years. This is not surprising, because the bots will provide patients with faster and easier access to healthcare and there will be less pressure on their systems.

In short, Chatbots are flexible, cost-effective and interactive and can therefore offer a high-quality patient experience. Need we say more?