Kyruus Blog

As the first point of contact for many consumers searching for care, your access center and your agents are essential ambassadors of your brand. And in an era where patient loyalty is up for grabs, delivering personalized service over the phone can transform a single call into a lifelong relationship with your health system. On our recent webinar, Dave Kriesand, Vice President of Banner Health’s Customer Experience Center, shared how they’re differentiating their access experience by making it easier for patients to find care that meets their unique needs. 

In recent years, patient experience has transformed from an industry buzzword to a serious initiative for many of the country’s leading health systems. Why? As patients become savvy consumers and their options for care expand, they are prioritizing things like experience and quality of care and are willing to switch organizations to get it. In fact, a new Press Ganey report revealed that patient experience is 5x more effective than marketing tactics at driving patient loyalty.¹

There are many frameworks available to start developing your chatbot solution, for example, Google’s Dialogflow, Amazon Alexa, or Bot Framework from Microsoft. The benefits of using any one of these are undeniable: you can stand up a minimum viable product quickly. Without having prior AI knowledge, you can design the chatbot to fit your domain and integrate it with other services you already use. Some of them even have free offerings with sufficient capabilities to test your ideas, without investing a lot of time and cost.

2018 marked a year of disruption across the healthcare landscape. From the entrance of new players, like Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway, to the mergers of prominent health systems, like Mercy Health and Bon Secours, organizations across the space were driven by a desire to meet consumer expectations for a more connected, patient-centric experience.

“Hello? I’d like to schedule an appointment with Doctor Famous.”

Many consumers rely on a familiar name when selecting a provider, whether it’s one they read about in US News and World Report’s latest hospital rankings or a recommendation from a neighbor or family member. But often times, when consumers call to schedule with these providers, they find that “Doctor Famous” is booked out for weeks, if not months. With convenience being a top priority for many consumers, waiting that long just isn’t an option. If this is the case, how does one begin the process of finding another provider that they trust?

Today’s consumers are “shopping” for healthcare now more than ever. And while convenient care options and access to rich provider information are driving healthcare consumers’ decisions around selecting care, insights from our second annual patient access report show that cohesiveness in the patient access experience is lacking.

Among the first things you want to consider when you’re ready to integrate chatbots is how they align with your product strategy and customer value proposition. In the healthcare space you'll also need to consider and account for the ethical, regulatory, compliance, and operational requirements in the design of the chatbot.

Recall the last time you scheduled a healthcare appointment. Now compare it to recent experiences searching for a flight or making a restaurant reservation. It’s not news that while other industries have become more accessible and consumer-oriented, healthcare has lagged behind. Navigating health resources can be an opaque process, with provider information strewn across various websites and often inconsistent between what’s available to consumers online and what’s available to those taking their calls in access centers. This makes it difficult for healthcare consumers to find the information they need to make informed decisions.

I had the pleasure of speaking to many of you this month in Boston at the 5th Annual Thought Leadership on Access Symposium (ATLAS) and I shared my own ideas on the customer experience. I shared my own personal stories of giving birth, of growing up with a dad who worked in the ER as a doctor for 35 years, and how today we are seeing the consumerization of healthcare. I met many of you and really enjoyed hearing how you work to create an improved patient experience for your healthcare clients. If you saw my closing keynote you know I believe customer experience is key in healthcare. The goal should be to create an experience that meets each customer’s needs in a personalized and convenient way. Systemness is a powerful way to join together the various aspects of healthcare to create a cohesive experience for customers.

Patient engagement and experience are top of mind for health system leaders. As healthcare consumers increasingly demand efficient and personalized care, the pressure on health systems increases to engage with patients in new ways. Impact Advisors recently reported that more than 80% of CIOs view improving patient engagement and experience as a chief goal¹, underscoring the growing recognition among industry leaders of the critical need to compete on convenience and access to care.