The Resurgence of the Voice Channel
In healthcare, 70% of consumers contact hospitals and clinics by phone.
Caller experiences must be efficient and seamless for patients to feel satisfied. For contact centers to increase self-service, and effectively navigate callers, simplicity is key.
Fast and easy communication is vital, especially when patients and caregivers need to address pressing healthcare issues. The phone offers a more personal connection than email, chat, or messaging through a healthcare portal.
Healthcare consumer needs go beyond those of customers in other industries because the stakes are higher. Patients aren’t simply calling to make a change to their dinner reservation. Waiting on hold with a busy restaurant is annoying, but it isn’t as stressful or critical as a health-related matter. When you, your aging parent, or your young child is sick, quick access to care is essential.
Fast and easy communication is vital, especially when patients and caregivers need to address pressing healthcare issues. The phone offers a more personal connection than email, chat, or messaging through a healthcare portal.
Healthcare consumer needs go beyond those of customers in other industries because the stakes are higher. Patients aren’t simply calling to make a change to their dinner reservation. Waiting on hold with a busy restaurant is annoying, but it isn’t as stressful or critical as a health-related matter. When you, your aging parent, or your young child is sick, quick access to care is essential.
It’s imperative that hospitals and clinics provide patients with human-centered support and service. Healthcare consumer expectations for fast and frictionless, quality experiences are rising.
According to American Health Connection, 65% of patients have higher expectations for customer service than a year ago. IVAs (intelligent virtual assistants) are the tools health systems require to keep up with patient needs. This conversational AI technology is becoming increasingly popular because it enables hospitals and clinics to personalize patient and caregiver experiences, deliver quick and natural interactions, and improve caller engagement. Despite health systems spending billions of dollars on omnichannel communications, the voice channel remains the preferred method for communication. For a small fraction of that investment, digitizing the voice channel will not only improve patient experience but reduce the burden on agents and operators as well. Streamlining internal processes saves money and helps healthcare organizations in addressing the specific needs of their calling communities.
When patients self-serve with AI-powered solutions, support staff are more available for callers who really need it.
Parlance delivers conversational interactive voice response (IVRs) and intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) to save time and frustration for callers and tackle staffing shortages at health systems nationwide. Parlance is a managed service; this means we blend intelligent speech technologies including automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language processing (NLP) to transform old-fashioned IVRs and automated attendants into easy-to-navigate speech-driven tools.
Although implementing automation is necessary, having a balance of AI and human support is critical. There is no substitute for a real person when a patient or caregiver requires empathy and support.
When routine callers willingly self-serve, those with complex service needs reach care providers faster. If a worried parent calls to discuss medical results for their child, quick connection to a human representative makes a huge difference. The parent receives empathetic delivery of support and information right away and can communicate their questions or concerns to a trained professional who understands the details. See this article for more on delivering a seamless patient experience through the voice channel.
About Parlance For over 25 years, Parlance has been accelerating patient access and improving agent and operator experiences.
Today, our conversational AI automation solutions for healthcare providers assist patients and caregivers, while also facilitating staff communications at more than a thousand hospitals and clinics across the United States.
By Parlance Team
By Parlance Team
