Chatbot + Live Chat for Virtua Health Increases User Access and Empowers Patients with More Self-Help Options
After 1 Month:
Decrease in COVID-19 FAQs Call Volume to inbound and live chat agents
After 3 Months:
Further 34% decrease
The Virtua Health team wanted to deliver an easier online experience to consumers. Their goal was to empower consumers to receive answers to less urgent questions while taking advantage of self-scheduling options without calling the system’s Access Center. This would not only help consumers be more self-sufficient, it would also allow Access Center colleagues to focus on more people-intensive conversations.
The chatbot was launched ahead of the COVID vaccine rollout in late 2020. As Virtua began distributing the vaccine, their team was able to tailor the dialog to help users find information about the vaccine and make vaccination appointments. With over 100,000 appointments scheduled in the first week of its release via Virtua’s site, self-help options paired with relevant, easily accessible information truly made a difference.
The Virtua Health team wanted to deliver an easier online experience to consumers. Their goal was to empower consumers to receive answers to less urgent questions while taking advantage of self-scheduling options without calling the system’s Access Center. This would not only help consumers be more self-sufficient, it would also allow Access Center colleagues to focus on more people-intensive conversations.
The chatbot was launched ahead of the COVID vaccine rollout in late 2020. As Virtua began distributing the vaccine, their team was able to tailor the dialog to help users find information about the vaccine and make vaccination appointments. With over 100,000 appointments scheduled in the first week of its release via Virtua’s site, self-help options paired with relevant, easily accessible information truly made a difference.
The Virtua team’s research showed users were frustrated with particular aspects of navigation on their website. They needed to create a better experience through improved access options and easy-to-use communication tools while utilizing patient journey insights to continuously optimize. Ultimately, their goal was for users to find the information they needed quickly and easily.
Additionally, the Virtua team was seeing increased demand on their call center, and wanted to free up access for patients who required more complex, time-intensive conversations, instead of answering general questions about hours of operation, directions, etc.
Increase users’ ease of access to information on the website
Identify user intent for overall optimization
Offload general question call center traffic to free up time for more complex questions
Offer more self-help options to patients across the site, empowering users to find answers quickly.
“We wanted to empower users to get their general questions answered through more self-help options, and free up the call center to focus on more people-intensive questions.”
– Caitlin Coyle
Loyal’s Chat solution integrates with provider and location search, online appointment scheduling, symptom checking, advanced lead generation, HRAs, and more. It’s the only healthcare-exclusive conversational AI that can deploy across all channels at every engagement level. Live chat can even help solve unique consumer problems through escalation that integrates with contact centers.
The chatbot and live chat solutions answered Virtua’s needs, and the timing of the implementation couldn’t have been better. The AI-powered chatbot was launched on Virtua’s site in late 2020, when the COVID-19 vaccine had just been released. Virtua Health operated one of only a handful of mega-sites in New Jersey, so residents in the state were directed to their website, both to sign up for the vaccine and for vaccine-related questions. As a result, Virtua saw over 100,000 people sign up for the vaccine in the first week.
Make general information easier to access on the website
Better understand user intent
Alleviate a lot of the call center’s general question traffic, allowing for more “people-intensive” conversations
Offer users more self-help options, getting users to the answers they need seamlessly.
The chatbot helped reduce general and Frequently-Asked Question (FAQ) traffic around COVID-19 to inbound and live chat agents by 33% within the first month following implementation. In fact, traffic dropped another 34% by the end of the first quarter of its operation, allowing for more people-intensive conversations. Typically, the average number of chatbot conversations is a little over 20,000 per quarter, but following the rollout of their vaccine dialog within the Loyal chatbot, Q1 of 2021 saw a conversation volume of 134,984. That’s an increase of over 100,000 for those three months.
Access to Find A Provider, MyChart, and the MyChart Login page are all within the Chatbot and Live Chat tools. And thanks to the addition of specific content and navigation within the chatbot, they’ve seen more submissions to their campaign landing pages. In fact, 45% of the submissions that came from chatbot traffic were for colonoscopy appointments and 30% were for mammography appointments were completed with these tools. Traditionally, health systems have difficulty inspiring consumers to schedule these preventative care procedures. It is estimated that only 8% of Americans undergo routine preventive screenings, according to a recent study published by the National Institute of Health.
The chatbot’s ability to constantly learn allows for multiple uses, and the solution became a go-to for answers, not just for consumers, but for employees seeking out general access information. Because the dialog is flexible and can be adjusted easily, the Virtua team is able to offer timely answers to consumers and employees alike based on data from users and the popularity of certain topics, with both easy access and a streamlined experience. Consumers are making appointments, logging into their MyChart accounts, getting directions, contact information, hours of operation, and more from Loyal’s Chatbot tool.
conversation volume increase following
the vaccine dialog rollout
More submissions to
campaign landing pages, with:
Colonoscopy appointments
Mammography appointments
The Virtua team is looking at ways to extend their existing chatbot and live chat technology to create even more personalized experiences, and they will continue to utilize the chatbot and live chat to keep track of user input, analyzing data to learn how best to serve their patients.
Loyal is the leading end-to-end digital healthcare platform that unifies care touchpoints for patients and providers alike.