As a CIO in healthcare, your job description demands that you eliminate inefficiencies in the contact center. Rising consumer expectations for high-quality patient care means acting quickly is essential, but budget constraints and staffing limitations create pressure to avoid mistakes. When conversational AI is used for frequently asked question (FAQ) resolution it reduces hold times while mitigating substantial call volumes. This minimizes patient and caregiver frustration and eases agent and operator workload. Without effective contact center technology, callers face barriers to care, and staff burnout drives turnover. These outcomes impact revenue. According to Cresta, the annual average cost to backfill a call center of 100 agents in the care/support category is $900,000-$1.8 million.
Most healthcare consumers contact hospitals and clinics by phone, meaning, your staff answer countless redundant questions. Handling FAQs manually is unsustainable when calls greatly outnumber agents.
How does automating FAQs improve contact center operations? Intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) easily understand and answer frequently asked questions. AI scales, no matter call volume – each offloaded call makes a difference. Metrigy projects that 65.7% of inquiries will be resolved by AI in 2025 in organizations that already have implemented the technology. Conversational AI quickly assists patients and their caregivers, reducing hold times for people waiting for a live representative, so that agents and operators are more available to provide complex, empathetic assistance. In a recent survey of client support professionals, 78% stated that AI “helps them spend more time on the most important parts of their role” and 78% feel “Makes me more efficient in my role”.
Be aware, your competitors have already implemented AI-driven speech technology solutions to deliver top-of-the-line customer service and support for staff, and to reduce revenue leakage. According to Fortune Business Insights, AI in healthcare was “valued at USD 19.54 billion in 2023”, and “projected to grow from USD 27.69 billion in 2024 to USD 490.96 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 43.2%”. Metrigy reports that without AI, contact centers will require 2.3 times more agents than those with AIAs this technology becomes more widely adopted, it’s less of a choice to implement and more of a necessity to meet and exceed expectations and operate efficiently. Jump on board to stay afloat!
Implementing new technology is daunting but Parlance subscription-based managed service makes the transition and upkeep easy. We enable our healthcare clients to confidently take advantage of IVAs. Parlance is more than an HIT vendor. We are a partner, a team of tenured experts who make your system work, take ownership of day-to-day performance, and guarantee ROI. Over a thousand hospitals and clinics rely on Parlance every day to modernize call handling, answer FAQs without stealing bandwidth from overburdened agents, and reduce operational costs. High call volume means more appointments and more revenue. No matter the volume of patient demand, Parlance improves patient experience and reduces agent burnout.
By Ali Karasic
