Case Study: Expediting Requests for Information with Live Chat

The Challenge

Our customer wanted quicker access to critical information for their medical staff and patients. Phone calls were causing inefficiencies for all parties involved and impacting patient care.

Our Solution

We implemented a live chat functionality to speed up communications, keep information organized in one place, and allow for multiple stakeholders to participate and receive updates. And with a written record of requests, we could now search for relevant answers to questions that have already arisen. We’d already implemented this system with their pharmacy department and had great success.

The set-up was simple. We created a custom channel, invited all the CSRs and managers to join, and established a communications protocol. The protocol is as follows: each request gets its own thread for easy tracking. Am-Tran responds to the new thread in under two minutes with top-level details like order number, assigned driver, and ETAs. Updates to the request are added to the thread using the @ mention feature to ensure all stakeholders are kept informed.

Results

Immediately, requests were resolved more quickly. Without the bottleneck presented by fielding issues on the phone, the customer and their patients got the critical information they needed in under two minutes. Consequently, CSRs were freed up to field other matters. 

This solution also allowed more stakeholders to monitor the request. Having communication shared in this way, ensures clear lines of communication, greater transparency, better continuity of service, and ensures that patient needs are met promptly regardless of individual availability.

“I would say it is working great,” says one CSR. “It is helpful for our dispatchers to be able to see the thread of information in case they get a call regarding the same patient. It also allows us to answer our next call quicker because we can send a message over instead of having to call in to your dispatch.”

From the patient perspective, resolving issues more quickly meant less stress and anxiety. They’re no longer on hold with CSRs for long periods of time waiting for critical information. This gave them greater confidence that they were in good hands and that the chain of information was well managed and monitored.