Resolve 2022: How Replicant Designed Compliant Conversations for Digital Beginners

By Harry Chang
October 26, 2022

For most of us, interacting with a machine is nothing new. Full generations have lived their lives with digital tools like search engines, voice assistants and chatbots at their fingertips. But no matter how far technology adoption goes, there will always be populations who are just beginning to learn the nuances of the latest digital tools.

At Replicant, this manifests itself in a focused approach to accessibility, compliance and unbiased user experiences that build trust and cut down on unnecessary confusion. During Resolve 2022, Kevin Geck, Principal Solutions Manager at Replicant, highlighted a case study that embodied what it means to design conversations that are both compliant and easy to use for a population new to AI.

Background

The customer Replicant partnered with a specialty health organization that provides older adults access to fitness programs as a benefit for certain plan members. They aim to improve the quality of life of senior members through exercise at home or through a network of fitness centers.
The challenge This organization’s business revolves around an annual enrollment period. Each year, tens of thousands of newly enrolled members call customer service to get more information on how to access their new fitness benefit. During this period, demand skyrockets. Historically, average wait times could reach 12 minutes. Agents were stretched thin and members often received a disjointed experience that made a poor first impression for their new benefit.
The goal Replicant partnered with this organization to help handle fitness calls, especially during the enrollment period. We had to integrate with a proprietary CRM system to access member information and fitness locations, as well as Genesys to receive and pass calls. Our objective was to not only lower costs and provide better analytics, but to provide an incredible experience for seniors that could get them up and running with their fitness benefit in no time. Ultimately, it was about the members.

Our solution

Persona mapping After reviewing this organization’s members and their past calls, Replicant’s conversation design team determined a few key must-haves for their automated experience. First, it was clear that despite the existence of online tools, most customers preferred to call. There would be no digital deflection in this conversation. Second, members were highly motivated and excited to use their fitness benefit. They want to activate as quickly as possible, but they don’t know where to start. Replicant had to meet customers where they were to authenticate them, get them the member ID they’d need to use a fitness center, help them find their most convenient location, and answer FAQs.
Member-focused conversation design Part of meeting members where they were meant making conversation design decisions that took into account contextual intent. Replicant created a workflow that gave callers what they needed without wasting time forcing the customer to say it. Notice how Option B cuts down gives replies that focus on a clear goal while providing members with more options for questions and resources.

Smart scripting Replicant’s conversation design team understood from the start that the persona of this organization was largely new to a solution like the Thinking Machine™️. Given that fact, we provided extra support in the conversation script itself that could help members them complete their request more efficiently. In the below scenario, Option B highlights the added message of the Thinking Machine’s ability to repeat things. This small decision added greatly to the organization’s and customers’ value realization as customer frustration was kept to a minimum and agents spent less time forcing members to repeat themselves during escalations.

HIPAA compliance It was clear from the start of this partnership that customer information could not be stored and all conversations would need to comply with HIPAA. This meant that rather than using a read-back to confirm information like names or alphanumeric strings, the Thinking Machine™️ would need to leverage the best of our product ability to listen accurately and collect information, log it, and do so without storing it.

Key Learnings

After deploying the Thinking Machine for the specialty health organization, a few decisions throughout the process proved integral to its success:

Kick-off: The project got moving quickly and began with members. Our teams took the time to engage in live call listening sessions throughout the kick-off and planning phases in order to build personas faster and maintain the customer as the heart of the project.

All Together Now: Replicant invited a cross-functional team from the health organization to join all conversation discovery and design sessions. This ensured that assumptions weren’t being made about customer habits or preferences, and instead used real data to inform what would make for the best Thinking Machine™️.

Because We’re Happy: Understanding that this particular population of customers could be skeptical or nascent to Contact Center Automation, our team focused on the happy path experience during the initial design period.

From On High: Replicant partnered with the health organization’s engineering leadership team to execute a thorough API discovery process spec new API development needed to connect a delightful conversation to one that leveraged existing systems.

Bringing Our Best: Replicant’s conversation design and machine learning was training delivered to the broader team as developers built the solution, cutting down on project cycles and increasing speed-to-value.

The result of Replicant’s partnership with this specialty health organization was massive. Most importantly, their members interested in using their fitness benefit were able to begin the process easier and faster than ever. And, no matter how many calls the organization received during a given period, they no longer had to dread longer hold times or consider spending more money on hiring or outsourcing. Agents were freed to focus on more high-value and engaging calls. Managers could slash costs while increasing CSAT. And, ultimately, fitness members were able to get moving faster with private conversations that delivered resolutions.