Understanding the patient’s needs is going to be the future of the pharmaceutical industry. The world is going through a rapid change with technology and science taking huge strides in research. This helps in the development of innovative drugs but leaves customers in a constant dilemma. They have many questions which are left unanswered.
How best do you understand the customer needs? And how well can you satiate their ever-growing inquisitiveness? This is going to define your business’ success.
Why Pharmacies should consider using a Chatbot
Customers are now vulnerable than ever. It is impossible for them to buy essentials without putting themselves at risk. You need to cater to them. You need to take care of them and offer better services for them, and what better tool to use than a chatbot?
7 Ways Pharmacies Benefit from using a Chatbot
Nowadays, a lot of customers are anxious- they have a lot of questions. These questions can be as simple as:
“What’s the recommended dosage of this medicine? What are its side effects?”
To something more complex like:
“Will the interaction of this medicine and that medicine cause a reaction?”
And the more time it takes for you to answer their questions, the more anxious they get.
With smartphones, it is tempting for customers to Google a question and get horrified at the results. Unless they’re a medical professional themselves, they’re going to freak out, adding to their anxiety. Here’s where a chatbot comes in.
A Healthcare chatbot can be accessed via WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, etc. Instead of Googling something, they can simply just send a message via these platforms and at once get a straightforward answer. The chatbots can easily check the composition, recommended doses, side effects, and respond back in an instant. So, whether it’s the middle of the night, or the break of dawn, these chatbots are here for your customers 24/7.
These chatbots also offer the confidentiality and support for awkward questions. Questions that may be awkward to ask in person, can be answered via chatbot. Making them the perfect healthcare assistant to yourself and to your customers.
Educating your customers is easy with a chatbot. These chatbots are intelligent enough to answer any question. Especially with the introduction of DocuSense technology. Now, you can simply upload your files with all the relevant information about all the medicines you are supplying, and the DocuSense technology scans through the document and pulls the relevant answers.
Medical chatbots really are the perfect knowledge base. And as a result, the interactions boost engagement rates and sales.
These days, most chatbot platforms support multimedia messaging, which allows your customers to upload images to the chatbot. So, when it comes to medicine request that are not available over-the-counter, your customers can easily upload a picture or a screenshot of their prescription. This can then be verified by either the chatbot itself, or by your staff.
Placing orders has never been easier. With a Health bot, customers can order their prescribed medicines and look through your catalogue with ease. With integrations such as Stripe, chatbot for healthcare from Engati can support payment requests.
Then after placing the order, your customers can track the order with the pharmacy chatbot as well. The process becomes seamless which makes for a more enjoyable customer experience. All powered by a single medical chatbot.
A pharmacy chatbot can almost act as a personal healthcare assistant to your customers. Sometimes customers don’t take medications on time, and sometimes they forget to order and schedule refills for their medicines. Allow them to use your chatbot as their personal assistant. Using features like bulk broadcasts, you can schedule reminders for your customers.
Chatbots remember everything. They save every interaction they have with your customer. Information like previous questions, medication history, allergies, are saved on the interface. The AI bot can keep these factors in mind while dealing with individual customers. It even lets your employees assess each interaction with your customers.
And finally, medical chatbots are not equipped to deal with every single request. As we’ve mentioned above, they can’t verify prescriptions, and they can’t handle every single question. The chatbots seamlessly transition from automated responses to live responses from your agents. Since the agent can see the entire conversational history on the platform, the customers don’t need to repeat their queries. With access to previous medical history, they can understand the context and complexity of your customer’s inquiries.
To sum it up
Pharmacies have a lot to gain from using a chatbot. From offering support 24/7, to answering almost any question. From multimedia support, to offering live assistance, pharmacies can leverage chatbots to make the customer journey a whole lot easier.