Address the impact of trending health information with conversation data

When health solutions become suddenly and overwhelmingly popular, there is increased demand on communication channels that impact customer experience and solution access. Misinformation often accompanies these trending topics - for instance, as occurred with the recent explosion of Ozempic - and this can cause customer confusion and frustration.

These situations also further complicate the complex healthcare landscape for customers, leading to repetitive interactions with service agents - a cycle known as the Eddy Effect. Increased interactions slow the customer journey and put additional strain on organisational resources.

Healthcare organisations need to provide clarity amidst the online noise to combat the effects of misinformation. By analysing conversational data from various touchpoints, leaders can identify emerging trends early and craft targeted communication to address potential confusion before it escalates. Targeted education efforts, informed by conversational data insights, can directly reduce call centre volumes, mitigate customer frustration, and guide consumers towards reliable sources of information.

Internet misinformation’s impact on customer experience

In a recent study of TikTok, the first 100 video results for “Ozempic” received nearly 70 million views from users, showcasing the power of social media in disseminating healthcare information.

When videos about individual and anecdotal experiences with a healthcare solution go viral, it can lead to generalised misinformation and inaccurate claims about drug eligibility, usage, and side effects. This misleading information can cause an influx of questions and demands from misinformed patients who expect to have the same access, experience, and results as those who created the videos.

Imagine conversations like:

“I saw a video about using [a specified drug] for [this purpose]. Can I do that?”

“My Facebook friend only paid [this amount] for their prescription, but mine is more.”

“I don’t think this drug is working for me. Everyone I see online is having [this result].”

Repeated scenarios like these can cause a surge in contact centre calls and strain internal resources. Consumers can also become stuck in frustrating, repetitive cycles, calling in numerous times to understand why their experience is different, why they are ineligible for the treatment they seek or why their bill is higher than expected.

This frustration negatively impacts the customer experience and causes consumers to become stuck in their customer journey. Organisations must actively listen for sudden shifts in customer conversations to prepare for surges of misinformation caused by internet popularity.

Identifying misinformation with conversational intelligence

Proactively listening to a customer conversation is critical to effectively address patient questions, set expectations, and avoid contact centre strain around viral health solutions. Visibility into conversations like the ones outlined above can highlight sudden changes in how customers talk about using a particular solution and indicate that misinformation may have spread.

By collecting, aggregating, and monitoring data from conversations over time, organisations can spot trends early and develop a plan to educate consumers. AI tools can listen to these conversations at scale, analyse the root causes of customer concerns, and surface areas of frustration that customers encounter on their journeys. Generative AI is one way for organisations to expand their ability to use conversations as a key source of business insights.

Opportunities to summarise conversation topics streamlines trends reporting across thousands or millions of data points to drive leadership decision-making. By allowing these AI tools to proactively surface topics directly from the data source, organisations can save time in data analysis to focus on immediately delivering value and clarity to customers.

With these insights, healthcare leaders can recognise, identify, and anticipate viral trends, allowing them to implement targeted communication and education efforts proactively. Conversational intelligence empowers organisations to craft messaging that clarifies facts, highlights safe usage, and leads customers towards reliable information sources, thus combatting misinformation encountered on social platforms.

Leaders can also use conversational intelligence insights to proactively inform communications strategy. By understanding areas of confusion, organisations can intentionally craft informational messages for newsletters, social media, and other areas of consumer outreach. These insights can inform and improve agent training, ensuring contact centre agents recognise the signs of misinformation when a customer calls in and understand how to address trending topics head-on.

Developing actionable strategies from AI insights

The applications of conversational data are a powerful source of information for optimising the customer experience. Leveraging data from conversational intelligence can help healthcare organisations streamline operations, improve training materials for contact centre agents, and enhance workflows with automation. Conversational insights can also better train virtual assistants and chatbots to answer patient health questions and provide evidence-based information to customers.

As consumers turn to social media, online forums, and other online platforms for information and insight into treatment experiences, the potential for misleading content and viral trends will persist. Identifying and responding to these trends will be invaluable to the customer experience. Embracing data-driven conversational AI insights empowers healthcare organisations to navigate viral trends, while confidently prioritising education and high-quality care.