In the world of dental software, the terms used to describe various technologies are often not well-defined. It’s no surprise that dental business owners can find it challenging to understand the distinctions between AI-powered solutions.
In this article, you’ll learn the key differences between conversational AI and chatbots, and why a full-service AI solution is the superior choice for dental practices and DSOs.
What’s the difference between conversational AI and chatbots?
Chatbots are simple software programs designed to respond to basic queries. They work by recognizing specific keywords or phrases and providing pre-programmed responses. Chatbots are limited in their ability to understand context or handle complex requests.
Conversational AI, also known as full-service AI, is a more advanced technology. It uses natural language processing and machine learning to understand and respond to human language naturally. This AI can interpret context, learn from interactions, and handle complex queries. Conversational AI adapts to user needs and provides more personalized, efficient responses
What are the limitations of a chatbot?
A ruled-based chatbot typically doesn’t recognize anything other than simple keywords or key phrases and it also doesn’t integrate with practice management software. As a result, it’s unable to complete a majority of patient requests, such as transferring the patient to the online booking system or the payment system.
This lack of integration severely limits what a chatbot can do. Let’s suppose you only want a texting chatbot to respond to calls after hours. Since it still can’t handle the patient’s issue, you’ve simply moved an unresolved problem from voice mail to a text exchange. While asynchronous communication has some value, it’s negated by the fact that many patients get frustrated when a chatbot can’t solve their problem and they still have to wait for a call back from a staff member.
This is what happens the majority of the time. It’s counterproductive to route patients through a chatbot only to need a staff member to take over. At that point, you’ve wasted the patient’s time and tested their patience. It also overburdens the employees because the chatbot poisons everything it touches, and they have to jump in and clean up the mess.
Additionally, chatbots often can’t achieve even a minimal level of automation and can’t improve over time either. There is simply no way an off-the-shelf chatbot can recognize where it’s failing and fix those gaps to enable increased automation. Moreover, many dental practices that invest in a chatbot discover that it creates more problems than it solves – which is antithetical to the goal of process automation. At that point, the owner has wasted time and money. In short, chatbots are brittle, easily overwhelmed and provide little business value.
How does conversational AI resolve those limitations?
Conversational AI addresses the shortcomings of traditional chatbots in several ways. Unlike rule-based chatbots, it can understand context and intent, not just keywords. This allows it to handle a wider range of patient requests accurately.
Full-service AI integrates seamlessly with practice management software. This integration enables it to complete tasks like booking appointments or processing payments without human intervention. As a result, it can resolve most patient inquiries from start to finish.
Moreover, conversational AI learns and improves over time. It analyzes interactions to identify areas for improvement and adjusts its responses accordingly. This continuous learning process leads to better patient experiences and increased automation rates.
What is a full-service AI patient communications platform?
A full-service AI patient communication platform focuses on conversational AI and modern AI-powered chatbots that automatically take phone calls, converse with patients through voice, text and website chat, and enable them to complete transactions without needing intervention or help from a staff member.
Large enterprises typically have dedicated teams focused on AI transformation of their customer service model. However, this approach to AI enablement does not work for local businesses that often don’t even have an IT team in place, let alone AI expertise.
This is where a full-service AI solution changes the paradigm. Combining deep integrations with systems of record with white-glove implementation and performance management, these solutions are able to perform whatever function the patient is requesting with a very high degree of automation. Instead of passing a request to a staff member, a full-service platform takes the call, figures out what the patient needs and completes the transaction
Full-service AI integration and automation
Full-service AI integrations include booking, payment, texting, and phone messaging systems. The combination of powerful AI software and backend practice management integrations empowers your dental practice or DSO to automatically:
- Convert phone calls and web visits to booked appointments
- Instantly engage new patients and automatically schedule their first appointment
- Allow patients to book, cancel and reschedule appointments
- Connect patients to your Point of Sale (POS) system to make payments
- Provide accurate and contextual answers to questions
- and… do all of these things anytime, day or night without a member of your staff needing to intervene!
Advanced tech and seamless integrations create a high level of automation that saves time and effort for your team. This ultimately reduces operating costs while helping you attract, serve and retain patients. Furthermore, a full-service platform tracks KPIs and always reports on the level of automation achieved. It also can automatically monitor performance and find ways to improve without needing any active management of the solution by the business.
Take the Call Handled rate, for instance. This metric shows the percentage of calls (or website visits) that are handled by conversational AI without a staff member stepping in. Remember, resolving an interaction means the software takes the call, assesses patient intent and brings it across the finish line by allowing the caller to execute on the task. An 80% Call Handled rate is not uncommon for our full-service AI patient communications platform.
Think about that for a minute. If you could automate 80% of patient calls, how would that streamline your operations? How many hours would that free up for your office staff?
Why were full-service AI communication platforms previously unavailable to dental practices and DSOs?
It takes a lot of time, money and expertise to create an Artificial Intelligence-powered communications platform. Before cloud computing, if you wanted an AI communications solution, you would have to hire a company to create a custom system – and that’s too expensive for most dental practices. And even if you could afford custom software, you would still need an IT team as explained. A business with on-premise custom software has to implement it, train employees, update it when needed, troubleshoot when there are problems and provide HIPAA-compliant security. That’s a tall order for even large DSOs.
A cloud-based AI platform provider, on the other hand, has an army of technologists backing it up. Economies of scale allow dental practices to use sophisticated, customizable platforms for a few hundred dollars a month. Moreover, a good AI vendor ensures the practice extracts maximum value from the solution by providing ongoing support, customization and expertise.
The ROI of a full-service AI solution vs chatbot
A full-service AI patient communication solution is more cost-effective than even the cheapest off-the-shelf chatbot. Because conversational AI can handle a wider range of interactions, it reduces the need for additional staff. It can also streamline your operations, leading to greater efficiency and higher profits. Because it provides a far better patient experience, a full-service platform can help retain patients. While a chatbot might be less expensive, in reality, it delivers far lower ROI.
TrueLark’s full-service AI patient communication solutions can help
We are pioneers in Artificial Intelligence-powered patient communication. Our full-service AI platform manages and resolves thousands of conversations daily for dental practices across the country. The TrueLark AI engine has handled six million calls (and counting) and has an impressive breadth of function while being easy to use and quick to deploy.
We’re here to help you better serve your patients, book more appointments, grow your revenue and increase efficiency Learn more about how TrueLark helps DSOs grow and schedule a demo today.
Originally published January 13, 2023, updated July 11, 2024 and November 26, 2024. Photo by Cedric Fauntleroy on Pexels.
