Chatbots: everything you need to know

We gathered some general information that might be useful for choosing what kind of chatbot will work best for your company.

First, it is important to choose the main user of your chatbot. In pharmaceutical business the users usually are:

Doctors;
Pharmacists;
Medical representatives;
Patients.

Then, you need to answer the question: "Why am I creating this chatbot?" and choose the main goal your chatbot has to achieve. Your chatbot can be used as or for:

Traffic collector, assistant, mailing channel

It can be on a website or in a messenger. As a rule, it processes incoming request traffic, qualifies leads, and helps with processing patient requests. For example, a bot can qualify patients by disease and offer various materials, or find an online pharmacy depending on the location. Often such bots also replace the FAQ section of the site. For messengers, these qualifications are used to create targeted mailings. For example, when a bot is responsible for several nosological directions of drugs.

Training, reference, utilities

Training in the use of drugs (titration, wearable devices, dosage calculation, etc.) for patients, interactive training of medical specialists, trainings for field personnel. We recommend using Microlearning to develop course content. Specialists get quick access to reference materials without having to search for information on the website. Also, where applicable, it is useful to place calculators frequently used by specialists.

Interface to the database

Quick access to corporate business intelligence and data systems. It is usually used in conjunction with BI systems (Business Intelligence).

Gamification for patients

Our main priority. It helps to form healthy habits and get rid of harmful ones.

Next step is to imagine which special tasks your chatbot can perform:

Form habits

The greatest gain can be obtained from a bot for patients with gamification. As a rule, long-term use of the drug is associated with adaptation to a new condition or a change in part of the patient's habits. Gamification uses the features of the human psyche to help acquire useful habits and get rid of unwanted ones. In any context where it is necessary to form new habits, a chatbot with gamification will show the best result.

Micro-training

In saturated markets, the rule works well that the more knowledge, the more use. This is true both for our own staff, as well as for doctors and patients. A bot with micro-training is still a rarity and will favorably highlight your brand. We also recommend using the "blue ocean" strategy to find the added value that the bot implements.

Provide information for prescription drugs

The big advantage of the bot is the qualification of the prescription of the drug, after which it is possible to post all the information necessary for the patient about the prescription drug in full compliance with the legislation.

Help with pharmacovigilance and quality control

Chatbot for pharmacovigilance will help save money when solving these routine tasks of the brand. The voice bot of the hotline will significantly improve the experience of patients when collecting adverse events and complaints about quality.

At the last step let's decide how many chatbots your company might need. You can choose as many chatbots as there are, but here are our general recommendations:

As a rule, different bots are used for different target audiences, for example, one chatbot for patients and one for medical specialists. Exceptions are patient support programs, where the doctor brings in the patient, and the doctor is brought by a medical representative. In the latter case, it is better to use a single bot. Also, it is better not to combine different technologies for building bots: it is better not to combine a bot based on rules with an AI (Artificial Intelligence) bot. If different departments are developing bots whose life cycle is different, it is better not to combine them. For example, it is better not to combine a bot for a specific promotion and a bot for a long-term program. Size matters – big brands and blockbuster drugs usually deserve a separate chatbot.