How TeleClinic future-proofed its support with AI-powered automation

TeleClinic experienced a 500 percent increase in requests during the pandemic, which was overwhelming for the customer support team. From where they saw it: they could either hire and onboard a lot more people quickly, or automate processes to support the existing team. When faced with this decision, it was clear that AI-powered automation was the only logical choice.

After researching other competitors, TeleClinic chose Zendesk as the best automation solution to meet the company’s complex use cases in serving both doctors and patients. The team also needed to work with an automation provider with offices in the EU to ensure GDPR compliance, and Zendesk fit the bill.

Three years later, Zendesk’s AI agent continues to help remove barriers in access for people seeking tele-medical support – and to the doctors looking to provide it. For example, both patients and doctors are able to self-serve much more quickly through the platform, with a whopping workload reduction of 18.9 hours per ticket. TeleClinic has also been able to steadily reduce costs, with more than €100,000 saved in 2023 alone. They company has achieved all this while keeping their agents happy, too.

Due to upticks in requests during hay fever season or when there is a stomach bug going around, agent workload remains stable thanks to automation. As a result, agent NPS score has been a steady 8.5/10. From a global pandemic to hay fever season, TeleClinic feels prepared to weather whatever the future holds, thanks to Zendesk’s AI agent.

AI use case spotlight #1: Prioritizing requests

TeleClinic’s support team accommodates both time-pressed doctors and patients in need. The company needed an automation solution to make it easier for doctors to prioritize requests so that patients could receive care faster.

TeleClinic has successfully launched a second Doctor Bot that structures and categorizes requests, then forwards them to the right department to ensure they are connected with the right human agents as quickly as possible.

As a result, doctors are able to input data more efficiently, meaning that patients receive the care they need at a much faster rate. In fact, automation has resulted in a workload reduction of 18.9 hours per ticket.

AI use case spotlight #2: Accurate responses to sensitive questions

Telemedicine is a complex, sensitive matter, where a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. That’s why automation at all costs would never be the right solution for TeleClinic.

Rather, TeleClinic’s agents have greatly appreciated the way their bots offer a helping hand when it comes to customer care. As one agent put it, “Thanks to the bot we now get pre-structured client requests and it makes it so much easier to really support them with their actual concern.”

Zendesk is GDPR and SOC-2 type 2 compliant, so TeleClinic can be assured their customers’ sensitive medical data is always protected.

TeleClinic’s success story

With a custom-built AI agent providing tailored support to both time-pressed doctors and patients in need, TeleClinic has been able to thrive in the complex telemedicine industry. By employing an AI agent to manage common customer requests, TeleClinic can handle fluctuating demand without increasing the workload on agents.

Given the sensitive nature of the requests handled by TeleClinic’s support team, they also needed a reliable automation partner to ensure the secure treatment of customer data. The AI agent integrates seamlessly with the company’s existing tech stack, and the analytics dashboard provides clear and easy-to-use statistics.