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How to use a WhatsApp chatbot for your healthcare business #

Title Tag: How to use a WhatsApp chatbot for your healthcare business 

Meta Description: Do you want to automate your WhatsApp communications in your healthcare business? Here are the use cases of WhatsApp chatbots in healthcare.

In the last several years, the healthcare industry has become more reliant on digital technologies. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the reliance on online communication expanded even more since it minimizes physical human interaction. While the pandemic is almost over now, we can continue to use the solutions that helped us get through it, such as WhatsApp for business communications.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it had launched WHO Health Alert to spread official information on the virus. The alert is a WhatsApp chatbot that answers questions and provides information on the latest news, vaccines and health precautions regarding COVID-19. Just four days after its launch, it had attracted some 10 million users and it’s still active.

If the world’s biggest healthcare institution can benefit from WhatsApp for its patient communications, smaller healthcare businesses can, too.

What is a WhatsApp chatbot? #

A WhatsApp chatbot is a computer software that simulates human conversations over WhatsApp without human intervention. It can be programmed to carry out many different tasks, such as asking about the symptoms of patients, booking appointments, sending test results, and more.

It can free up a lot of your staff’s time by automating repetitive tasks and standard processes.

Use cases of WhatsApp in healthcare #

WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app, with over 2 billion users worldwide. In some regions of the world, it is the messaging app for personal communications.

In A simple strategy for creating a user-friendly WhatsApp chatbot, we talk in more detail about how to create a chatbot that works for your specific needs. Below are some of the common use cases:

Symptom assessment #

When patients need a healthcare professional and contact a clinic, a chatbot could ask them about their symptoms and store the information for the healthcare professionals. Think about a mental health clinic that needs to learn about the patient’s symptoms to connect them with the doctor specializing in their case. It could use the WhatsApp reply buttons to make it easy for patients to reply.

Send and receive medical documents and test results #

WhatsApp has rich media capabilities that healthcare businesses can leverage. Sometimes, it’s hard or impossible for the patients to visit a clinic. Sending them their prescriptions and test results on WhatsApp can save them trouble.

In cases of medical tourism, it may not be feasible for patients to travel to another country only for a checkup. Practitioners can instead ask for their medical documents and photos over WhatsApp.

Booking appointments #

Booking appointments is one of the most repetitive tasks for a healthcare business. It needs no human interaction and therefore makes a great case for a chatbot. When patients message you on WhatsApp to make an appointment, your bot could give them a list of available slots from your calendar using WhatsApp’s list message. They select the fitting slot, and an appointment is automatically made. 

To learn more about list messages and other interactive WhatsApp messages, please read One-stop guide for interactive WhatsApp messages.

Send appointment reminders #

One or two days before the scheduled appointment, a bot could send a reminder to the patients. They could also ask for another reminder that is closer to the scheduled date and time.

Send medication reminders #

Forgetting to take medication is a common problem for many patients. After a doctor prescribes medicine for a patient, a WhatsApp bot could send them regular reminders.

Give health insurance quotes #

Healthcare clinics and hospitals are not the only ones that could benefit from a WhatsApp chatbot. Insurance companies could automate a bot to ask customers qualifying questions and offer relevant health insurance with quotes and criteria.

Answer FAQ #

One of the most common use cases of a bot is to answer common questions. Take a look at the most common questions you receive from customers. Which ones don’t need a human agent? Questions regarding your location, opening hours and fees are some that could be handled by a bot.

Online payments #

Nobody likes to wait in line in a hospital/clinic to make a payment. Why not automate that, too? Whenever it’s time to make a payment, your WhatsApp bot could send them an invoice and give them payment options. Patients could then pay from their phones and upload a receipt if needed.

How to get a WhatsApp chatbot? #

There are two ways to get a WhatsApp chatbot:

• Get computer engineers to program it for you.
• Get it from a bot builder like Rasayel and customize it for your needs.

Regardless of which path you choose, you must have four things prior to getting a WhatsApp chatbot:

• A Facebook Business account
• A phone number that meets Meta’s criteria
• Access to the WhatsApp Business API or WhatsApp Cloud API
• A team inbox or CRM to send and receive messages

Neither of the WhatsApp APIs has an interface/inbox to send and receive messages. Therefore, a business must use an inbox or a CRM for customer communications. Rasayel is a WhatsApp inbox that lets you communicate with your customers over WhatsApp as a team. It offers many features such as bulk messaging, a chatbot builder, reports, automation rules, and more.

If you want to use Rasayel as your WhatsApp inbox and build a chatbot, you can use either of our Premium or Enterprise plans:

Premium Plan ($200 per month) #

It’s suitable for high-volume teams with complex workflows and has the following features:

• For up to 10 team members
• $20 per additional member
• You can connect up to 50 channels (either multiple WhatsApp channels or Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and more)
• Unlimited contacts
• Unlimited messages
• Importing contacts
• Have it in your browser or as a mobile app for android and ios devices
• Assignments rules
• Custom views
• Bots
• Campaigns
• Auto notifications
• Reporting
• Ability to integrate with Shopify, HubSpot and Zapier
• Priority support via email or chat
• Onboarding support

Enterprise Plan (Custom Pricing) #

This is the option for teams that need a custom-tailored plan. They receive all of the functionalities of the premium plan. It has the same features as the premium plan, including bots, plus the following:

• It can be customized for the number of team members you have.
• You can connect unlimited channels.
• We provide training.

You may try Rasayel for free for 14 days. No credit card is needed.

Conclusion #

Healthcare businesses can make use of WhatsApp for their customer communications. By using it, they simplify healthcare processes for the patients and save time for their staff and the patients.

Learn more #

If you’d like to learn more about how WhatsApp can help you grow your business, please reach out to us on WhatsApp at +13024070488

We also offer a free consultation session where we go through your use case, answer any questions you have about WhatsApp, and help you build a strategy to make the best out of the platform. Book a call with us here. We’d love to speak with you:

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For North and South America

Further reading #

A simple strategy for creating a user-friendly WhatsApp chatbot

Everything you need to know about WhatsApp chatbots