Chatbots?

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to track down, and then replace, a lost shipment of medication.

Because I have chronic conditions that require daily medication, I use a mail pharmacy. I can get a 90-day supply for less than it would cost to go to the retail pharmacy three times for 30-day supplies. Win – win.

Except when it gets lost in the mail.

Express Scripts will not let you talk to a human being, so everything has to be done by email. It took a week to establish that the package was shipped from Express Scripts, and that it had not been delivered to me.

It took another week to establish that yes, I understand that it’s important for me to keep taking my medicine, and that yes, I understand that I will have to pay for the new prescription (lame, but another conversation for another time), and that I have run out of the medication in question and NEED YOU TO SHIP A REPLACEMENT.

So a refill was ordered. But it’s out of cycle (BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE A REPLACEMENT, NOT A REFILL), so it was flagged for being too early (BECAUSE IT’S REPLACING SOMETHING THAT WAS LOST IN THE MAIL.) That caused another delay, because someone had to approve it at that point.

I actually have no idea if I was corresponding with people who are overworked and have no influence over how these conversations should be handled, or it was an AI at work. It felt like I was dealing with an AI.

While this isn’t a life-or-death situation (yet), and is highly unlikely to become one, it needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.

I’m trying to keep an open mind for things like chatbots, automated systems and AI. I’ve actually seen some good uses for all of them… but customer service isn’t one of them.

Chatbots and AI can handle the ordinary, which, presumably, makes up the greatest volume of communication. Most of the time, I would prefer to not have to go through a person, for things that involve calendaring, or reordering prescriptions for which I have remaining refills. It’s easier for everyone if I can have some autonomy.

A conversation with a person is usually the best way to handle the unusual.

If a situation is or becomes urgent or emergent, it requires human intervention. While health care has infrastructure for handling the urgent and emergent, neither health care organizations, nor retail organizations, have accounted for handling the unusual; they either treat the situation as if it is ordinary, ignore you, or try to push you off to somewhere else.

In my case, the unusual (a missing shipment of medication) has become urgent (I’m out of medicine that I need to take daily, and need a small supply to bridge the gap until the refill arrives), and I’m having exactly the same communication issues with my primary care clinic that I have had with Express Scripts.

If you are an organization that wants to use automation for customer service, you need to train that AI to recognize when it can’t answer the question, and make sure you have representatives on hand to manage those unusual situations.

Off my soapbox.

Have a photo of Lu, the sweetest puppy, who is also a menace like Dennis.