Partner Perspective – Tips for Managing Healthcare IT Resource Constraints with Self-Service

In today’s healthcare environment, IT teams are stretched thin. The demand for digital transformation, maintaining compliance and managing ever-increasing data security risks often leaves little room for innovation or addressing critical system needs in a timely manner. Resource constraints, from staffing shortages to budget limitations, are a constant struggle.

To combat this, many healthcare organizations are turning to self-service. By empowering clinicians, administrators and other end-users to resolve basic IT issues and access data independently, healthcare IT leaders can free up valuable resources, allowing their teams to focus on high-priority projects and strategic initiatives. With self-service, you can alleviate resource strain while maintaining top-tier patient care.

Getting Self-Service Buy-In
With self-service, you provide a knowledge base within a portal that users can go to and find answers to common questions and problems – allowing them to solve their IT issues without having to put in a ticket or contact the help desk. Having a well-organized portal with the ability to search for solutions by keywords or tags goes a long way in quickly helping users get the information they need and making self-service a success. In fact, self-service not only improves customer satisfaction but can also dramatically reduce the per-incident cost incurred by IT.

To get started with self-service you need a portal users can access. Simplicity is key when designing the layout for a client portal. Users should not need to scroll or navigate extensively to find what they are looking for, and any information should be written in understandable, everyday language. Once your portal is in place, the next step is to get buy-in so that end users seek out and adopt self-service vs. contacting the help desk.

In reality, most people want to solve issues on their own, especially if they know how quick and easy it can be. However, they might be skeptical of a self-service portal until they use it for the first time. To combat this, you can advertise the benefits of self-service and show people how simple the concept is. It is also crucial to be sure that there is trust within your organization. No one will take the time to try something new if there is no trust that those who developed this portal did it in a way that will yield results and provide the help it is intended to.

Supercharging Your Self-Service Portal with Chat
While self-service portals are designed to empower users to find solutions to their issues without requiring direct intervention from the IT support team, many organizations face challenges in delivering an effective self-service experience due to:

• Poor user interface and navigation
• Outdated or irrelevant knowledge base articles
• Lack of personalization and contextual understanding
• Inability to handle complex queries or escalate issues efficiently
• Time-consuming manual processes for ticket submission and resolution

These issues can lead to increased frustration for users and higher reliance on traditional support channels, negating the benefits of a self-service portal. You can mitigate many of these issues by using a conversational AI chatbot on your portal.

Conversational AI chatbots are intelligent software applications that can understand and respond to user queries in natural language. Their primary role in IT Service Management is to provide quick, efficient support to end-users by resolving common issues, answering questions and guiding users through various processes. By incorporating conversational AI chatbots into your self-service portal, you can significantly enhance the overall user experience and streamline your IT support operations – deflecting tickets, requests and calls/emails from your IT help desk.

The key advantages of integrating a conversational AI chatbot into your self-service portal are:

• Enhanced User Experience – By providing instant, accurate responses to user queries, conversational AI chatbots can significantly improve the overall user experience. For example, a conversational AI chatbot can quickly guide a user through password reset procedures, reducing the need for manual intervention from the IT support team.
• Reduced Resolution Time – Conversational AI chatbots can resolve common issues in a matter of seconds, drastically reducing the resolution time for IT support queries.
• Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings – By automating routine tasks, conversational AI chatbots can free up valuable time and resources for your IT support team. This allows them to focus on more complex, high-priority issues. According to Gartner, chatbots can reduce IT support costs by up to 30%.
• Scalability and 24/7 Availability – Unlike human support agents, AI chatbots can simultaneously handle multiple queries and operate around the clock, ensuring uninterrupted support for users across different time zones.
• Continuous Learning and Improvement – Conversational AI chatbots are built on machine learning algorithms, which means they continuously learn and improve their ability to understand and respond to user queries. This results in better, more accurate support over time.

Andrew Graf is the Chief Product Officer and co-founder of TeamDynamix, a SaaS company delivering solutions focused on helping to power the synchronized enterprise. The company has been recognized as a leader by Gartner, Info-Tech, G2, Capterra and many others. TeamDynamix serves customers across more than 25 different industries including the public sector, healthcare, education, retail, financial services and manufacturing. To learn more about self-service, automation and conversational AI in healthcare IT see: Automate IT: Modernizing IT Service Management.