Utilizing AI for effective customer communications with Birdeye Webchat & Inbox

Imagine a bustling mental health practice where patient demand is high. Prospective patients turn to online searches and reviews for the care they need. 

Genesis Counseling Center faced this challenge head-on and embraced the power of AI for reputation management to manage its customer communications. 

Our recent webinar, aptly titled, ‘Efficiency Unleashed: Streamlining customer communications using AI,’ for Birdeye VIEW 2023, unveils a real-life success story that demonstrates the incredible impact of AI. 

Birdeye View is now available on demand! It was a one-of-a-kind digital user conference that welcomed 50 thought-leaders from leading companies, including Microsoft and Google, and customer experience strategist and author Jay Baer. 

This blog delves deeper into a candid conversation between Rebecca Colwell, VP of Product & Customer Marketing at Birdeye, and special guest Steven Greer, COO of Genesis Counseling Center. 

The blog post explores how Genesis Counseling Center harnessed the capabilities of Birdeye. The result? A remarkable transformation in how they communicate and connect with their patients.

Key takeaways from the ‘Efficiency unleashed: Streamlining customer communications using AI’ session

• Genesis Counseling Center uses Birdeye to manage patient communications and reviews.
• Prospective patients often find Genesis through online searches and reviews.
• Birdeye Webchat helps accelerate connections.
• Before Birdeye, Genesis had only a few reviews and a 2-star rating. Now they have 900+ reviews and 4.5-4.9 stars. 
• Automated review requests drive volume.
• The integrated Messaging platform merges communications channels into one place to improve efficiency. 
• AI conversation summaries will further help understand key discussion points.
• Leveraging AI capabilities to make brand-building activities like response suggestions and review refinements easier. But human oversight remains crucial.
• Keys to generating reviews: Do a great job, make it easy for clients to review, and prompt them to leave feedback.
• Advice for change management: Tailor rollouts to individuals, get stakeholder input, and provide ample training/support.

Watch this interesting conversation here to learn more about streamlining customer communications using AI: 

Streamlining customer communications using AI: Session transcript

Rebecca Colwell: Hello and welcome to ‘Efficiency unleashed: Streamlining customer communications using AI.’ My name is Rebecca Colwell. I’ll be your host for this session.

I am excited about this session because we are joined by Steven Greer, Chief Operating Officer of Genesis Counseling Center.  Steven and his wife, Tina, run Genesis Counseling Center based in Eastern Virginia, and they serve over 10,000 clients a month across Virginia, and they’re launching in Texas this fall. 

Genesis offers diverse mental health outpatient services with over 80 licensed clinicians and 40 students, interns, and residents. Steven is also the co-founder of Genesis Assist, which offers consultation billing and insurance credentialing services for behavioral health practices nationwide. 

Welcome, Steven! 

Steven Greer: Hey, Rebecca, it’s great to be here. I’m excited about the topic today, but I also want to share some of my background and experience before I had the opportunity to focus full-time with my wife on Genesis Counseling Center. 

I spent over 30 years with Procter Gamble. I’m not going to admit exactly how many years because then you might know how old I am, but we handled over 2 million consumer complaints testimonials questions every year, so it was critical to have effective and efficient tools for managing that level of interaction P&G embraced the ‘hug your haters’ mindset, so I’m looking forward to Jay’s keynote session tomorrow.

Watch customer experience expert Jay Baer's keynote on how hugging your haters can strengthen your brand’s reputation, exclusively at Birdeye VIEW 2023! 

Now, at Genesis, we don’t have two million contacts a year, and we also don’t have the resources to manage those, so it’s super critical that we have great tools, like Birdeye, to help us in engaging with our clients and doing that efficiently and effectively.

“Birdeye plays a key role in helping us live out our mission, which is to touch lives and inspire life.“

Steven Greer, COO of Genesis Counseling Center

I’m excited to be here today and share how Birdeye helps us do that. 

Rebecca: That’s fantastic; I couldn’t think of a more qualified expert to come and chat with us today. So, let’s kick it off! So, the demand for mental health services is at an all-time high for so many reasons. Can you walk us through how prospective patients find and connect with your organization?

Steven: You know, historically, referrals came through trusted advisors–those close friends and family members, pastors, teachers, doctors–people who you trust who would point you in the right direction to someone that they believe could help you. 

Now, more recently, however, people often self-refer based on online searches. They go online, they interact with our website, they may look at our social media sites, and then, based on the information they find, they decide whether to contact us or not. 

We knew the power of chatbots in generating sales, but we were apprehensive about using chatbots for converting leads, and that’s when we found Birdeye! 

As a result, our focus is to help people find us and also get the help that they need. We like to think about that client’s journey in the framework of moments of truth. 

So, there’s a ‘first moment of truth’ when people evaluate the information that they have available and make a decision on whether or not to reach out.

Then there’s that ‘second moment of truth’ when they engage with us; they need help right away, so the sooner the clients can connect with us and get started receiving their services or our services, the sooner the hope arrives. 

Traditionally, people would use the phone to reach out, but with Birdeye, we’ve offered a great HIPAA-compliant Webchat platform that helps us accelerate that connection.

Rebecca: That’s fantastic! I love what you say about the ‘moments of truths,’ that it’s a really powerful way of thinking about the customer journey. 

I’d like to dig a little bit deeper into that ‘first moment of truth,’ which is all about when a patient is evaluating your reputation.

I think there’s often this misunderstanding or misconception that clients, especially in the mental health space, don’t want to leave an online review, which may be due to privacy concerns, what has your experience been with this?

Steven: There’s been a stigma associated with mental health services. Despite all the horrible impacts, the pandemic has done some positive things. But one of the positive things is that it’s become more accepted and even appreciated or valued that people are reaching out for services, and so the willingness to leave online reviews. 

It has only gone up from that, and I think that’s important now. Before using Birdeye as our AI-driven customer experience online rating platform, I’m almost ashamed to admit it was just over two. Unfortunately, that was because the only people who left reviews were those who were frustrated, who maybe had to pay a no-show fee or something like that. 

It’s kind of funny today, but people come in with a diagnosis that they want our therapist to assign, and if we don’t assign it, they get frustrated, so they may be tempted to leave an online review. 

“Before Birdeye, we had only two good reviews. We’ve been using Birdeye now for about two years. We now have over 900 reviews, and our overall rating is between four and a half and 4.9; that’s just been a game-changer for us!”

Steven Greer, COO of Genesis Counseling Center

We believe Birdeye solidifies our online reputation management and brings those key ingredients together that lead to successful reviews. 

I know that there are some in the mental health space who have concerns about reviews, and rightfully so because our codes of ethics do ensure that we are always looking out for the best interests of our patients and clients, and we don’t want to have to undo or place them under the influence because we’re in a position of power to suggest that they leave us a positive review, and so I try to walk alongside other mental health practitioners and encourage them. 

Rebecca: Wow, that’s a thoughtful approach to soliciting reviews, and I am so impressed by the massive Improvement in the number of reviews and the sentiment! 

I’d love to hear how your clients are being so open about that experience because it’s such a gift for others who may be seeking help as well. 

I’d love to talk about the ‘second moment of truth’ now, so I was really curious; you said you were engaging with a lot of potential clients through Webchat; can you tell me a bit about the impact on the customer experience and efficiency for the folks on your team. 

Steven: People tend to come to us when they should have come months before, maybe even years before; they’re kind of at a breaking point when something significant has happened that finally they’re reaching out and they’re getting help and they; as a result, they need help right away so the sooner that we can make that connection and get them started on the journey the sooner they’re going to receive services the better for them and the better for us. 

I cannot even list why Webchat is important for your business. 

Because now, Birdeye’s platforms like Reviews, Inbox, Messaging, and website chatbot are part of our family, part of our client journey, we’ve found that they have been instrumental in jump-starting that process. 

Through Webchat especially, visitors can quickly get information either through the automated attendant, Robin, or through our agents on exactly what they need. 

With Birdeye, we have a platform that has an independent way of reaching out and asking people to simply give us feedback and letting them know that may be public if they choose to leave a review. 

That is all we need to encourage people to share their voice because, in the past, the voice of those who loved us wasn’t being heard. 

Steven Greer, COO of Genesis Counseling Center

They do not have to go through the website and look for the specific pages that have the information that they need now. Hopefully, we will make it easy for them on our website, but people have burning questions, and sometimes at 2 a.m., so having a tool like Webchat where we can serve them right away and get them the the information they need helps to jump-start things. 

Typically, people are looking for information about hours insurance and availability of our current clients who are looking for help with scheduling and billing and questions that they may have that come up. We’ve found that Webchat also provides us with a great HIPAA-secure encrypted platform to share confidential information like psychological testing reports. 

Traditionally, we would mail those to people, and it would take days here, lately weeks for people to get their mail, and they need those test reports. 

So, by using the secure platform that the Birdeye customer service chatbot provides, we’re able to instantaneously get them the information that they need so that they can get those services started. 

We also have found Webchat to significantly reduce the number of phone calls our team has to handle because they can serve more than one person at a time. 

Rebecca: Excellent! What a relief for your patients to get the information that they’re seeking so much faster and through a secure channel, and I’m sure it’s a relief for your team as well to have those efficiencies. 

Can you tell us a little bit more about what the interactions look like on the back end for your team that’s engaging in these conversations? 

Steven: Yeah. On the back end, the Birdeye Inbox interface helps us merge all the communication channels we have. Historically, we managed a website contact form, voice messages, and chat through Birdeye. Managing these separate inboxes was very inefficient. 

With the integrated Birdeye Inbox, we can effectively see what clients need help with and ensure efficient outreach in one go rather than multiple times.

The combination of information has been a game-changer for us, reducing duplication in effort. I’m very excited about the new AI feature that Birdeye is rolling out, summarizing conversations. The conversation summary tool will serve us, enabling our team to quickly assess client needs and efficiently answer their questions.

Rebecca: That’s incredible. It’s just the tip of the iceberg of all the incredible AI capabilities being released. There are a few other enhancements, such as the AI-powered Birdeye interactions like ‘Robin’ becoming even more intelligent with AI-generated FAQs, making it an efficiency boost for teams.

Rebecca: One of my favorite things is the response rephrasing capability, ensuring error-free, on-brand responses across reviews and messages in the inbox. How do you think these features might impact your current workflow for your patients and your team?

Steven: We’re very excited about these enhanced AI capabilities introduced by Birdeye. Using AI-powered response tools has reduced the time and effort required to craft suitable responses for our clients’ needs. 

“We found the positive review examples very beneficial. It gives us great ideas and insights, reducing the time and effort spent crafting a good response.“

Steven Greer, COO of Genesis Counseling Center

We believe that organizations excelling at those moments of truth with their clients will grow and thrive. These new tools from Birdeye are helping us be more effective and efficient, touching more lives and bringing more hope than ever before.

Rebecca: Before we move to the Q&A, do you have any final pieces of advice that you’d like to share with our audience?

“Overall, there are three key ways to generate reviews. First, do a great job so that clients want to leave a positive review. Second, it has to be easy to leave a review. And third, there needs to be a prompt triggering them to take action to leave that review. 

The beauty of Birdeye is that these three keys come together: the want to, the easy to do, and the prompt.“

Steven Greer, COO of Genesis Counseling Center

Steven: I would advise leveraging these three elements as a key advice. Additionally, simplifying client communication through a focused, integrated inbox and leveraging AI more than we already have would bring more efficiencies and effectiveness.

Rebecca: That is fantastic! Great words of advice. Steven, you have had so many amazing things to share. Let’s take it to Q&A and see what questions the audience has for us today. So, let’s go ahead and take a look at what’s coming through. 

Here’s one: How are you getting clients to leave a public review, given the sensitive nature of your services?

Steven: Firstly, it’s essential to comply with ethical codes. Leveraging Birdeye as an independent requester is vital. Setting up an automated process as clients engage with our practice, capturing their information in Birdeye, and then running a campaign to send them a simple feedback request prompt has significantly increased our reviews from 50 to 950 in just two years. It’s incredible.

Rebecca: Many questions about AI, particularly on accuracy. Do you have concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated responses?

Steven: Generative AI doesn’t replace us; it augments our response ability. The more information and feedback we provide, the better it learns. Our experience with Birdeye’s platform has shown that it does a good job of using our voice, which we then adjust and tweak. The intention is to speak to our clients in a way that resonates with them and to bring efficiency to our communication.

Recommended read: Livechat vs chatbot - Find which one is the right for your business

Rebecca: Human-assisted AI is crucial to maintaining that final human touch. Here’s a great question for you: in the mental health space, how did you get your front desk staff to adopt a tool like Birdeye and change the way they had been doing things?

Steven: Rolling out change is crucial, and it’s essential to understand people’s readiness to embrace change. At Genesis, we take a tailored approach to rolling out tools, ensuring we involve the users, provide training, coaching, and support, and allow individuals to go at their own pace rather than imposing change abruptly.

Rebecca: Thank you for those pearls of wisdom. It seems that’s all the time we have for the Q&A today. It has been a pleasure chatting with you, Steven.

Steven: It’s been great to journey with Birdeye and see the impact. I feel confident that we can touch and inspire hope in more people’s lives because of how Birdeye has helped us manage our online reputation and client interactions. I hope our time today will encourage others to do the same.

Rebecca: Thank you so much, Steven. If you’re interested in learning more, we have office hour sessions later today demonstrating the AI capabilities around messaging and reviews. The recorded session will also be available after the conference. Thank you all for joining us. Have a wonderful rest of the conference.

Use Birdeye’s AI-powered platforms to streamline your customer communications   

Birdeye VIEW 2023 was a first-of-its-kind digital user conference. 

The two-day event drew over 3,500 professionals and tech enthusiasts from over 750 businesses to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in transforming the customer experience landscape.

Want to relive the best moments from Birdeye View 2023? 

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