Live chat

Live chat is akin to instant messaging; there is a human on both sides of the interaction. It can be set up in a multitude of different ways; the most important distinction among them is what the chat agent is able to do: Can they answer only generic questions and point people toward existing documentation? Can they help with password resets? Can they answer specific questions about someone's claim?

• Pros:

  • Humans can interpret free-text responses better than any machine learning natural language processing model, so people are less likely to be left without a way to at least begin to get their question answered

  • More easily than the other methods, live chat can be set up to answer questions about individual claimants' concerns

• Cons:

  • Still constrained by number of employees or contractors, the learning curve associated with training them, and how much system access they are given to answer people’s questions → i.e., people get put in queues, there isn’t 24/7 availability

• Vendors:

  • Genesys

  • MedChat

  • SalesForce

Left to right: Screenshots of live chat from North Carolina, Indiana, and Vermont.