DynaLIFE is a major Canadian medical laboratory offering diagnostic testing services to Albertans. When its new COVID-19 test option for travelers caused a surge in contact center demand, CGI helped alleviate the burden with a conversational chatbot, or virtual agent.

Commitment to customer care

“Guided by our commitment to healthcare excellence, DynaLIFE brings reliable, innovative services to Albertans. Our partnership with CGI brought the technology and business agility we needed to stand up our COVID-19 travel service virtual agent in record time.”

Jason Pincock
Chief Executive Officer
DynaLIFE

DynaLIFE has been improving the health of Albertans with high-quality lab services for 60+ years. The company has 1,300 employees in more than 30 locations and conducts 19 million lab tests annually. Test results are sent to 2,000 referring physicians and the Province’s patient portal.

Typical inquiries to DynaLIFE’s customer contact center are about appointment status or preparing for a test. Due to the pandemic, the company ramped up its contact center, but quickly reached capacity.

On October 26, 2020, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced that private COVID-19 testing with expedited results would be available to Albertans who had to leave the country for essential travel. Results provided 72 hours before departure would provide travelers with proof of a negative test at their destination. The initiative was cited as an example of innovation to help travelers get to their destinations faster and safer.

DynaLIFE is one of the only labs offering this service to Albertans.

Necessity sparks invention

While test appointments could be booked online, increased demand meant increased calls to the contact center. Additionally, customers needed answers to questions outside of normal service hours. DynaLIFE asked our local team to help find a way to alleviate the burden on their contact center while also ensuring quality customer care.

To help manage the deluge of calls and emails, we helped develop a virtual assistant to handle COVID-19 travel test questions. We began with a quick assessment of available technologies and determined that Google DialogFlow offered the fastest implementation option for DynaLIFE’s needs and environment.

In a matter of a few weeks, the virtual agent was ready, training itself from existing content, such as frequently asked questions (FAQ) documents. Then, as it started fielding new questions, new content was added to its knowledge base on an ongoing basis.

When a customer visits the DynaLIFE Travel site, the virtual agent asks how it can help. In addition to responding quickly to questions, it screens customers for the travel test. When customers are deemed eligible, the virtual agent directs them to complete the necessary form. Once the form is complete, the virtual agent advises customers to connect with a live agent to make an appointment. The entire process is streamlined from end to end, saving precious time for agents. Customer feedback also has been positive.

Additional benefits of the virtual agent include:

  • 24/7 ability to answer customer questions
  • Peak demand management
  • Reduction in call volume over time
  • FTE savings
  • FTEs freed up to focus on higher-value tasks

Building trust

Business agility is a key driver for DynaLIFE executives. They appreciate how CGI combines technology expertise and industry process knowledge to help them speed up time to market. The relationship began based on our strong healthcare industry reputation, and has grown over a series of robotic process automation (RPA) projects, including the implementation of the virtual agent. Along the way, we have become a trusted partner because of our collaborative way of working and ability to pivot quickly to meet changing requirements.

Looking ahead

As customers require more digital services from their lab service providers, DynaLIFE is evolving as an organization to meet these market needs. As they continue on their digital transformation journey, we are helping them identify opportunities to improve contact center and other business processes through greater use of automation and digitization.