Meet Chelea | Conversational AI Designer

Client & Its Goals

To respond to the surge in phone calls about its COVID-19 vaccination program in 2020, CVS and IBM AI Services teamed to build an Intelligent Voice Agent powered by IBM WatsonX and deployed it at a massive scale.

Project Overview

By December 2021, there were reports of frustrations with the VUI. This project enhanced the interaction model with updated intents and sample utterances so the virtual voice assistant can quickly and accurately respond to a range of questions on COVID-19

Role

As the Conversation Designer scoped for this 2-4 week refinement project, I drafted clear and informational scripting so users can get all of their answers from the virtual voice assistant instead of a customer service representative.

Ten-fold increase in COVID-19 calls

The business needed to be able to quickly and accurately respond to a range of questions on COVID-19 from tests, to vaccines, symptoms, proof of vaccination, cost and more, freeing up human agents to handle the most complex requests.

Over Christmas break in 2020, within 3 weeks, CVS and IBM AI Services teamed to build an Intelligent Voice Agent powered by IBM WatsonX and deployed it at a massive scale.

By 2021, there were reports of frustrations with the VUI. I was responsible for enhancing the virtual voice assistant by updating the interaction model with the new intents and responsive dialouge.

Users were incredibly frustrated and wanted to talk to a human after 19.8 seconds

With access to Clarabridge, our data analytics software, my business analyst delivered a record of utterances, which helped me understand the most common questions/asks that members were asking "Intelligent Agent."

Also, reviewing the historical data from March 2020 to November 2020 provided a glaring insight -- users aborted the virtual voice assistant and asked for a customer service representative after 19.8 seconds of the first prompt.

INSTRUCTIONS: Hover over the cards to the right to read the common asks we received.

man-talking-phone-indoors-while-wearing-medical-mask.jpg

What the f*** man. F****** representative please! Damn!

distraught-black-businesswoman-talking-mobile-phone-while-wearing-protective-face-mask-rai

Oh my God.... I just want to talk to a person. GOD!

UGH! I just want to talk to someone about one thing.

This is ridiculous. I just told you my date of birth.

Meet "The COVID Bot"

I used the UX Style Guide my team and I created to define the bot's persona. I wanted the chatbot to sound like a customer service representative who is reliable, positive, and empathetic.

Behavioral sentiment:

Customers are calling for less-than-ideal reasons. Be kind.
Speaks clearly using simple, unambiguous language
The combination of her accuracy and confidence builds trust.

Enneagram 2w1 - "The Servant":

I was very strategic about Refresh's personality. She is very concerned about other people’s needs. She is also quite objective and focuses on dealing with things in the best way.

This person's unique story is important to me. I want them to feel understood and know that I am honored to help them find a provider.

I get to help people, all day everyday.

These customers are here for a very specific reason and I get to be a source of resolution for this leg of their journey.

Being a consistently accurate, confident and capable customer service representative who just so happens to be a bot.

An intent example: users called for information about rapid-result testing at CVS locations

My main considerations during the scripting process were to use simple language and to shorten the content as much as possible. The goal is to not have users become confused or more frustrated with the VUI, especially as they are making plans to travel at the height of the pandemic.

We leveraged official facts published and released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Then, we translated those facts along with service provider information into terminology at a 6th-grade to 7th-grade reading level.

Feedback from Business Analyst

This project was special and urgent -- so our normal process of approvals was not applied here. I was trusted to work directly with the Business Analyst for immediate feedback and approval, resulting in quick product releases.

The tone and messaging of the scripting were always accepted by the business. Due to the ever-evolving data and statistics from the CDC during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal team would remain attentive to updates so we can quickly refine the dialogue to be relevant and accurate.

Direct delivery and refinement with the lead engineer

The ability to work closely with Amanda, the lead Conversation AI engineer, was a great experience.

I delivered scripting to her using Rally, and we'd have working sessions where she would implement the copy into JSON for the IBM WatsonX Assistant.

This agile environment for this product along with other experiences reinforced my empathy for engineers and how to deliver information to them.

Users increased their engagement with the virtual voice assistant after we updated the scripting

After CVS Health reviewed the recordings of users' clear frustration with the telephonic system, it initiated this project to update the scripting.

I drafted the scripting that met new intents, which cured many pain points users had with the original flow. Users not only increased their average call time, they received important information to their queries from the virtual voice assistant at a higher rate -- 183% YOY.

Amanda Y., Conversational AI Engineer

"Chelea is someone who adds value and clarity to every project she is on. [Her] design always informed the build. Chelea is an amazingly supportive teammate, and always makes sure her designs add efficiency to the development process."

Leadership & Impact

The height of the pandemic was a scary time for everyone in our world. CVS Health was one of many trusted to provide information and care. I was honored the company trusted me and the team to answer our members' questions with empathy and accuracy.

Chelea Lanham, MSHC

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