Just because your pharmacy is able to offer a particular health service, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for your pharmacy. This is because every pharmacy has its own target audience and therefore, different needs and wants. For example, a pharmacy who has a focus on senior health, may not need a baby nurse. So, how do we select the right health service and make it a success?
As a pharmacy yes, you can help everyone with their meds and health. However, that doesn’t mean that they will shop from you. For example, a lot of community pharmacies lose customers to big box discounters due to price. But not every customer is going to price conscious, some customers will value certain products, expertise, and service. So, as a pharmacy you need to pave out what audience will best suit your pharmacy.
I did the unthinkable last night, I visited a big box discounter (hint the colours are red, blue and yellow).
As John shared with me this morning at Peak this is a fireable offence as we are all avid supporters of community pharmacy (we kid, but it is frowned upon). However, this was a desperate instance of my husband forgetting to fill his script and this being the only pharmacy open at that time of night in our suburb. So, after many complaints on my end, we popped into the-one-that-must-not-be-named to quickly get his meds.
COVID-19, what a crazy ride it’s been so far! More than ever the public are looking to pharmacies for guidance and support. Whether that be for hand sanitizer, their scripts or for general advice, every client I have recently spoken to have said that customer communication is higher than it’s ever been. Some of your team members might be spending their whole day on the phone or responding to emails from people seeking advice.
What has been the most difficult for both pharmacies and the public is the ever-changing information. Every couple of days there is something new being passed by the Government to protect the Australian community. This of course makes a lot of sense, but also extremely hard to navigate! So, today we are going to share some ways to communicate with your customers during a crisis to hopefully help you alleviate some stress for your team.
Let’s be honest though, event management isn’t always a walk in the park. It requires planning, money and most importantly, interest from the community. Organising an event whilst managing the day to day of a pharmacy also presents as a challenge! However, event management can be incredibly rewarding for pharmacies, for their bottom line, building relationships and most importantly, for patients.
Today we want to share some tips in relation to events and pharmacy. These ideas will help you plan amazing events for your patients, just in time for the VIP Christmas Night!
