SHELF OBSESSED

As a pharmacy owner, you can be pretty sure that customers coming into your store, even those you'd consider "steady" customers, appreciate having a choice when it comes to their retailing options and may frequent various other shopping locations as well. And while some of your clients may be coming in for a quick script fill and nothing more, that doesn't mean they have to leave with no additional purchases in their baskets. Your store's overall retail design can have a real influence here.

As a retail store owner or manager, you're no doubt aware that certain space on store shelves is highly coveted by manufacturers and that the middle, eye-level shelves are most desirable. In many areas, manufacturers are willing to pay dearly to have access to the choicest retail shelving spots in a store because they know that preferential product placement will garner them more and faster sales. No area in a store is more valuable for product display than at the end of an aisle on an endcap.

Pharmacy layout design is an incredibly important factor in overall store efficiency, both in the front-end retail merchandising area as well as in the back-end prescription filling section. Anything that can be done to streamline prescription filling processes should be seriously considered if efficiency is a primary goal in the improvement of your dispensing operations. Pharmacy staff should ask themselves exactly what they hope to accomplish through a pharmacy layout refit, such as improving current workflow, and what can be done to save time and improve customer satisfaction regarding the services being received.

Although the condition of your pharmacy workflow likely goes unnoticed by your customers, often hidden from view in the back end of the store, you can bet that the effects of the operations back there are apparent to customers and employees alike. When things are running efficiently back in the "employees only" area, everyone's happy and satisfied with the level of service being provided. When operations are bogged down, however, everyone suffers – and so does your store's bottom line.

As the owner or manager of an independent pharmacy, you may already be aware of the potential point of purchase (POP) displays have in beefing up your front-end retail sales efforts. What you may not know, however, are the different ways you can use POP displays, the various types of displays available, and how to incorporate each to your best advantage.

Things are changing in the world of modern pharmacy design and layout, partly as a result of studies citing that drug store customers prefer certain things to be provided during their shopping experiences. Retail spending continues at a steady clip by drug store customers and, while the substitution of generics for higher priced prescription medicines has helped contain costs somewhat in the industry, an aging population causing a greater overall demand for medications continues to fuel growth.

As a neighborhood pharmacy owner, you’ve no doubt become accustomed to your store’s general layout and atmosphere. If you’ve gathered a good collection of regular customers over the years, you can bet they’ve also become used to your store’s overall persona and may even typically ignore many of your store displays, especially if those displays haven’t been updated for some time. If your pharmacy layout is pretty much the same as it was a decade or so ago, with few adaptations to incorporate the modern era of pharmacy design, it may be driving some of your customers "crazy," – or worse yet, driving them into the stores of your competition.

While the idea of undertaking a pharmacy remodel can be a daunting one, especially when maintaining store operations during the remodel is required, the advantages of a functional and aesthetic upgrade to your store should definitely be worth the time, trouble, and expense if approached properly and with eyes wide open.

Creating a more functional pharmacy workflow should be an ongoing goal of pharmacy owners, managers, and pharmacists, as these efforts will lead to improved productivity, efficiency, and accuracy. Simple steps like pinpointing inefficiencies such as redundant or unnecessary movements and excessive bending and reaching can make a big difference over the long hours of a working day. Saving time during the process of intake, filling, and putting out completed prescriptions not only makes for a happier client, but also a more satisfied staff. It also allows more opportunity for the pharmacist on duty to spend time counseling customers or just passing time visiting with them while they're waiting – all of which promotes better customer relations.

When you think about walking into the large, sterile-looking pharmacies run by the various big-box chain stores, the word "fun" doesn’t really come to mind – but then, creating fun times doesn’t seem to be one of the functional goals of those establishments. At their most basic level, typical pharmacies are designed to do three things:

• Efficiently and accurately fill prescriptions
• Provide quality care for patients
• Maintain a pharmacy workflow and store environment where clients are happy and employees have a high level of job satisfaction