To thrive in today's business climate, which is dominated by the big-box one-stop shopping model, smaller businesses like independent community pharmacies must maximize their primary competitive advantage – personable and personalized customer service. In other words, the atmosphere and customer experience that makes people feel like they are doing business with neighbors, not a faceless national corporation that only knows them as a customer profile on a computer screen. So how can you make your store the most loved pharmacy in your neighborhood?
Creating this sort of customer experience takes time, a team approach, and leadership from you – in the form of leading by example – in making your business one centered on people rather than products. That may seem a bit counter-intuitive from the perspective of a business owner who needs to sell products to stay competitive. However, centering your attention on people, including both customers and staff, is the best way to create the friendly, personalized customer experience that results in a solid, loyal customer base – which, in turn, builds solid, steady profits.
So where to start in building that people-centered atmosphere? By really listening to your customers and staff. The thing about very busy people – like pharmacists with a business to run – is that they tend to always have 20 different things on their mind all at once. That can make it hard to listen with the focused attention that makes people really feel that you've really heard and are interested in what they have to say.
That sort of listening is a valuable skill to cultivate. It makes customers feel like you value them and are truly engaged as you counsel them on prescriptions, listen to their health concerns, and advise them on products and services, which increases their confidence in you as a health care professional. It also helps to ensure that your staff feel like team members rather than just hired help. This is important to the customer experience as well, since employees who know that their opinions and concerns matter are more motivated and enthusiastic in serving customers.
Truly listening is the first step in making the personal connections you need with your customers and staff to create the people-centered culture that will help your pharmacy thrive. The second step is really engaging people in conversation, speaking about yourself and your passion for your business, and encouraging them to share their stories. That give and take helps all of you get to know each other as multifaceted individuals, which will help you and your staff provide the friendly, personalized service for which you would like your pharmacy to be known.
The question that is likely to be in the mind of most any busy pharmacist by this point is just how to find the time for all of these extras. You might be surprised to know there is an opportunity for adding more time for this hidden in the way your pharmacy workflow is taking place. Dispensing prescriptions accounts for the bulk of the work done every day in the typical independent pharmacy, so maximizing the efficiency of your pharmacy workflow to minimize the amount of time it takes to get that work done can free up the time you need to become the best loved pharmacy in your neighborhood. A minute here, two there, and so on can really add up over the course of a day and multiplied by the number of people you serve over that period of time. It may be time to take a very close look at your pharmacy workflow process to see if there are changes you could make to save time. It might be helpful to call in a consultant for an expert appraisal of your workflow system.
