SHELF OBSESSED

Traffic jams are an unpleasant occurrence whenever they’re encountered, whether out on the highway or inside a crowded retail pharmacy store. And while there may not be much you can do about the highway kind, short of avoiding the area altogether, you can, in fact, fix your store traffic patterns to help alleviate traffic jams so that your customers don’t choose to avoid your area too!

The customers and patients you serve every day do more for you than just keep your business going – they are also pivotal in bringing in new business via good customer reviews. Now more than ever, when your customers have a stellar (or not-so-stellar) transaction experience with you, they have the opportunity to immediately share their experiences with their family, friends, and their "world" through social media.

An inefficiency is anything that impedes, slows down, or clogs up pharmacy workflow in any way that prevents it from being as effective as it can be. Inefficiencies are generally the result of failing to establish specific processes, not streamlining workspace foot traffic patterns, or failing to organize inventory for best practices and compliance with HIPAA regulations.

Do you need new pharmacy shelving? You might, especially if your workflow efficiency is slipping.

Some of the hallmarks of a suffering workflow may look like:

• Grumbling customers having to wait longer to pick up their prescriptions
• You spending less time with your customers because you don't have the spare time to chat
• You or your staff making more mistakes between steps
• Fewer scripts being filled, and thus lower profits

Workflow is one component of pharmacy management that truly does make all the difference. Not only does it benefit you and your staff by making the process more streamlined and efficient, but it also trickles down to create a positive impact on your patients' satisfaction with your service.

Efficiency is incredibly important in the pharmacy world, and there are a number of factors that can affect it – customer service, inventory, personnel, and prices, to name a few. One of the most important aspects regarding pharmacy efficiency is pharmacy design. The way a pharmacy is physically designed and structured can have a major impact on pharmacy efficiency as it relates to pharmacy workflow.

You have a lot on your plate as an independent pharmacist, and it can sometimes feel like there is not much you can do to make your own life easier. However, by gradually implementing these eight simple things, not only will your life become more manageable, but your employees and customers will be positively impacted as well!

What do you think of "pharmacy workflow"? Is it something that you set up when you first went into business, only to become lax about it as time went on?

As an independent pharmacist, the shelving you select should do more than just house and display merchandise; it should also support the success of your business by serving specific needs in each of the following areas:

• Customer service
• Pharmacy workflow
• Privacy regulations

As an independent pharmacist, if you want to be successful, you have to have an efficient pharmacy workflow. You've got big shoes to fill since your competitors may have resources you don't – but you also have the ability to give customers the kind of personal service that retail chains lack.