SHELF OBSESSED

In today's connected world, customer reviews have become an important factor for consumers as they shop for products and services – an updated, supercharged version of word-of-mouth advertising. That means good reviews are an important aspect of building the solid reputation that your independent pharmacy needs in order to develop a solid customer base. If your reviews aren't quite where you'd like them to be, improving them could be easier than you think.

If you're running an independent pharmacy and are struggling with tight profit margins, you're not alone. Staying competitive in today's business climate isn't easy, with stiff competition from those well-financed corporate chain stores, falling prescription reimbursement rates, and new regulations associated with health care reform, putting the squeeze on your bottom line. However, there are things you can do to improve your bottom line, despite these challenges.

When it comes to pharmacy workflow, much of the typical discussion centers around the ways efficiency can boost productivity, helping the average independent pharmacy turn out more prescriptions every day – which, of course, benefits profitability. However, as important as profitability is to the survival of a small business, here we're going to focus on another very important benefit of improving your workflow process: increased patient safety, a factor that most independent pharmacists are more concerned about than they are about their bottom line.

If you're struggling to meet daily production goals in your independent pharmacy, finding the reason for that frustrating problem means evaluating your pharmacy workflow – the way your work gets done – step by step. Doing this isn't as simple as it may sound, which is exactly why workflow problems often linger unnoticed long enough to have an impact on production, as well as other important aspects of your business – including your bottom line. To help you accurately identify inefficiencies in your everyday workplace routine, we've put together some basic tips on how to evaluate your pharmacy workflow.

The key to a thriving business when you're running a small, independent pharmacy is exceptional customer service, since customer satisfaction breeds consumer loyalty. What goes on behind the pharmacy counter in that “employees only” area affects customer satisfaction, a fact that every independent pharmacist knows. What many may not realize is that it affects more than just wait times. There are several other, less obvious ways that a broken pharmacy workflow can detract from the average customer experience.

Does your pharmacy workflow system need some work? Perhaps you're finding it difficult to consistently meet productivity goals, or your dispensing process is more time-consuming than it should be, taking time away from other necessary tasks. While the effects of inefficiencies in your workflow system may be quite clear, just where those inefficiencies lie isn't always easy to pinpoint.

As anyone who runs a small, local pharmacy knows, staying competitive is tough these days, between the big box stores, national pharmacy chains and today's difficult economic conditions, among many other challenges. So how can small pharmacies overcome these hurdles to establish and maintain a vibrant business?

Making your pharmacy as efficient as possible is important your success – and to your patients. When you are more efficient, you save time and increase net profit. Alternatively, if you think you don't need more profit, you can add services with that saved time that will be of benefit to your patients or even give you more free time outside of work.

As an independent pharmacist, it happens. You get distracted at work, even while you're filling prescriptions. A customer needs something, the phone rings, or an important medication question can't wait. One study found that as you or your technicians are dispensing medications, you might be interrupted or distracted as often as every two minutes.