El Monte Pharmacy Improves Customer Service With Hi-Tech Will-Call System

Ken Thai, PharmD., owns a very busy pharmacy.  It is located in El Monte, a densely populated suburb of Los Angeles.  El Monte Pharmacy fills three or four times as many prescriptions per day as the average independent.   

I first met Thai in Las Vegas in 2016 just after he was interviewed by a senior AmerisourceBergen executive.  During the interview he was asked to share some of things he does to run a profitable pharmacy with the 4000 attendees of the wholesaler’s Annual Trade Show.  He impressed me as being an innovator, articulate – and, as a no-nonsense guy. 

One of the remarkable things Thai has done is start a new pharmacy franchise program, operating under the name; 986 Pharmacy (98.6 is normal body temperature).  The franchise program has 15 locations in California, Nevada and Texas. 

As an innovator he is among the first to have invested in the scripClip LED light supported will-call bin system.  He says he was “in the market” for a way to improve the look and feel of the will-call  area. But, up to that time the systems he had looked at were too expensive; and, installing them also required expensive re-arranging of the prescription pick-up area. 

Then he says, in 2017, while attending his wholesaler’s trade show he met with the people in the PerceptiMed booth where he was introduced to the scripClip system. Thai says, “It just impressed me as a creative and cost-effective solution to a long-standing problem.”

When pressed for more detail, Thai says, he is hard pressed to come up with superlatives.  Frankly he says, “The system is pretty straight forward.  The LED light lights-up in the handle of the patient’s bag, my clerks can see and quickly retrieve the right bag and give it to the right patient. scripClip just does what it is supposed to do.”   

When asked how he could justify spending money on new technology as margins continue to shrink, Thai responded in a manner that surprised me.  Noting the fact that despite the pharmacy teams’ best efforts there are too many times when locating a prescription proves difficult, so he says, cost justification is easy as, “Upsetting patients costs far more than scripClip does.”

Providing a little more detail, he ads that dwindling margins mean he needs to be more efficient and, he says scripClip makes retrieving prescriptions faster, and safer.  Then, he says, one other cost benefit is the ability to, at the tap of a button, locate all the prescriptions not picked up, based on a time frame he specifies, and return them to stock.

As one final note. Thai says that with all the technology he uses that scripClip, with its multi-colored flashing lights, is the only one that his patients really see.  All in all, he says, scripClip has been a positive addition to his pharmacy and he’d be happy to suggest other pharmacy owners take a serious look to see if it would be right for them.

Learn more about scripClip at;  www.perceptimed.com

comments, suggestion, ideas for content email me at; BFKneeland@gmail.com

Read more of my posts at;     https://kneelandsnotes.blogspot.com/

The Benefits of Having A Formal Community Relations Program

If you’d like to dramatically increase the number of new customer referrals you get you may want to consider implementing a formal community relations program. 

One way to start would be to find a person on your staff that is personable and trustworthy and ask them if they are interested taking the lead in a new initiative you are considering.  I would suggest you not position this as a promotion but as an interesting new job related task that will let them get out of the store for a few hours each week.  The idea would be to have this person make personal visits to key people and organizations in your area each week.  Having a pharmacy technician do this, wearing a smock, shirt, blouse or scrubs with the pharmacy logo on it is also recommended. You want this person to immediately stand out as coming from your pharmacy when they enter.  They also need to have business cards they can hand out were ever they go.

In the short run you are simply looking for increased positive awareness with healthcare professionals, organizations and retailers in your immediate trade area. As this newly appointed person gets out and meets with other businesses and organization you should be thinking of logical and appropriate ways you can collaborate on some inexpensive, appropriate and mutually beneficial project or idea.

Danny Cottrell, R.Ph. owns Medical Center Pharmacy in Brewton, AL.  During an interview Danny told me about a school district program he supports called BEAM – Brewton Elementary and Me.  Cottrell says, “It involves several things but my part is to set-up a small store in the school auditorium every nine weeks and the kids bring a ticket if they qualify for a prize. I usually provide dollar or two items like yoyos, cars, berets, etc. This has been beneficial to me in that I seem to get all the teachers business as well as a few parents and the students are incented to perform better socially and educationally.”

I have had success working on behalf of pharmacies by working with day care centers.  I visited them at the request of the pharmacy owner with a basket of private label products; hand lotion, non-aspirin pain relievers, etc. During the first visit all I did was meet the staff, give them the basket of private label products and let them know of a few features of the pharmacy. 

On the next visit, about a month later, I took in specially designed wallet size ID cards that entitled staff members to a 20% discount on private label items.  On the next visit I gave them cards they could put in the parent’s in-box for each child enrolled in their program. The important element was that this card was to be stapled to a letter on the day care center’s stationary indicating the center had “arranged” for families of children enrolled in the day care center to get a special discount on private label products at the pharmacy close by.  This is an important part of the process, it makes the card much more valuable as it is not simply an ad or coupon like they might get in the newspaper but a benefit from the day care center.

When the day care employees or patrons visited the pharmacy for their “special benefit” the pharmacist talked with them about other services the pharmacy provided, like home delivery or medication flavoring.  And since these people drove by the store twice a day on their way to or from the day care center it was easy for them to become prescription customers. 

The day care center loved providing the benefit, the people loved the convenient location of the pharmacy and the pharmacy loved getting new customers.  All for only the cost of a special discount on private label items.  A true win-win situation.

Once you start thinking along these lines you’ll soon realize that hair salons, dry cleaners, restaurants, craft stores and many of the businesses in your immediate area would love to work with you on these kinds of promotions.  The real trick is having someone on staff whose job it is to get out of the store and start looking for ways to make friends with the other local businesses. 

While working on a project of this type for one of the major wholesaler’s identity programs several years ago we assembled a note book where the person identified to do this job could keep track of who they visited and when.  Each contact had a separate page for notes on the purpose of each visit and what follow-up needed to be done.  It is pretty basic but it helps with a major component of success; accountability!  By filling out and working from these sheets the person working this initiative can report on what business have been visited and what happened.  Then, using these sheets you and your community relations specialist can make plans for next steps and even track how many new patients you have received from each marketing partner.

Do you have a good new customer program?

Here's the problem .....Last time my wife and I moved we had to find a new hair dresser, dry cleaner, auto repair shop, etc.

As we tackled this task I was amazed at how ill prepared these service business were at identifying and romancing new customers.  At the cleaners the attendant was completely befuddled when I asked her about their hours of operation and how much they charged to clean my suit.  

Several years ago, my wife and I stumbled upon a cute diner a few miles from our home called, Nifty Fifty’s.  Mostly because of its amazing curb appeal we decided to give it a try and we were glad we did. The food was good, the prices fair and the atmosphere great.  But the real point here is they also had a wonderful program for first time customers. 

When the server first came to our table, she could tell we were not familiar with the menu so she asked if this was our first visit. When we said yes, she smiled and told us we were going to love it.  How’s that for good employee training?  Next she pointed out a few things about the menu and made specific mention of their soda flavors. Nifty-Fifty’s does not sell Coke or Pepsi products but specializes in making their own sodas with a variety of flavors. They even offer free jars of baby food for those bringing in a baby.  

When she returned to take our order, she handed us a small packet. It contained a smaller version of the menu, a flyer on the history of the diner, a refrigerator magnet and a coupon for $5 off any of Nifty-Fifty’s souvenir items; t-shirts, baby bibs, baseball caps, etc. 

What about you – do you have a formal, carefully thought through and effectively implemented program for impressing new patients?  If not, here are a few suggestions:

• Your staff should be trained to acknowledge new customers; both in the pharmacy and out front. The approach should be personable, well-rehearsed and genuine. 
• They should invite the new customer to take a minute to meet you.  Remember, the personable and professional way you care for people is your most important competitive advantage
• Give them a new customer packet.  A four color brochure telling a bit about your history, clinical philosophy, special services, niche product lines, etc. Be sure to include a refrigerator magnet and other item that makes it easy for them to contact you 
• Have a letter you can mail the new customer a day or two after they visited your pharmacy thanking them for their visit and include some sort of offer that will encourage them to come back soon.  In this letter you can tell them about your Facebook page and invite them to check out your web page and use the web refill feature
• Start a tickler file and give the person a call in a couple of weeks.  Ask them for feedback on how you can improve your pharmacy and inquire if there are special products they’d like to see you stock.  

A program like this won’t cost much and it could help you turn a first time customer into a lifelong patient.  Indeed, a reception of this sort would be so impressive I’d bet that your first-time visitor will tell others about the remarkable pharmacy they just found.

Perkins Drugs and Gift Shop Benefits from a Pick-To-Light Will-Call Bin System

Andrew Finney, PharmD., is doing some remarkable things in his pharmacy in Gallatin, TN. One being, he has taken one of the country’s longest continually operating pharmacies (opened in 1895) and transformed it into one of the newest, most modern and up to date pharmacies in the county.

Finney started working at Perkins Drugs in 2005 right out of pharmacy school. In 2009 he became a partner, then in 2012 he became the sole owner. In 2018 he opened a second location of the pharmacy in a brand-new 11,625 sq ft square foot building that he developed of which Perkins #2 occupies 2,550 ft. Today, Perkins is a beautiful, well organized and impressive pharmacy operating with some of the most modern technology and providing a variety of enhanced care services.

One of new pieces of technology is PerceptiMed’s scripClip, pick-to-light will- call bin system. Finney says prior to opening the new location for business he attended the NCPA annual convention and saw scripClip on display. He says, “The moment I saw it I was intrigued. It just seemed to be a great way to improve customer safety and service .” And, he said, with his new store scheduled to open in a few months it seemed like a good idea.

Finney says scripClip provides his pharmacy with three benefits.

First, it saves time. When prescriptions are filled, they are scanned and then put into a clear plastics scripClip bag and then hung randomly on the will-call bin rods. When a patient comes in for their medication the clerk types their name or date of birth into the POS and the handle on the right bag lights up and will make an audible chirp if selected from the POS. The staff member retrieves the bag, scans it again for accuracy and completes the customer transaction. Finney says time lost looking for misplaced bags has been totally eliminated.

Accuracy, patient safety and peace of mind are the second benefit. With the pick-to-light system he knows that the right medication is being given to the right patient, every time.

Finally, the system can quickly identify items in the will-call bin that have not been picked up. He says they run a simple computer routine and every bag more than a specified number of days lights-up. He says because it is so easy to do this that they do it much more often now than they were able to the manual way in the past because it is so much quicker. Doing this, Finney says, improves refills as they can contact patients with a reminder call, and he says this has helped with his STAR ratings.

When asked, “If given the chance would you buy it again? He readily says, “yes!”

Health and Nutrition Counselling; Is This A Service You Could Provide?

Many years ago, as part of my duties as the Director of Marketing for a regional chain, I ran across a unique device that had the ability to conveniently measure a person’s body fat percentage.  Working with the manufacturer we adopted a program where I went to our stores and used the device to provide a free body fat composition screening in our pharmacies. 

The free service was well received and it encouraged a fair number of new people to visit our pharmacies.  Some of them were new to us and transferred their prescriptions.  It was a great promotional service.

The body fat composition program caused me to wonder; could this service be expanded and turned into a formal program that consumers would pay for, much like they pay to join Weight Watchers.  After all I reasoned, what do these commercial diet services provide that could not be better performed in a private section of the pharmacy. 

I recently participated in a Take Charge webinar that answered that question- yes you can do this!!!!

Terry Forshee, R.Ph., and the folks at Take Charge have built a successful program, currently being used by hundreds of pharmacies, that proves that nutritional counseling and lifestyle coaching can be profitably provided in a retail pharmacy. 

Forshee says the backbone of his program is a sophisticated technology that allows a patient to get a total body composition read out, even including their basal metabolic rate.  Take Charge has coupled this unique technology with specially designed software, a complete training program, marketing materials and a variety of nutritional support products.  And, they have proven the service to be well received, effective and profitable.

When patients pay for and enroll in a six-month program, the pharmacists sits with them and conducts a total nutritional review.  As the patient provides information the pharmacist enters the information into the Take Charge software which then produces a customized health improvement plan.  This includes recommendations for diet, exercise, nutritional and other lifestyle changes.

Central to the program’s success is weekly visits with the pharmacist who reviews, counsels and encourages the patient.  This type of accountability with a trusted health care provider makes the program much more successful than other commercially available plans.  

Forshee says the program has been successfully used by several pharmacists who collaborate with a local physician and have billed insurance for the services through the physician’s office.  All made possible by the ability of the Take Charge program to provide a treatment plan with benchmarks.  And, his program provides all the appropriate billing codes to support the service.

But, Forshee says the bigger immediate opportunity is for independent pharmacies to realize people will pay out-of-pocket for this type of service. One of the big selling features is the ability of the pharmacy to document that the initial patient cost of going on the program can be totally offset by substituting grocery store and restaurant food bills for the program’s proprietary shakes and bars.  

Forshee says that the long-term goal of the program is to get people to eat healthier foods purchased at the grocery store, but, in the initial phase the program does provide specially formulated foods to help “jump start” a person’s weight loss. 

If you have an interest in learning more you can check them out at:

www.takechargerx.com

To read more of Kneeland’s Notes, checkout our blog at:

https://kneelandsnotes.blogspot.com/

Can An Independent Community Pharmacy Learn From A Pet Store?

Mud Bay Pet Supplies in Portland, Oregon is part of an employee owned chain with 39 locations in the Northwest.  And, what I experienced in the 3000 square foot store I visited blew me away. So, you ask, what does a pet store have to do with pharmacy? 

Consider this… the store does not have fancy fixtures, good parking or an upscale location - but it does have personality!

The concrete floors are clean and polished.  The warehouse type fixtures are stocked with merchandise that is artfully displayed.  And, the floor plan encourages customers to explore.  In short, Mud Bay is clean, bright, well-lite and attractively displayed.  Something any pharmacy would do well to emulate.

One interesting feature is the pet weigh station.  It invites pet owners to monitor their furry friends’ weight.  And, they just happen to stock a variety of pet foods geared to over or under weight animals. It is a great conversation starter and generates a lot of word of mouth recommendations.   

The store is about 4 blocks from my daughters’ home and when you take their dog for a walk and get near the store he pulls on his leash and “begs” to be taken to Mud Bay.  The reason, the staff carry treats.  After getting permission the clerk will give your pet a treat – or better yet, hand the treat to the owner who gets to perform the task.  All designed to enhance the experience.

From my conversation with the clerk it was apparent I was a first-time visitor. As I was leaving the store the clerk handed me a Thank You card.  In the envelope was a brochure that explained key benefits of Mud Bay, a gift certificate for $5.00 off any purchase and a hand written thank you note signed by the clerk.

Mud Bay competes with PetSmart, Walmart, every grocery store in town, and Chewy, the online pet super-store.  Yet, they succeed because they get to know you (and your pet), they carry products pet owners need at competitive prices.  And, they also stock interesting new products pet owners don’t yet know they need or want.  In short, going to Mud Bay with your pet is an adventure.  

So, here’s the takeaway for community pharmacies;

Look for ways to improve the look and feel of your pharmacy, inside and out.  Stock interesting new products that are consistent with the image of your pharmacy and display them in attractive ways.  Find new, more and better ways to interact with your patients; healthcare events, classes and sales representative sponsored “demo” days are things I have seen work. 

Make sure new customers are treated exceptionally well.  Incorporate new services that genuinely help patients, medication synchronization seems to work for many pharmacy owners. Anytime you fill a first-time prescription make sure your staff alerts you so you can come over and say hello.  Then, mail them a thank you note along with a brochure explaining the important feature of your pharmacy.  Perhaps you can even include a specially designed customer referral card they can use to refer someone they know to your pharmacy. 

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New Move-ins, An Overlooked Opportunity

First the bad news!  No matter how good your customer service is some of your most loyal patients will move away. And, the bad news gets even worse.  Statistic indicate the people who move into the vacant house or apartment your customers left are not likely to select you as their new pharmacy. 

Why you ask?  Being unfamiliar with the area they are most likely to start shopping at the major chain, supermarket or mass merchant pharmacy that is familiar to them and has a BIG outdoor sign.    

And to make matters even worse one direct mail list provider indicates that more than 30 million Americans will move this year.  And, the same company, Arvick Direct, Inc., says that most of these moves are people moving to another county or state.  These people truly are in need of finding a new drug store.  

Now for the Good News!  There are a number of companies who specialize in helping you mail something to these new people and inviting them to visit your pharmacy.  These services can typically be purchased at a modest cost – often for less than a couple bucks per household.

If you aren’t currently subscribed to one of these services you might want look into both the cost of each mailing along with the number of people who move each month in your trade area.  Most wholesalers and buying groups have a program (or two) they recommend and they should be able to provide you with the average number of movers by zip code. My personal favorite is a small specialty company in Texas called Welcome New Neighbor.   

From talking with pharmacy owners who are “plugged-in” to a new move-in program I frequently hear a few common complaints and some great tips. 

First the complaints: current customers sometimes come in with the mailing and say, “why did you mail me this?  I have lived here for years.”  Or, you get mailings returned to your pharmacy from the postal service marked, “no such address.” 

Mail list companies try hard to avoid it but mistakes happen when gathering and sorting millions of change of address, utility hook-ups or driver’s license names from both public records and privately held documents.   

Now for the tips: First, savvy pharmacists tell me that when confronted with an irate or simply curious customer that received a new move-in mailing suggest you smile, apologize and explain you subscribe to a service and have little control over the mailings.  Indicate that the service has been helpful in introducing you to people that have just moved into the community.  And, then if the customer is still a bit miffed offer them a certificate for free greeting card or some other appealing item appropriate to your pharmacy that will help appease their dismay. 

Make sure the customization part of the service you select allows for all mailings to show your address in the return address section of the mailing.  That way you get to see how many mailings are undeliverable. A quality service will reimburse you for all returned mailings.   

Pick your zip codes wisely. It could be you are on the very edge of your pharmacy’s zip code while most of the customers you want to attract live in an adjacent one. Also, look to see what kind of natural barriers might negatively affect the success of your mailing.  If things such as rivers, major highways or other barriers are in the way you will want to select a zip code that will work better for you.

                                                                              

Experienced pharmacy owners tell me the most important item to consider is your offer.  It must appeal to new move-ins and be of such value that they will go out of their way to find your pharmacy.  Rx transfer coupons in the range of $25 are common.  Free items that appeal to people in need of OTC or HBC’s are also effective; for example, “Come on in, say hello and select up to $20 worth of our Store Brand OTC and HBC items to fill-up your medicine cabinet.” I am told a free 1lbs. box of chocolates also works great.   

When the new move-in presents their gift certificate for redemption your staff should be trained to welcome them and then go the extra mile to insure the new customers gets a brief overview of what makes your pharmacy great.  It is always a good idea for them to get you so you can come out and say hello.

While they are in the pharmacy strive to enroll them in your loyalty program and/or invite them to sign up for your newsletter.  If the gift card they present does not already contain their name and mailing address you’ll want to try to get that.  And, as always, mail them something in a few days that will remind them of your pharmacy and encourage them to return whenever they need to purchase a prescription or other product or service you provide. 

New move-ins need what you have to offer, they just don’t know you are there.  Finding a way to reach out to them is a great way to boost sales and improve profits. 

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