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!”