It’s difficult to see the forest through the trees, especially if you’re busy with the day-to-day duties of filling prescriptions, counseling patients and marketing your pharmacy’s services and products.
But getting a fresh perspective can help you discover new ways to grow your business, find flaws that you may need to address and see opportunities to expand your pharmacy’s appeal.
Here are five ways you can shift your perspective to open yourself up to new ways of thinking, new ideas and give yourself a broader view of how your pharmacy fits into a patient’s health care experience.
1. Take a new way to work
You likely take the same route to work every day, but driving, walking or biking a different route is a simple way to get a new perspective on your business.
Create routes that inspire problem solving, such as requiring that you drive by a park on your way to work. Or, just take a new way to work you don’t normally follow. Simply changing up your typical routine can help spark creativity, and can open you up to a new way of seeing things.
For example, you may discover that street construction is hindering traffic flow to your pharmacy, which might make it difficult for some patients to turn into your parking lot. Once you know this, you can take steps to fix the problem, such as posting alternative directions on your website, or putting signs up in your neighborhood directing traffic to you. This way your patients can make it to your pharmacy with less hassle.
2. Become a patient
The next time you visit your physician, use it as a learning experience. Think about how the process works, from a patient’s point-of-view. Doing so can help you gain a new perspective on the health care system.
Look for ways your pharmacy can help make the process from visiting a physician, to picking up a prescription simpler for your patients. Ask yourself questions to identify ways you can improve your pharmacy. What’s the most frustrating part of this process? What can your pharmacy do to help solve that problem? Can you coordinate more effectively with physicians?
This different viewpoint can help you see new ways your pharmacy can become a more integral—and valuable—part of a patient’s health care experience.
3. Change your work routine
Adjusting your typical workday can provide new ways of thinking about your pharmacy.
For example, if you spend all of your time filling prescriptions behind the counter, spend a day in your front end. You’ll gain a new understanding of your pharmacy’s operations from a different viewpoint.
4. Visit the competition
When’s the last time you checked out your pharmacy’s competition?
Take some time to visit other independents, national chains or big box pharmacies to see what the competition is offering patients. See if there are any merchandising ideas that might work in your store, or check out their current patient care service offerings to see if your selection is keeping up with the industry.
Remember, your pharmacy doesn’t operate in a vacuum; it operates in direct competition with other pharmacies, so it’s essential to keep an eye on those pharmacies.
As you check out their front-end product selection, store layout and marketing materials, look for ways that your pharmacy can get an edge over them.
5. Attend a conference
Attend a conference and continuing education (CE) sessions to get a new perspective on the future of the industry and to find new ideas you can implement at your pharmacy.
Simply getting out of your pharmacy for a few days to attend a conference can provide you with some perspective. And, listening to industry leaders and innovators can spark new ideas.
One upcoming conference is the Next! 2016 PBA Health Conference & Business Seminar put on by PBA Health, a pharmacy services organization based in Kansas City, Mo. This three-day event features CE sessions where industry experts will provide you with a fresh perspective about pharmacy industry topics, including marketing on a budget, specialty pharmacy and legislation affecting pharmacies today. The conference also includes a tradeshow where you can talk directly to vendors about the innovative pharmacy solutions they offer.
The conference takes place June 24-26 in Kansas City, Mo. Register to attend, book your hotel room and learn more at pbahealthconference.com.
Looking for more inspiration to reinvent your pharmacy? Use these tips to become more innovative to revitalize your pharmacy.
