When you visit a business for the first time, such as a restaurant or a retail store, what makes you want to come back?
For most people, it often boils down to customer service. Regardless of whether the food is delicious or you’re able to purchase what you’re looking for, the odds of you becoming a repeat customer drop significantly if you receive poor service.
Providing top-notch customer service to your patients should be a priority for your pharmacy, too. It’s what can set you apart from national chain and big box pharmacies.
Even if you know you already provide great customer service, there’s always room for improvement. Follow these tips to develop superior customer service at your independent community pharmacy—and encourage patients to continue visiting your business.
1. Respond quickly
When patients contact you, they expect a quick response. If you’re unable to offer this, you’ll likely lose business.
Keep all of your communication channels open, and respond to all requests, comments and concerns as soon as possible.
For example, allow patients to contact you via phone, email, social media or in-person, and put someone in charge of consistently checking these channels to ensure patients receive responses.
2. Keep patients in the loop
Your patients should always feel up-to-date with what’s happening at your business.
For example, if you’re offering a new promotion, hosting an event or raising the prices of your services, your patients need to know.
Use different communication channels, such as email, direct mail and social media, to ensure you notify your entire patient base when changes occur at your business. It’s important to use as many different methods of communication as possible—so you reach more patients.
3. Show patients you care
When patients feel appreciated, they’re more likely to remain loyal to your independent pharmacy. And, showing patients how much you care can give you a leg up on the competition.
Be sure to consistently thank your patients for their business, whether they’re a first-time visitor or a familiar face.
4. Listen carefully
By actively listening to your patients, you can strengthen your relationships and discover ways your pharmacy can improve.
Start by keeping your communication channels open and asking patients questions, so you can receive insightful feedback and understand their wants and needs.
5. Meet your patients’ needs
It’s not enough to just understand your patients’ needs, you have to take action and actually meet their needs if you want those patients to keep coming back.
For example, maybe you’ve received feedback from patients who have a hard time navigating your pharmacy’s front end. Take action by adjusting your store’s layout and ensuring an employee is on the floor at all times to assist patients with finding items.
6. Reward loyal patients
Rewarding patients for their support and loyalty to your brand is a great way to make them feel appreciated and encourage them to refer friends and family to your pharmacy.
If you have a loyalty rewards program, reevaluate how your program is structured and determine if you’re providing enough value or need to make adjustments.
If you don’t have a loyalty rewards program, consider sending out coupons or hosting a special event for patients who visit your pharmacy.
7. Address complaints
Ignoring customer complaints leads to dissatisfied patients and a bad reputation.
Develop a system to monitor complaints you receive from patients, and always address them in a timely and professional matter.
Regardless of whether you feel the complaint is warranted, it’s important not to take it personally. Focus on making things right with the patient to ensure you don’t lose his or her business.
8. Offer promotions
Offering promotions that provide true savings and value to patients can encourage them to shop at your pharmacy more often. And, they may be more likely to pass those savings along by referring family and friends to your store.
Try introducing a new promotion each month, such as a discount or buy-one-get-one deal on certain over-the-counter (OTC) products. Or, send out coupons patients can use that month for a percentage off their purchase.
9. Be helpful
Patients choose to visit your independent pharmacy because they know your employees will be more helpful than if they were to visit a national chain.
And, you can’t provide patients with a superior customer experience if you aren’t willing to go the extra mile.
Make sure your employees are always ready and willing to help patients with whatever they need when visiting your store, and to do so with positive attitude.
10. Build trust
If patients don’t feel they can trust your pharmacy and its employees, they won’t return. But establishing trust doesn’t happen overnight—it’s a process.
Start building trust with your patients by consistently providing value. For example, call or send patients an email to notify them when their prescriptions are due for a refill.
And, make sure patients are aware of what’s happening at your pharmacy. Keep them in the loop by sending messages informing them of price changes at your pharmacy, for example, so they’re not caught off guard the next time they visit.
Using these tips can help keep patients coming back to your pharmacy.
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A Member-Owned Company Serving Independent Pharmacies
PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy-side of their business. Founded and owned by pharmacists, PBA Health serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, wholesaler contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited secondary wholesaler with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products — offering the lowest prices in the secondary market.
