It can be easy to fall into a rut of following the same procedures and providing the same services and products year after year. But it’s important to break out new, exciting products, services or offerings.
Finding new ways to approach your pharmacy’s marketing, changing your front-end product selection, or offering a new service can breathe new life into your pharmacy’s day-to-day operations.
Making changes will keep your pharmacy up-to-date with the latest standards of care, and keep patients coming back to your pharmacy to see what’s new.
Here are 25 ways you can reinvent your pharmacy to keep your patients excited about your business.
1. Implement the appointment-based model of synchronization
Implementing the appointment-based model of medication synchronization (ABM) can transform your pharmacy’s approach to adherence.
ABM synchronizes all of a patient’s medications so she only has to make one trip to the pharmacy. Synchronizing all of a patient’s medications to a single refill date helps ensure that patients won’t run out of medication, have gaps in adherence, or forget to order refills.
2. Adopt a front-end niche
Whether it’s pet products or diabetes care, developing a front-end niche can reinvigorate your front end and help you reinvent your pharmacy’s image.
Commit to offering a great selection of niche-specific products that will set your pharmacy apart from the competition, and be ready to offer supplementary advice and guidance to help patients choose the right products for them.
3. Offer natural products
Showcase your expertise and refresh your front end by stocking natural products.
Over-the-counter (OTC) natural remedies are growing in popularity, and when you take the time to step out from behind the counter to make recommendations and counsel patients about natural products, you add value to your pharmacy—and to your natural product selection.
4. Start a flavoring service
Showcase your pharmacy as kid-friendly and helpful for parents by offering medication flavoring.
Whether it’s apple, grape or strawberry, empower kids by letting them choose the flavor of their OTC or prescription medication. Enabling kids to make this choice improves their willingness to take their medicine, and makes the medicine-taking process less of a headache for parents.
Starting a flavoring service is as simple as ordering the flavors and familiarizing yourself with the recipes. FLAVORx supplies sugar-free, non-allergenic and inert medicine flavorings and flavoring systems to pharmacies. A flavoring service is an easy-to-implement service that offers convenience, ease and a little fun for patients.
5. Expand your service offerings
Revamp your pharmacy by incorporating wider service offerings to transition revenue streams away from depending strictly on retail.
Start by hosting diabetes education classes or offering a smoking cessation program, and then expand to offering a full-line of immunizations or a wellness program.
Or, partner with a company such as Creative Pharmacist, which offers ready-made programs you can adopt at your pharmacy to expand your service selection and diversify your revenue streams.
6. Start a curbside pickup program
Providing patients with the option to pick up their prescriptions at the curb gives patients the convenience of a drive-thru without a costly remodel.
Starting a curbside pickup program strengthens your customer service and highlights how simple it is to use your pharmacy.
This program specifically benefits older patients who might have difficulty getting in and out of their car, and patients with young kids who don’t want to struggle with car seats just to pick up their prescriptions.
7. Help patients quit smoking
Demonstrate your pharmacy’s ability to do more than just dispense prescriptions by helping patients break unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as smoking.
Reposition your pharmacy as a health care partner that provides preventative services by offering smoking cessation classes to help the 69 percent of adult smokers who say they want to quit smoking. This service can help reduce patients’ risk for certain diseases in the future, and can help alleviate some health issues they might currently have.
8. Enhance your customer experience
Give your pharmacy’s customer experience a makeover by minimizing your use of technical jargon and remaining positive when you communicate with patients.
Incorporate the five E’s of patient interaction by starting off with an enthusiastic greeting and an ear-to-ear smile. Make sure to maintain eye contact when talking to patients, and work on engaging with every patient you interact with. Find new ways to educate patients about their health, and how your pharmacy can help improve their well-being.
Improving the customer experience for patients can reinvigorate your pharmacy.
9. Build community relationships
The status of your relationships with local physicians, public health offices, local charities and local employers can influence the success of your business, so give your pharmacy a kick start by developing positive relationships with key community partners.
10. Get new patients
If you’re not gaining new patients, you’re not growing, and without growth, you can’t create sustainable success.
Reinvigorate your business by focusing on attracting new patients to your pharmacy.
Referrals from physicians and current patients can draw in new patients, and providing top-notch service, advice and products can boost your reputation, which will also help attract new patients.
11. Attend conferences
Stay up-to-date on the latest trends and technology affecting the industry, and network with other pharmacy professionals by attending conferences.
Conferences are a great way to learn about what’s new in the industry, how to overcome the challenges you’re facing and new solutions to help your patients.
Attending at least one conference a year can help you stay on top of innovations, and help you adopt the latest pharmacy solutions before your competition does.
12. Offer vaccines
If you don’t already have an immunization and vaccination program, starting one can help transition your pharmacy toward providing more patient care services.
Shift your pharmacy’s service offerings by starting a vaccine program for flu vaccines, shingles and more.
13. Provide comprehensive diabetes care
Reinvent your pharmacy’s approach to diabetes care by focusing on more than just insulin, test strips and blood sugar meters.
Give patients the comprehensive care, education and products they need to manage their diabetes.
Making diabetes care and products your focus can transform your front end and make your pharmacy the go-to health care provider for newly diagnosed patients with diabetes.
14. Boost your knowledge of apps
Update your approach to helping patients achieve their health goals by staying informed about the latest tools available, especially apps for smartphones.
If you can recommend the right app to help each patient achieve his or her specific health goal, you’ll be more effective at making recommendations for complementary front-end products and services.
Here’s a look at what you need to know about the most popular health apps, and how they can help patients achieve their goals.
15. Test patients’ genetics
The ability to match a patient’s genetic makeup to the medication that would work best for him or her can save your patients’ time and money, and improve the level of care you offer.
Now you can provide pharmacogenetic testing right in your pharmacy. Offering this service can reinvent the way you dispense medication, and when the medication works better for patients, it can help keep patients adherent to their medicine and loyal to your pharmacy.
16. Get creative
Set your business apart from the competition by implementing creative solutions in your pharmacy.
In order to combat fees that cut into your pharmacy’s profit margins, and shrinking reimbursement rates, you need to find new revenue streams.
Incorporating creative solutions and services, such as those offered by the Creative Pharmacist, can help your pharmacy adapt to the challenges you face.
17. Participate in research or grant projects
You might think grants are only for nonprofits and schools, but participating in grant-funded research or projects is one way to reinvent your pharmacy, and maybe even be a part of discovering a solution to issues facing the industry.
Learn more about the types of grants independent community pharmacies are eligible for, and get tips for applying for grants here.
18. Offer specialty pharmacy services
Now’s the time to adopt one of the fastest growing trends in independent community pharmacy—specialty pharmacy.
An aging population, growing technology and newly available specialty drugs are all contributing to specialty pharmacy’s explosive growth. And, your pharmacy is uniquely suited to help address some of the challenges posed by specialty pharmacy.
19. Improve your marketing
How much are you marketing your pharmacy? Are you marketing your pharmacy at all?
Whether you just opened your doors or have been in business for years, marketing your pharmacy is how you get the word out to new patients about your business.
Let the experts help. Revamp your website, send out a customized direct mail campaign, gain physician referrals and more with the marketing services offered by PBA Health, a pharmacy services organization dedicated to independent community pharmacies.
20. Be social
Keep your pharmacy’s image fresh by jumpstarting your use of social media.
Contribute regularly to your Facebook and Twitter pages by posting polls for patients to take, sharing health-related statistics and facts, or recommending your favorite front-end products.
Participating in social media can help you engage with your patients online, and bring them in your doors.
21. Update your digital image
Is it time to revamp your pharmacy’s digital presence?
An old, or dysfunctional website can turn patients away from your pharmacy before they even step in the door.
Update your digital presence with a new website, or with an app that allows patients to order refills from their smartphones, to keep your digital presence modern and up-to-date.
22. Revamp your workflow
Don’t get stuck in a workflow rut. It’s important to consistently look for ways to be more efficient and accurate. Set aside some time to take a hard look at your workflow.
Start by clearly defining your standard operating procedures, then make goals to improve your pharmacy’s practices and adjust your workflow to help you meet those goals.
23. Connect with charities
Hosting a fundraiser or volunteering for a local charity can demonstrate your support for your community. (And encourage community members to support your business.)
Showing support for your community is easy. Reconnect with your community by fundraising for a local group at your checkout counter, or volunteering your time to a local charity that’s focused on community health.
24. Celebrate health holidays
Does your pharmacy participate in national and international health holidays?
Health holidays often promote a specific disease or condition to raise awareness about it.
For example, you pharmacy could participate in World Diabetes Day to raise awareness about your diabetes education classes, and to help patients take control of their health.
25. Reevaluate your buying contract
Regularly check and evaluate your pharmacy’s buying contracts to ensure that you’re getting the best possible deal from your wholesalers.
Remember, your wholesaler contact is a relationship, so it should be mutually beneficial, and if your pharmacy’s needs aren’t being met, be ready to switch to a wholesaler or buying group that will help your pharmacy buy better.
If you want to ensure that you get the best deal possible when you renegotiate your wholesaler contracts, consider hiring the experts with ProfitGuard®, which helps get you the best overall cost of inventory by managing primary wholesaler negotiations.
ProfitGuard also provides proprietary purchasing tools that maximize wholesaler rebates and item-by-item savings automatically. ProfitGuard members have averaged between $70,800 and $212,400 in annual savings on their cost of goods.
“It’s the industry game changer for the independent pharmacy owner or operator,” says Huy Duong, owner of Dale’s Pharmacy in Colorado. “There’s nothing out there like it on the market.”
In the case that your primary wholesaler doesn’t have what you need, you’ll need a reliable secondary supplier waiting in the wings.
BuyLine®, an NABP-accredited secondary supplier, offers a full line of brands, generics, OTCs, and controls at the lowest prices in the secondary market. In addition to having low list prices, BuyLine also rewards purchases with cash rebates and significant discounts on brands. Earn up to an additional 10% cash rebate on generics and up to WAC -4% on brand.
With online ordering and next-day shipping options, shopping with BuyLine is quick and convenient. There are absolutely no commitments with BuyLine — no fees, no contracts.
Reinventing your pharmacy is just one way you can get a competitive edge over other pharmacies, so check out these ideas for ways you can set your pharmacy apart.
