The stream of customers who enter your pharmacy each day are likely familiar faces you’ve seen for years. Your patients trust you with their health care, and they’ve probably referred new patients over the years through word of mouth to their friends and family. Patients are the breath of your pharmacy. They keep it alive and running as you continue to look for creative ways to bring new customers through your doors.
You can draw in new customers through digital marketing (websites, mobile apps, social-media networks, etc.). It is possible to meet your patient base on all devices and platforms they use each day. Simply establish an online presence and market yourself on multiple channels.
Here are some tips on how to attract new digital customers to your pharmacy:
- Make it simple for them to find and connect with you online.
- Be clear on what’s unique about your pharmacy and highlight it on your social-media pages.
- Stay up to date on the content you share. This will help engage customers.
- Quality, current photos of your staff and store gives digital visitors a glimpse into your pharmacy.
- Connect with customers and potential customers online by responding to their questions and inquiries.
Tried-and-True Ways to Invite New Customers to Your Pharmacy
Offer Unique Products
You might want to try something completely different to grow your pharmacy, such as selling niche supplements or exciting health products. High-quality, specialty supplements can give better margins than traditional OTCs.
Starting small is the best way to get started with a supplement business. Being highly knowledgeable on a few products is better than having limited knowledge on many. By doing this, you build up a reputation. This will invite new customers in and, if they love the products, they’ll keep coming back. It’s a great way to stand out from the competition.
But remember: If you don’t believe in a product, don’t sell it.
Bounce-Back Coupons
Bounce-back coupons are only good in your store and used on the patient’s next visit. Depending on how you use them, you can set the price to whatever you’re comfortable with. You can pass them out to prescribers or local businesses to invite them to your pharmacy for the first time.
Dispense for Hospice
If a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) is involved, hospice prescriptions may be lower in profit. Filling their prescriptions is still worth it. Here’s why:
- You fill for new patients almost every day, exposing you to new families in your community.
- You become known in the medical community.
- New prescribers will find out about you. Nearly all non-specialist doctors have patients who go into hospice care. You get introduced to these new prescribers when they call in the hospice scripts to you.
Partner with Plastic Surgeons
Plastic surgeons are always busy. Work with one, and you’ll find yourself with a stream of new pharmacy patients. Plastic surgeons have many needs for prescription medications for their patients (pre-surgery, post-surgery, Rx and OTC, compression items, non-surgical-related prescriptions, etc.). As their pharmacist, you’ll always want to keep their preferred products in stock and ready for patients. The prescriptions are often cash revenue to your pharmacy. In fact, many surgeons include medication costs in their surgery price as an all-in-one price. Surgeons want their patients to receive the absolute best service, so an independent pharmacist like you is what they’re looking for.
So, how do you solicit plastic surgeons? First of all, make sure you have materials about your pharmacy geared specifically towards plastics. Here are some opening questions you can ask them.
- Do you have a local pharmacy your patients trust and love?
- Do you have particular products you want your patients to use?
- Would you like to improve your patients’ pharmacy experience?
- Would you be interested in optimizing all of your and your patients’ pharmacy needs?
Is this business you’d like to go after to improve the growth of your pharmacy? If so, begin talking to these practices. You’ll realize that you can take these concepts from plastics and apply them to other types of surgeons, such as dental surgeons, OB/GYNs, or orthopedic physicians.
Be consistent, and you’ll successfully gain new patients. Execute these tactics consistently, and see your profit rise.
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.
