A patient sends your pharmacy an email complaining that she waited for over half an hour for her prescription and that the pharmacist was neither friendly nor helpful.
How do you handle the situation?
While criticism from patients is inevitable, learning to handle it effectively is vital to maintaining good relationships and improving your business.
Follow these four steps to effectively handle patient complaints at your independent community pharmacy.
Step 1: Take time to cool off
When you receive a complaint, it’s natural to want to respond immediately. But doing so may actually make the situation worse, especially if you’re angry or upset.
Take a break to cool down before addressing criticism and allow yourself to get some perspective. Use that time to think about what you hope to achieve when you resolve the situation, and craft your response accordingly.
For example, if a patient writes a review about the poor service he received at your pharmacy, wait 24 hours to respond. Talk to your employees to figure out what may have gone wrong. Then, write a professional apology and find out what you can do to alleviate the patient’s concern and ensure he returns to your pharmacy.
Step 2: Don’t take it personally
It’s easy to get personally offended by complaints about your business, especially when patients are rude.
But you can’t discard a complaint just because you don’t agree with it. And, you can’t allow your emotions to get the best of you.
Instead, keep a level head when reviewing a patient’s criticism, and look at it as a way to improve your pharmacy business.
Step 3: Learn from the situation
You can learn a lot about your business from your patients. If they take the time to make complaints or give suggestions, it’s important to really consider them.
For example, maybe a few patients have suggested you update your store’s interior, as it appears a bit run-down and uninviting. When you take a step back, you may notice that a few of your lights have burnt out, shelves are falling apart or dust is accumulating.
Rather than potentially losing patients to your competitors, you can take this opportunity to give your pharmacy the facelift you didn’t realize it needed.
Step 4: Find a solution
The most important step in addressing patient complaints is finding a solution. As a business owner, you owe it to your customers to make things right.
Plus, leaving situations unresolved can result in losing business.
For example, if a patient is disappointed with the long wait time she endured, apologize and find out what it would take to make her happy.
You may need to offer an incentive, such as a gift card to use on over-the-counter (OTC) products the next time she visits your pharmacy. Or, you may need to show you’ve resolved the issue by hiring additional staff members or implementing a new automation system to speed up the process.
