Importance of service development for pharmacy

This new need is largely due to the increase in both physical and, in recent years, online competition. As a result, pharmacies are being forced to move away from the traditional model focused on dispensing to a customer/patient-oriented pharmacy, in which sales and dispensing are complemented by information and expert advice, in addition to offering as many services as possible to provide the added value demanded by the customer.

You can count on the assistance of Functional Wellness Network, which provides you with a 360-degree view of the state of the market, customer needs and technological advances in the pharmacy, to carry out this transformation in the most satisfactory way possible.

The service pharmacy

The basis of the new service-oriented pharmacies is a new type of customer interested in the pursuit of wellness and in knowing his or her health in order to protect and strengthen it.

This type of customer, dominant in the market, is in constant search of new experiences, services and health-oriented offers. They are information seekers, both offline and online, and are also great prescribers, so they can be very interesting for pharmacies.

When implementing the most interesting services, the following factors should be taken into account to ensure their success.

-Environment

One of the most important elements to take into account when establishing the ideal services for our pharmacy are the actions of our competitors, as well as the type of customer that comes to us or that we want to attract.

For example, if we have a large number of young families in the vicinity, services or workshops on infant feeding or attention to measuring nutritional levels could be very popular, but it is very important to make sure that we do not hold a workshop with the same or very similar subject matter held by a nearby pharmacy.

In terms of competition in the sector, we must also pay attention to the online environment, which is growing and worrying in equal parts. The only way to compete with this new form of sales is to offer what is not available online: attention and service.

-Team

If we want to offer the best possible quality in our services, it is essential to have good professionals, experts in their field, who provide the necessary expertise to guide and advise customers. If we want to implement a nutrition service, it is advisable to have a nutritionist and an antioxidant scanner.

One of the most important elements to take into account when establishing the ideal services for our pharmacy are the actions of our competitors, as well as the type of customer that comes to us or that we want to attract.

-The service offering

Based on the authorized services, we can start from the most basic ones, the so-called pharmaceutical care services (dispensing, pharmaceutical indication and pharmacotherapeutic monitoring), those that constitute the mission of pharmacists.

Therefore, the whole team must be aware of the importance of asking the customer about their symptoms or needs, as well as being motivated to advise and guide them towards the best choice according to their case.

In addition to these services, we can offer all those for which we are prepared in equipment and means, have the necessary demand and offer added value for the health of customers.

The services associated exclusively to prescription that a pharmacy can offer can be:

• Glucose, cholesterol and antioxidant control.
• Pharmacotherapeutic follow-up.
• Methadone maintenance and dispensing program.
• Pulse measurement, blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM).

The services linked to advertising pharmaceutical specialties can be much more varied and have as their main objective to build customer loyalty and maximize the pharmacy’s profit.

• Some of them may be:
• Nutrition service.
• Smoking cessation.
• Weight and height.
• Hair diagnosis.
• Oral-dental health assessment workshop with a dental hygienist.

All these services require, to a greater or lesser degree, planning and monitoring by the pharmacist and his team to ensure their proper functioning.

It is essential that the services we offer are carefully managed, planned and monitored.

-To make the services known

Now that we have the services planned, the specialized team and the spaces prepared, we need to make them known to the clients.

There are two ways to promote our services that can be complementary: offline and online.

-Offline promotion: will be done from the pharmacy itself and, if we do it correctly, it will help us to improve our daily service.

For example, and returning to the nutrition service, if a customer arrives interested in a dietary supplement, we can take the opportunity to ask a series of questions that will provide us with more information about the customer (if they want to lose weight, if they are on a diet, if they have consulted a professional, etc.); this information will allow us to guide them to our service.

-Online promotion

On the other hand, online communication will complement the work done from the pharmacy.

We must plan the use of all the media at our disposal to generate quality content through which we can attract new customers. We can generate posts on our blog or media of interest, as well as communicate it on our website and our social networks on a regular basis.

Both ways of communicating can be very effective and, if we also show interest and know how to advise and inform, we will be able to generate prescribing customers for these services.

-Follow up on purchases

When the customer makes a purchase of one of the recommended products, we must register it and, in this way, we will get as much information as possible from the customer. With this data, we will be able to track their purchases and communicate news about services and products of interest to them.

The future of the pharmacy is based on getting closer to customers/patients, offering advice and services dedicated to their well-being and health. A close and specialized care is very necessary in these times.

At Functional Wellness Network we want to showcase natural functional ways to improve overall health and prevent disease, and most importantly, we offer turnkey solutions on our products and services to the Healthcare industry to help you increase your revenue by offering cash services that are very efficient for your community and build community loyalty.

If you want to know everything we can do for your business, visit us on our website or you can attend our free webinars on Wednesdays by registering on our website.

www.funcionalwellnessnetwork.com