Last month, online retail giant Amazon made waves throughout the business world as it was announced that the company would be cutting a $13.7 billion check to acquire health-conscious grocery chain Whole Foods.

Having already pulled significant market share from brick-and-mortar retailers, Amazon is now in a unique position to begin drawing customers from large supermarket chains as well. But it isn’t just grocery chains taking notice.

This article originally appeared in the June 2017 issue of America’s Pharmacist, published by the National Community Pharmacists Association, Alexandria, Va. Reprinted with permission.

Looking for a simple and effective way to grow sales in your pharmacy? Consider promoting medication flavoring. It just might boost both your profits and improve word-of-mouth recommendations from happy patients.

Recently I spoke with five successful pharmacy managers who make it a point to offer medication flavoring. And, while four of them charge for the service, none of them say the modest fee is the reason they promote flavoring. So why do these innovative pharmacists give customers the option to choose the taste of their liquid medicines?

Patient empowerment.

That seems to be the buzzword in health and wellness these days. We’ve been using it as it relates to medicine flavoring for the past few years.

Last fall, I saw John McNeil (President of Global Sales and Services for Tesla) speak at a marketing conference. He spoke about selling without selling, a  fascinating concept that can be adopted by many pharmacists who don’t want to be perceived as sales people, but would rather be thought of as problem solvers.

For independent pharmacies, it is important to find a differentiator from your competition. Most larger pharmacies often have more resources to dedicate towards marketing their services, finding convenient locations and building larger teams. However, smaller, independent pharmacies have one area in which they can definitely win: providing a better, more personalized customer experience that can be flexible based on their customers.

By offering an exceptional customer experience, your pharmacy can build a loyal following. So, one goal should be to provide a positive and personalized shopping experience that will keep customers coming back. Here are three suggestions:

Location, location, location. When it comes to retail pharmacy, the old adage is true, your location can make or break your business. Unfortunately, you don’t always have the best choice of real estate for your pharmacy, or your once ideal location becomes less so because a doctor’s office moves away or a competitor moves in.