How a child perceives and understands illness depends greatly on their developmental age. Kids change remarkably through ages and stages, and it is extremely helpful for parents to recognize and understand the differences. I hope that by breaking down the stages below, I provide a little bit of insight to parents as to what children are actually capable of doing and understanding at these points of development. Hopefully parents can use this information as a guideline to structure age-appropriate conversations and efforts when dealing with their sick children.

Advancing technology has really improved our efficiency and ability to do a pharmacist’s job, but unfortunately it overshadows a significant portion of the job which has traditionally been patient contact and care. In pharmacy school, we are trained in patient counseling, but today’s patients simply click “decline patient counseling” as a quick step in the check out process. Technology is wonderful in that it helps eliminate many of the tedious steps that infringe on our time as pharmacists. Theoretically, the more technology we have at the pharmacy, the more time we should have to spare to speak directly with our customers and build lasting relationships. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case.

Trust is a powerful way to capture the loyalty of a customer. It is also one of the hardest things for a business to earn, especially with younger customers. Millennials are more likely to trust people rather than companies, 73% of Millennials believe that consumers care more about their opinions than companies do. There are a lot of reasons why the Millennial generation has a hard time trusting businesses, but mainly it can be attributed to how they grew up.

Between events like, major oil spills, The Great Recession, and growing student debts, all taking place while still being very much impressionable, it is enough to make anyone lose trust in business. Millennials are going out of their way to get healthier, greener, socially conscious products and services. Products like Honest Tea, Warby Parker and Toms Shoes are becoming the norm because they are all very upfront with what they offer, and seem like the cleaner, more honest option.

If you’d like to dramatically increase the number of new customer referrals you get you may want to consider implementing a formal community relations program.

One way to start would be to find a person on your staff that is personable and trustworthy and ask them if they are interested taking the lead in a new initiative you are considering. I would suggest you not position this as a promotion but as an interesting new job related task that will let them get out of the store for a few hours each week. The idea would be to have this person get out for a few hours each week during slow times. I prefer a pharmacy technician wearing some other pharmacy related attire. This truly sets them apart as they visit with others outside your store.