I’m a bit obsessed with retail customer service. Few things can make or break a shopping experience like the courtesy and care you receive from a store employee. I’m also fascinated by factors that keep the front-line retail employee motivated and engaged to continually provide excellent service. There’s a lot of good stuff out there on the topic (a Google search of “how to keep retail employees motivated” produces 19,600,000 results!), much of it complex, because, well, people are complex. Yet there’s a simple approach we can all employ that I have no doubt will produce overwhelmingly positive results across all retail establishments.

If we want great customer service, we need to start by being great customers.

The quickest, easiest thing we can all do to raise the collective quality of customer service in retail is to recognize great service immediately when we receive it. The person you praise one day will be shopping in your store the next. I'm not talking about an online survey to be filled out later, which is still important. I'm talking real-time, face-to-face, when commending a person matters most and can have the most impact.

We all know that star ratings in pharmacy are tied to patient outcomes but the star ratings we are talking about are related to improving online reviews. We are clearly in an experience based economy right now, and the Millennial generation of consumers love to share those retail experiences online through social networks and online review sites like, Yelp. As a small business owner, you must be aware of your online reviews/ratings as this can make or break your reputation in your community.

Think about this for a second, 10-15 years ago you may have told 6-8 friends, family, & neighbors about a very positive or negative customer experience over a dinner party or on the sidelines of a youth soccer field. In today's world, each customer interaction has the potential to permanently be rated online for tens of thousands of people to see. Some of the more elaborate reviews such as "United Breaks Guitars" have gone viral with millions of views. 

According to the Institute of Medicine-Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, the definition of Patient-Centered Care (PCC) is “Healthcare that establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients' wants, needs, and preferences and that patients have the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in their own care.”

Today, the concepts of patient-centered care, customer experience, and personalization have finally been linked together and collectively define the heart and mission of today’s pharmacy practice. This specific focus on the patient/customer experience is becoming a growing trend we are seeing across retail chains and independent pharmacies alike. Everyone is striving to figure out how they can better focus on the patients’ unique needs, how to ensure a more delightful customer experience, and how to promote a more personal touch at the pharmacy counter that will engage patients, encourage medication adherence, and inspire customer loyalty.

It’s a simple fact, people no longer think of their pet as just domesticated animals, but more of a member of the family. Because of this transition, sales of U.S. pet products and services are continuing to grow. In 2014, sales for pet products and services reached $73 billion dollars and according to experts these sales will only continue to grow.

Why is this information important to you? Because pets are just another way for you to expand the sales to your existing customers as well as attract more customers to your pharmacy! By filling prescriptions for animals, you open your pharmacy up to be a one-stop-shop, people are able to pick up their whole families medication all in one spot.

Understanding seasonal allergies is fundamental to effective allergy management. The more you understand the what, why, when, and where associated with seasonal allergies, the better you can counsel and educate parents and children about ways to help reduce allergy symptoms. The ALLERGY acrostic below is designed to highlight the important things you should know and remember about allergies, as you counsel and support your young customers and their families.