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:

Over the years, we've visited and worked with thousands of pharmacies and we've heard every excuse imaginable as to why a pharmacist or pharmacy technician can't do better with the flavoring service. We recognize and respect all feedback from our customers and their team members, but we know from experience that the most common objections can quickly be overcome with one simple solution. 

Pharmacy owners and operators know that retail pharmacy is not for the weak of heart. One of the biggest challenges is often keeping your pharmacists and technicians happy and engaged day-in and day-out. In any retail environment that’s not easy, but in pharmacy when you deal with insurance companies, grumpy customers and shrinking reimbursements and prescription quotas, keeping your employees happy is tough. We’re here to help.

Back to School season is officially here and there is no better time to start thinking about how to grow your business during the upcoming cough and cold season. For independent pharmacies, growing your appeal to young families will be key to growing your business. Below you’ll find five ways that implementing this service will help you attract new families to your pharmacy this fall: