3 Keyways to Present Your Pharmacy as a Good Health Destination
Independent pharmacies consistently ask themselves what they need to make their organization more professional, engaging, and, in return, more profitable. Many pharmacies stick to the same worn-out approaches and concepts, resulting in decreased revenue and increased challenges for remaining competitive in their communities. Our goal is to see our pharmacy members spend much less time stressing over their approaches and devote more time to delivering services and products that are professional, valuable, economical, and engaging for their consumers.
1. Knowing What’s Important to Your Customer
An independent pharmacy’s customer is not only the one who walks through the doors. Your visitors include the community, as well. Understanding your community is just as important as understanding your customers. When considering research that’s crafted to grab your customers’ attention, consider outlying factors, such as community demographics (age, percentage of gender, average income, education levels, etc.) Knowing what your customers want while having the added benefit of understanding outlying patterns and influencers will help you tailor your business services, products, and programs better.
2. Make Your Pharmacy a Valuable Community Resource and Win on Both Sides
Make your local pharmacy a go-to resource for the community. Community-centered programs will not only solidify your organization as a healthcare authority, but they can also position it as a healthcare destination. Designing these programs to focus on particular conditions can help your organization realize better patient outcomes, which will win you the customer’s loyalty and help build your reputation as proactive contributors in raising a referrer’s CMS Star Rating, ensuring the business continues to be referred! For example, a few programs offered through local pharmacies that have shown great success are:
- Understanding Type 2 Diabetes
- How to Eat Healthy to Better Manage your Diabetes Diagnosis
- Incorporating Better Exercise Habits for Healthier Lifestyles
What do these all have in common? Each program can help patients with Type 2 diabetes better manage their chronic illness, help keep patient’s adherent with their insulin, and inform and assist patients in the making – and sticking with – better lifestyle choices. It’s a valuable service that will see patient benefits, as well as referrer Star Rating stability, while also increasing your pharmacy’s chances of repeat customer business.
The key is to know your market and tailor the programs you offer to that market. Happy customers return, and returning customers are loyal. That loyalty can translate into more significant profit margins.
3. Utilizing Social Media and the Customer Testimonial
Social media is the perfect place to highlight customer testimonials. Be sure to pepper into your social site’s positive online reviews and ratings that will entice potential customers into your store and increase the likelihood of having your business referred to a friend or family member.
Because consumers are doing more research, you can pretty much bet that they’re going to investigate your pharmacy before they come in to check it out. Be sure to have a solid social media profile (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) for these potential customers to browse. (Added benefit: The social media sphere is a great place to drill down into more detailed demographics on your community – analytics are widely-available for more-precise targeting).
Further, pull those customers in by offering digital newsletters containing health news and coupons, and deals on upcoming sales in your store. This will build your relationship with your customer while also making your contacts. Invest in social media sooner rather than later – and be sure to keep your sites up to date, as old, outdated information can be viewed as a negative by potential customers.
Closing Thoughts
Branding your company as an industry expert is a definite move toward building a presence. Credibility will grow when you take an avid interest in preventative care and maintain common conditions that may be prevalent in your community. By implementing these actions consistently, your pharmacy will build credibility as a go-to authority for more health-conscious customers and gain a solid reputation as a Good Health Destination within your community.
Not sure where to start? Through our partnership with Aspire Health, alliantRx has the solutions to build your pharmacy and better your brand. To learn more about our solutions, please connect with us.