Every business is facing more competition nowadays. More online retailers are appearing, delivery channels are becoming slicker, and prices can’t really get any lower. If you want to succeed among the noise, you need to be able to offer something that your competitors can’t. Delivering excellent customer service is becoming more important than ever.
If someone receives poor customer care, they have more than enough alternatives to switch to. But what does customer service in the digital age look like? It needs to be more immediate, more personalized, and more intuitive. The pharmaceutical industry has an opportunity to deliver all this and more. Here are two of the ways pharmacists are changing the face of their customer service model.
Inventory
It wasn’t too long ago that a pharmacy inventory system consisted of someone sat in a stock room with a clipboard and pen, counting every single item and writing it down. Organized pharmacies may have implemented checking-off systems where, each time you took a product, you checked it off, but it still required someone to go through it all at least once a month to make sure everything tallied up. In short, it was manual and time-consuming and open to human error.
With point of sale (POS) software, that’s no longer the case. In real-time, products are counted and itemized as they’re scanned through the till points. When inventory hits a threshold, it will either create an alert to order more or may even automatically order some for you. No longer will you need to deal with out-of-stock items catching you unawares, and your customers need never be without essential medication ever again.
Communication
Transactions and behavioral data are captured in real-time, which means you know precisely what products are selling – and which aren’t. When you overlay other data such as seasonality or promotional offers, you start to paint a picture of what influences customer purchasing behavior – and this gives you an opportunity to shape their experience better by providing incentives and triggers to nudge them into action.
Your customers benefit because you will not only begin to mirror their natural behavior but also present them with more relevant and targeted communications and messaging; you’ll give them what they want before they even know it themselves.
Does your pharmacy focus on your customers enough? Become more customer-centric and create a clear differentiation against your competition. Find out how a pharmacy POS supplier can help you install your own POS solution.
