Building Patient / Customer Loyalty

As a pharmacy owner, your business thrives on repeat business.

Picture this, a customer walks into your pharmacy and hands you a new prescription. If on a maintenance drug, you hope they come back next month for the refill. Keep in mind the chains offer money to transfer prescriptions to their stores. So, you have that to consider. Besides hoping they will come back isn’t a good idea if you want to be a successful business owner. You need to be more proactive than that. If they are on a one time medication such as an antibiotic or pain medicine, you may never see them again.

Regardless of the prescription type, the action you take next is very important. One thing you can do is look at the Rx’s you filled from the day before. Print out a list of the patients with new prescriptions. During slow times, have your employees make a few calls.

Here is a sample of a simple script:

Pharmacy Employee - Hello Mrs. Smith. This is Tom from Pharmacy R Us. Yesterday you came in with a new prescription and I wanted to follow-up to see if you have any questions.

Mrs. Smith - So nice of you to call. No one has ever called me from a pharmacy before and I have tried all of the chains. (See you have already impressed Mrs. Smith).

Pharmacy Employee - So, how is the new medicine? Do you have any questions or concerns that our Pharmacist can answer for you? I will be happy to put the pharmacist on the phone if you need to talk to him/her.

Mrs. Smith - No, I really don’t have any questions yet. Can I call you if anything changes?

Pharmacy Employee - yes, please do. We don’t think any question is too silly. So, please call us if anything (regardless of how small it may seem) concerns you. Our goal is to build a long-term relationship with you. What concern you, concerns us. We look forward to seeing you next month.

Mrs. Smith - Wonderful! Thank you!

Do you see how simple and painless that call can be? The best part is it doesn’t cost you a dime. Your employees have slow times of the day and can make these calls easily.

Now, Mrs. Smith may or may never call with a question or 2. If she calls, be sure to take care of her with enthusiasm. She has friends who would love to have that kind of experience with their pharmacist as well. Thus, this not only builds customer loyalty but can help bring in new customers too.

You don’t need to try to compete with the chains by throwing money out there. You can if you want. However, doesn’t it make more sense to provide your patients with the best customer service possible?