Generally, the protocol for running a pharmacy is the same. You stock up on medication, fill prescriptions and sell the medicines. However, with the availability of pharmacy in every city or town, the competition becomes even more intense. This calls out for you to have some bonus factors to stay relevant and promote your pharmacy business in order to stand out from your competitors and have more buyers.
Here is a list of top tips that may just come to your rescue.
Inspect your area
It is important to examine the location of your pharmacy, the types and number of clinics and hospitals near your pharmacy area. You need to know who your customers are, how their lifestyle is and how much they earn. Such things would help you foresee their health risks. Consequently, you can introduce your services and packages to cater to their needs and also offer the medical supplies that the nearby clinics and hospitals specialise in. This would keep the locale engaged to your facilities.
Customer care
Treat your existing customers rightly. It’s as simple as that. Give them individual attention as much as possible. In return, it helps build a loyal customer base for your pharmacy practice. If you can, organise programs to help their situations like how to eat well as a diabetic, how to care for a newborn child, how to create an exercise plan etc. Besides, you can also talk to them about their struggles with a condition and offer your advice accordingly. If they become satisfied with your care and attention, they would surely recommend you to their friends and families.
Build relationships
Building relationships with your customers is essential in every business and the pharmacy business is certainly not an exception. This is the reason it is best to build relationships with other health personnel. For instance, you can promote your pharmacy by working in partnership with a doctor. You can help the doctor by managing patient’s medical check-up routine and medication file. In response, the doctor can help you by referring your pharmacy to their patients. You can exchange information about new innovations in your field and accordingly implement them in your services.
Get on social media
Given the popularity and reach of a social media, it is undoubtedly regarded as a powerful tool for free promotion. Create an online presence by involving yourself in social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Complete your social profiles with what your pharmacy has to offer. You can include special medication programs, opening and closing hours, introduction of new drugs etc. The more engagement in social media the more exposure you will get. This means you will be able to reach out to your potential customers in a massive way. If you want to save your time, make use of Hootsuite. This tool will help you manage all your social media accounts in one platform.
Get a website
You may think a having a website is necessary but the internet is full of potential customers. Google gets 1.2 million searches for the word ‘pharmacy’ only every month. That reason is good enough to get started with a website. Unlike social media, you can make your website as you really want. You can also maintain a blog on the website to give more information to your customers. A good quality website with good content will generate more traffic. It will spread the word of your pharmacy to a wider audience.
Do advertisement
It is obvious that advertising is a great way of promoting your pharmacy business. Even with the popularity of the modern online advertising, traditional means of advertisement hasn’t lost its importance. You can use flyers and pamphlets; invest in promotional products by printing your logo in stickers, t-shirts, coffee mugs and calendars for promotion. Similarly, you can participate actively in community happenings like a fundraiser, donation campaign, local competition and many more.
Be convenient
Being in a pharmacy business, you are constantly providing your services to others. When you are doing this, your customers need to feel that they are receiving their services conveniently. You can implement services like prescription delivery, online order, online counsel etc. Apart from that, you can also create sessions where you talk to your customers in confidence about different medical conditions. If customers feel that they benefit from your pharmacy, the word will soon spread and your pharmacy will be recognized.
These tips can surely help you in being a household name in your industry. So, apply them today and get your pharmacy business to the top.
