What if we told you it’s possible to thrive during this holiday bustle?

This year’s busy retail season is crazier than ever, and you may be wondering how you will survive Christmas 2016. We know firsthand that major shifts in customer volume and stock shortages are hard to predict. Nevertheless, we want to assist you in taking care of the things that you can control. And, to help you eliminate stress and make sure your operations run smoothly, we created a simple list of practical tips that will help prepare your pharmacy to thrive through the New Year.

1. Make sure your shelves are properly stocked, so customers who come in to purchase specific items don’t have to wait in the long lines just to ask if you have more. On the flip side, avoid packing shelves with too much merchandise: displaying fewer items creates the sense of urgency and motivates customers to buy while supplies last.

1. Place products strategically throughout the store to maximize sales. Get creative – prepare a speedy recovery kit: tissue paper, hand sanitizer and cold medicine – and display it next to the checkout line or in the areas where customers are waiting on their prescriptions. This will help sell individual items faster, and your patients will know that you care. Eager to introduce new items or promote existing merchandise? Display themnext to your holiday best sellers for more visibility and they won’t go unnoticed.

1. Organize selling floor and supply areas so additional merchandise is readily available for quick restocking, especially during rush hours and after store closing. The last thing you want to do is to spend time trying to hunt down a specific product, especially while your customer is waiting.

1. Consider extending holiday hours these last few days of 2016. Everyone is busy and your time-crunched customers will appreciate the convenience of having an extra hour of uninterrupted shopping. There should be nothing more important than serving your customers.

1. Evaluate last year’s holiday sales to plan and effectively organize staff: reports that are available in your POS system may provide an insight on customer count for a specific time frame, allowing you to quickly identify peak retail shopping hours and schedule more employees for when you need them. Slack times may also be leveraged with preassigned projects: for example, frontline employees who normally run cash registers can help organize shelves and clean the floor during less busy hours.

1. Prepare your staff: for some of your employees this may be their first retail season. Working through holiday hassle and bustle can be overwhelming, so make sure your team understands the responsibilities and has all available resources to effectively prioritize and complete tasks.

1. Use sales games as positive reinforcement to reward your staff when they practice higher level selling skills. For example, if the average items per sale in your store is 2.27 items, you should reward them for higher results – like selling 4 or more items to a single customer or achieving a daily average of 3 items per sale or more. To hit those goals, they will have to try harder at adding-on with every customer. The key to making games work for your employees is to make them fun!

We hope that our holiday tips will help you bring down stress levels, boost morale and spread cheer and joy among your team members and patients!

What are your best practices this Holiday Season? Let us know in the comments…

Interested in acquiring more out-of-the box ideas that will diversify your pharmacy?

Whether your goal is to skyrocket your profits, become a stronger leader, increase organizational efficiency or protect your assets, we invite you to join the industry’s movers and shakers (just like you!) at the PDS All Star Super-Conference. Join us for the next event in February! Click below for details.

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“Success comes in cans, not in cannots.” as PDS 2017 keynote speaker Joel Weldon is known for saying. The pharmacy myth that you cannot improve patient outcomes while increasing profits is a dangerous and false self-limiting prophecy; though it is understandable why some would believe it. Driving profits while simultaneously adhering to the best interest of the patient seems too good to be true.

Whether you are focusing on patient outcomes, sales, customer service, or leadership, it all comes down to the relationship you build with your patients that determines the success of your efforts. At PDS2017 Joel Weldon’s presentation “Elephants Don’t Bite! Little Things Make the Difference” will address how your team can take small actions to make a big difference in patient outcomes. PDS has identified 3 ways you can start taking action today. Read on to find out.

Every profit opportunity you implement should directly tie into the goal of better patient outcomes; this is the undercurrent of each strategy Pharmacy Development Services (PDS) provides our members, time and again. Some of our most profitable programs such as our SyncRx+ training rely solely on improving patient outcomes through engagement. The dedicated practice of routine comprehensive medication reviews and medication management pays in the currency of increased patient wellness, understanding, and compliance along with the growth of your bottom line.

PDS offers an array of member programs that produce pharmacy profits and address the patient’s best interest. You need only look at programs such as Bedside Delivery, Clinical Services Profit Ignitor, and Diabetes Care Club. Our point is that sacrificing profits for better patient outcomes is a myth that is dangerous to the pharmacy owner who believes it.

Now that this myth has been debunked, what is the process to ensure a constant focus on improved wellness and profits?

The short answer is, your pharmacy team. The slightly longer answer is, by focusing on the little things you and your team do every day. This leads us to something we’re very fond of saying at PDS:

It’s all the little things done exactly right that separates the ordinary stores from the extraordinary ones.

Your patients’ wellness starts the moment they walk into your store. Creating a culture where your team is knowledgeable of medications, drug interactions, and store products, will expand your patient wellness significantly.

Here are 3 ‘little things’ your team can do to focus on better patient outcomes while ensuring pharmacy profits:

1. Provide ‘upsolutions’ to customers that walk through the door. 
   For example, a team member can suggest solutions such as probiotics to offset antibiotics, or supplements for nutrient depletion — all to ensure patients receive the best therapeutic outcome from their prescriptions.
2. Train your pharmacy team regularly.
   Providing your team with the proper knowledge of pharmacy products, basic drug interactions, and common upsolutions will give your store the edge it needs to keep the customers happy and healthy.
3. Create meaningful conversations with patients.
   Your team is in the position to have impactful and informative conversations with patients. Train them to treat every interaction as an opportunity to ask questions, impart knowledge, and coach your customers toward adherence and improved outcomes.

Want more? At the 2017 PDS All-Star Super-Conference, one of our keynote speakers, Joel Weldon, dug deep into how the little things can make the largest difference in your pharmacy, namely on patient wellness and profitability.

Missed the 2017 conference? No problem! You can register now to attend next conference in February!

The Walking Dead (TWD) series has captured the dark imagination of TV audiences over the past six years, and fans (many of whom work at Pharmacy Development Services) are counting down for the season premiere this Sunday. We’ve identified the top three TWD lessons that independent pharmacy owners can apply to running their business.

You may be thinking, “What can a zombie show teach me about running a pharmacy?”

Ok, so you aren’t facing literal life and death decisions in a post-apocalyptic world, but pharmacy owners everywhere are facing significant changes in an industry that is fighting to survive and thrive — just like Rick Grimes and his team. Continue reading “3 Independent Pharmacy Lessons from The Walking Dead”