Implementing a customer engagement strategy in your community pharmacy.

Consumer trends have led retailers to count mobile, marketing, and merchandising among their top digital business initiatives. Just think how many brands or businesses you know that have added online chat or expedited delivery services. Community pharmacy need not be majorly different to any other business. To compete in your market, your pharmacy will likely need to connect in more ways with customers / patients too. To implement a personalised customer engagement strategy, it's important to understand which pieces of content, promotion and engagement are going to resonate with a specific type of customer. 

At first implementing a strategy and connecting sounds very complicated but in reality it is straightforward because quality communication via different communication methods is the key to connecting with your customers.

Choosing your communication channels so you can engage with your customers whenever and wherever they prefer to shop is the key to successful customer engagement and examples include:

Think of your Strategy

Before you begin crafting a customer engagement strategy, it’s essential to know your overall business model and marketing strategy—value proposition, market definition, and approach for customer acquisition and retention. Not exclusive but strategy examples might include:

• Staffing levels. E.g., do you have enough staff to take on lots of extra services that will improve the customer experience. If not speak with your management.
• Training of staff. E.g., are staff aware of peoples different Communication styles?
• Space in pharmacy E.g., window space for posters and floor space for literature and banners.  

Make Things Easier for Your Pharmacy Customers

Anything you can do to make it easier for customers to find and use information, to put a shopping list together, to locate your store, to share their opinions, to ask questions, or to make purchases will help them be more engaged with your pharmacy. Something as simple as Active Listening quality verbal counselling and link selling will help here.

Don’t Just Inform Your Customers — Empower Them

Don’t make the mistake of giving out large new quantities of information bur rather think about what’s relevant and what will help customers accomplish their current objective, at the time and place they choose. For example when trying to engage a customer on allergies then link selling antihistamine eye drops or nasal sprays with oral tablets is very appropriate but maybe now is not the right time to be talking about winter health conditions.

Tap into The Engagement Power of Social Media

Consumers have demonstrated their passion for social media, and it’s essential that your community pharmacy is present and provides frequent updates. Establish a consistent brand presence on social media channels and engage. You can engage many people and quickly at minimal business cost but always speak to your manger reference your local social media policy first.

Surprise — and Delight — Your Pharmacy Customers

Another way to identify and optimise communication channels is to think of ways to surprise your customers. What can you do to evoke that “wow” response e.g., something that can show quick and effective health and or wellbeing benefits for example educating them on the services you offer over traditional dispensing e.g, "Pharmacy First".

Encourage interaction and feedback. The pharmacy should continually foster interaction and feedback from customers. This includes informing customers of updates, news and tips on products; swiftly responding to customer comments and messagess. Strong, enjoyable and regular customer interactions build customer loyalty, which is vital to successful customer engagement.