Customer Service in the Pharmacy Setting
We all know customer service can be one of the most difficult aspects of retail and is a supraliminal stimulus to continuous quality improvement (CQI) in a healthcare setting.
I’d like to take a minute to discuss customer service, and how there exists an inextricable relationship between the quality of service and positive customer consistency. In a pharmacy setting, a pharmacist can better from the increased number of times they are visited by their patients. Proper, safe consultation has become an extremely important aspect in what makes a pharmacist great. People are happy when they are given what they want. Objectively speaking however, there is more to it than just walking into a pharmacy and being given what you may have come for.
There exists 5 provisions that improve the overall “moment of truth” for an individual, where he or she makes their interpretation of the quality of service. These provisions include:
- Reliability
- Responsiveness
- Assurance
- Empathy
- Tangibles
I have worked in multiple customer service settings including clothing stores, restaurants, and both a Rite Aid, and Walgreens pharmacy. Undoubtedly, responsiveness is a very difficult provision to keep satisfied due to the enforced controlled aspects of practice that meets the uncontrollable demand of a patient. Throw it in during rush hour around ⅚ o’clock and it seems almost impossible. This provision is a variable of work flow; the better trained the staff is, the more everybody gets along and respects one another, the more efficient the workflow paces.
Assurance and reliability has become not only expected in a healthcare setting, but actually thought of being completely safe when disclosed at a pharmacy; impart due to HIPPA laws, training, and requirements. Negative reinforcement is used to assure both of these provisions amongst employees, as “our jobs” are at stake if they are ignored.
The care for tangibles may be person-dependant, but everybody wants to walk into a clean environment. It is a lot easier to keep books clean rather than a vast majority of medications that are constantly being moved, as well as the front of a store containing public goods. Department stores contain more staff members, who are less busy than those working in the pharmacy and can help people quicker and easier. These are just a couple reasons why matching a pharmacy to a bookstore and department store is more of a limitation rather than a fair comparison. Overall, the important takeaway from this is not to outcompete stores of different nature, but stores of similar nature (other pharmacies).
These 4 provisions work to help aid with lack of consistency, but it seems to be subconscious to a patient at the bowel of empathy. I have personally noticed that empathy is by far the most important provision. Patients don’t want you to think of them as a familiar face or number, but as a friend (someone they can trust). Even pretending to care about a customer’s day improves their overall interpretation of the whole store. A positive interaction alone with one staff member can really impact patient experience. In a world designed by authority and numerals, we think of the term “professional” as a blockade to acting “human”. Empathy helps to promote customer consistency, which keeps people enduring the original personal aspects of the generation before technology. Things like comfort and trust play a huge role in this and it is important not to forget about during your 9–5. Good luck!
