Wow, what a concept! After reading Janelle Barlow’s book, “A Complaint is A Gift”, my outlook on how to handle customer complaints was changed forever! The book talked about the importance of getting feedback, especially negative feedback, from customers. The take away is that complaints are not problems to be avoided – complaints are actually gifts to be welcomed. What a great way to think about negative feedback!

Complaints are important for several reasons,

·         You don’t know how to improve your product or service if you don’t know what’s wrong.

·         Customer complaints can give you ideas for new products, services and a way of doing things different.

·         Complaints give you valuable information about what’s important to people.

Complaints also tell you that the customer...

As a fellow business owner, I would like to share with you one of best training topics for both you and your entire staff. This should be introduced immediately upon being hired and at your next employee meeting. The sooner the better.

I used this technique in my store many times when a notice a staff member that showed a little attitude or was frustrated for some reason.  In fact, your entire staff needs to be aware and constantly reminded of this simple but easily forgotten topic. It’s the only reason why you’re in business and the only reason why your employees even have a job.

Here’s why.

Over the years I have learned that complacency in the workplace is the down fall of most businesses. And once you recognize it, it should be wiped out immediately.

A study found that the average American business loses 15% of its customer base each year.  

·         68% of customers who stop trading from one business and...

For many pharmacy owners, managing the daily operations is a full-time and even a borderline 24/7 job. While you may try to play the Jack of all Trades, you've probably felt like there's never enough time to do it all.

As a result, it's common for marketing to become an afterthought for pharmacy owners. You're already struggling with the daily prescription volume, phone calls from customers, doctors and vendors, and all the other constant interuptions throught out the day, how could you possibly add another thing to your list?

With email marketing, however, promoting your products and services of the pharmacy and connecting with clients becomes a whole lot easier.

Take a look at these numbers:

Email marketing delivers a return of 4,300%, is more cost effective than other forms of marketing, and it frees up your time so you can get back to running your business. And consumers love it.

The stats don't lie:

74% of consumers prefer to receive commercial communications via email.

...

With all the social media platforms, FaceBook, Instragram and Twitter - not to mention mobile marketing to smartphones - it's seems to think that retail businesses don't have to use email marketing. In fact some gurus even say email marketing is the old way of connectiong with your clients and generating new ones!

But they've been saying that for years now.

The fact is email marketing is the life blood of all marketing and should still be a major part of your marketing strategy to attract and retain clients, for the simple reason that it's still very effective.

Recent surveys says that an email is six times more likely to get a click than a tweet. Emails are 40 times more effective than Facebook at landing new clients and that email marketing has the highest conversion rate when it comes to purchasing from marketing messages - more than social media and other channels.

Think about it, most all notifiactions from insurance, banking, travel, online retailers, follow ups from...

You, your spouse, your staff, business partner and even your Clients may not want to accept that you must constantly market your businesses products and services... to generate leads and relentlessly follow up with them 'til they "buy, die or opt out". Nor do you or your staff want to mail all your customers every month or even your top 100 to say the least. But quite frankly what you want to do doesn't affect what works. Life is what it is...all of us MUST operate in the Real World and not the Should Be world. 

Therefore, instead of only doing what you do, spend more energy, thought, time, and money on Marketing What You Do and the more stable and profitable pharmacy you will have.

So, you must spend your resources on:

·         Marketing designed to attract condition specific prospects. Like weight loss, pain management, diabetics, BHRT, drug nutrient depletion and clients who are on multiple prescriptions.

...

Owning an independent pharmacy can be both rewarding and exhausting! In fact, I believe all pharmacy owners are sitting on a goldmine and with the right strategies in place the business can take you from where you are to where you want to be! And most importantly, have a lifestyle along the way!

Having a lifestyle can very a lot between each pharmacy owner! I can attest that when I opened my pharmacy back in 2011, the first thing I wanted was no nights, no weekends, no holidays and no drive thru window! Kind of sounds unheard of in the retail pharmacy business!

I wanted to own a business and not have the business own me! One thing for sure is you don’t have to be a pharmacist to own a drug store, I’m not a pharmacist. You must have a pharmacist on board that can follow directions. Over the past seven years I can proudly say, I never missed any of my three children’s activities. I attended every swim meet and cheerleading competition. These events just weren’t...

Every New Year on January 1st most everyone sets a resolution and by mid-February statistics say they are already gone by the way side. We all know we should eat better and exercise more, but how many of us know what we should do or not do in our business for 2019?

Here are a few ideas and suggestions. Pick one! Or MORE!!

·         Mail a letter, postcard or newsletter to my active customer base at least once per month. Preferably the content is direct response oriented with some type of offer or special that adds value to your customer.

·         Build long lasting relationships with my customers!

·         Get more involved with my community and give back!

·         Start delegating things that are a complete waste of my time and only focus on marketing and income generating activities.

...