The resistance of many pharmacists to expanding their bricks and mortar community pharmacy businesses into the online space is understandable. Businesses were founded (and have thrived) on the principles of community. The clue is in the name, right? And you don’t want to lose that face-to-face interaction, where you know every patient who walks into your pharmacy. But expanding your pharmacy online does not mean your business becomes less personal. In fact, it’s the complete opposite.

The reality of going digital

The problem pharmacies are actually dealing with is overpopulation. There are simply too many people with too many prescriptions to serve effectively any more. Not without changing the system.

On prescription volume alone, many pharmacies are drowning in workload. And it isn’t scalable. The more prescriptions you get, the more work you have to do, and the prices are fixed.

The only variable you can change is how quickly you can manage that workload. Decrease the amount of time you’re spending on administrative tasks that can be automated. That’s why dispensing robots, prescription collection points, e-commerce and prescription reordering apps are so prominent at the moment in conversations about the future of community pharmacy. It’s why online pharmacies are on the rise and competing with more traditional bricks and mortar.

Unfortunately, the patients in your community will be divided in what they want from a pharmacy experience. Some care deeply about having someone to talk to face-to-face; others just want convenience. The chances are, you’re not giving either party what they want, because you’re so inundated with people walking in or calling up to get prescriptions that you don’t have time to think about anything else. So, where do you start?

Automating your pharmacy gives the people who value convenience what they want, and it frees up time that you can dedicate to the people who prefer, or need, to visit your premises. Even in a fully digitised pharmacy, people who choose to walk in still can, and you will have time to greet them properly, talk to them and care for them.

That all sounds wonderful, but you may also be thinking it’s a bit of a cliché. You’ve heard it all before. In the modern world, we’re bombarded all the time with claims of ‘saving you time’, and ‘increasing your revenue’. However, you can change the way your pharmacy works all you like, but if your community isn’t aware of the changes, or you aren’t aware of how they’d like to use your services in the first place, you could be making all that effort for nothing. 

Take prescription collection points, for example. You can install a machine, but you need people to sign up for the service in order for it to do its job effectively and free up your time. And the kind of people who value convenience will search for those convenient options online. If your pharmacy isn’t online, then may never find your solution, even if it’s perfect for them.