Whenever I hear the term “professional services” in pharmacy, I shake my head. This is because pharmacies are in the business of helping the community with their health, not to complete their tax returns.
Since I am a marketer through and through, I will always use terminology that makes the most sense to the consumer. So, in this instance its patients and for them I believe health services is the perfect messaging. Besides, every health service is designed to assist someone with their health!?! So, bam that term is like songbirds to my ears.
Ok, I am about to make another bold statement! Health services are the future of pharmacy. Recently, I was reading the Guild 2021 Digest and they noted there is
“a need for pharmacies to diversify into services beyond dispensing prescriptions to maintain growth in their businesses. Indeed, this is what is occurring, with many successful community pharmacies responding to the changing business landscape by moving to a greater services orientation through, for instance, incorporating dedicated consultation rooms for the provision of professional health programs and services.”
So, as you can see if you’re not already dedicating some time strategising about the health services in your pharmacy, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Today, I am going to talk you through the marketing side of health services. I think you will be surprised with some of the suggestions as marketing isn’t as hard as one might assume.
Let’s begin!
Selecting the right health service
As we’re aware as a pharmacy you have a variety of health services to choose from. However, just because you’re able to offer a particular service, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for your pharmacy. This is because every pharmacy has its own target audience and therefore, different needs and wants. For example, a pharmacy who has a focus on senior health, may not need a baby nurse or scales.
So, when deciding to introduce a new service into your pharmacy, you must ask yourself the following questions:
• Who will buy this service?
• How will this benefit my community?
• How do I educate its value?
When you answer these questions, you’re saving yourself a heck of time. If you have ever watched any of mine or JT’s webinars, you would have heard us preaching about the importance of time in a pharmacy. Between dispensing a script, filling a stock order, or customer service, you and your team are busy! So, any business strategy must have a well thought plan. This most certainly includes your health services; they must make business sense. If you’re investing on resourcing and your own time to launch this service, it must engage your target audience.
Remember, only select a health service that makes sense to your patients.
Training
This might seem a little out of place in a marketing blog. However, marketing is all about relationships and communication, therefore training is key. A common issue I see when I visit pharmacies is the health services is dependent on only one or two team members. That meaning their responsible for the operations, marketing, and execution. However, for health services to work, it must be a collective effort. Why? Because your patients may not be aware of the value of a service if they happen to engage with the wrong team member. For example, a patient comes in on Saturday night and shares about their snoring and inability to have a good night’s sleep. Since the weekend staff have not been briefed correctly about sleep studies, they do not qualify this patient for the service. That means, the opportunity of booking a sleep study with this patient is lost.
Training for each service needs to happen with each team member. This doesn’t mean they have to be aware of the full procedure of the service, but simply how to promote and communicate its value to a patient. That way your service is being given the exposure it needs to blossom.
Promotional campaign
Once you have selected a health service, trained your team, it is now time to promote! Now, promotional campaigns must have the theory of the long game not the short one. It takes around ten touch points for a customer to remember a brand. So, I want you to embody that philosophy with any campaign you may launch for your pharmacy.
So, you need to ensure that you educate your patients about the health service on channels that will reach them. These can include workshops, social media, email marketing and flyers just to name a few. Just like your services, your channels must be designed to engage your target audience. This meaning, only using channels that they use too. If your audience is weighted female and under 40, then Instagram might be a great choice! However, if you’re wanting to target over 55 males, then I would suspect email marketing or Facebook might work better for you.
Set up a plan for the next three months, remember to be creative! You can use social media to host live videos asking questions about the service. Send your patients an email with a survey to see if they qualify for the service or create a flyer with a QR code which leads directly to a booking code for the service on your website. My number one recommendation is consistency and make it engaging!
Lastly, tracking and measurement
Working with a team of accountants has its perks! Because I am grown to love data as much as they do. As we discussed before everything you do in your pharmacy must have purpose. So, when you launch a new health service, measurement is vital. My recommendation would be to track the bookings of the service monthly and look at the insights of any marketing activities (email marketing: open rates, social media engagement), this is so you have the birds eye view of how your health service is tracking. From the data you can make informed decisions on how to grow your service or perhaps the service is not the right for your patients. Please note with any service please give it at least 12 months before making any cuts.
Well, I hope this blog has inspired you to look at all your health services and start planning. Remember, with anything it requires time, nurturing and consistency! I can’t wait to book a health service with you soon.
Want to launch your pharmacy’s marketing strategy? Check out our dedicated pharmacy marketing course. Your team will complete weekly lessons to create a comprehensive marketing plan at the end!