The following is a guest article by Yoni Lavi, Founder and CEO at Qtrac
Few things should take priority over access to necessary medications, particularly prescriptions. However, managing your prescription medications at the pharmacy isn’t always easy. Staff shortages, constantly changing regulations, and growing demand make it difficult to keep up with optimizing procedures and protocols.
Often busy environments, pharmacies are notorious for long waits, overworked employees, and frustrated customers. To make matters even more complicated, many new programs, including one recently announced by Walmart, are expanding pharmacists’ roles in testing and treating illnesses. Additional responsibilities like these are increasingly common in pharmacy stores around the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which only makes ensuring an organized, high-quality experience for customers more challenging.
Addressing Common Pharmacy Challenges
Especially in the healthcare space, safe and comfortable in-person interactions are crucial. The diversity amongst clientele can make improving the efficiency of these environments particularly challenging, as pharmacies must consider specific audience attributes such as:
- Individual health status
- Type of service needed (pickup, drop off, etc.)
- Disability accommodations
- Vaccination status
- Necessary or preferred level of privacy
- Language accommodations
With limited time, space, and bandwidth, these locations often struggle to remain productive while prioritizing the various needs of their clientele. Modern queuing technology, however, may present the solution to many of the inefficiencies commonly experienced at pharmacies by effectively:
Dispersing Crowds
Pharmacies can use virtual queuing technology to quickly identify and personalize service for customers, resulting in less crowding and faster service. Queuing software can be used to segment visitors based on a predetermined need and match them with the appropriate store associate. Not only does this help to streamline service regardless of what’s needed (e.g., pharmacist consultation, vaccination, pick up or drop off of a prescription), but it also betters the overall service quality.
The advanced customer segmentation achieved with digital queuing technology is also useful in maintaining safety and privacy standards. Keeping pharmacy visitors and staff healthy and protected is much easier when stores can seamlessly manage customer flow using a unified and accessible interface. For example, people who are sick can be redirected from potentially vulnerable populations, receive the care they need, and be promptly on their way. This approach, versus a traditional queuing model that requires needless physical contact, minimizes risk for everyone involved by proactively dispersing crowds.
Improving In-Store Experiences
One significant advantage of this technology is that it improves efficiency for employees while reducing wait times for customers. When employees are sufficiently engaged with their work and visitors’ needs are adequately met, everyone has a better in-store experience.
When queuing technology segments visitors, it’s leveraging staff members’ strengths so they can be more productive with limited resources. Not only does it alleviate some pressure on staff, but more targeted service also helps interactions go smoother and faster. Thanks to the data proactively captured by virtual queuing software, the right associate knows what their customer needs before the conversation even starts, personalizing the visitor’s experience and reducing wait times overall. Processing work in meaningful batches like this offers a unique operational benefit: an all-in-one service that keeps waiting at a minimum.
Additional Advantages of Queue Management Technology
The ultimate goal of queue management is a frictionless, enjoyable customer experience. Below are a few more ways virtual queuing software can benefit pharmacy retail stores.
Harnessing the Power of Data
Digital queuing software gathers and analyzes critical intelligence regarding customer satisfaction and internal operations. This data can reveal valuable information to the leadership team, including blind spots or strategic weaknesses that can be optimized for better performance. For example, a store can assess which services are taking the longest, which times are the busiest, and how often a visitor abandons the line.
With access to meaningful metrics that identify vulnerabilities, pharmacies can find out how to better align staffing and scheduling, leading to increased productivity. This productivity can then be measured and compared to other locations — or, in some cases, even competitors.
Giving Back Valuable Time
Visitors feel more productive when they have control over their time and personal schedule. Virtual queuing gives them this valuable autonomy because they can manage and monitor their position in the queue using their own device. This feature of digital queuing technology is particularly beneficial for pharmacies with multiple locations within a region. Customers can optimize their time by finding the location with the shortest wait time, changing their place in line if needed, and knowing for certain how long their wait will last.
Software That Prioritizes Everyone’s Needs
The value of queuing technology lies in its ability to improve everyone’s overall experience at the pharmacy. Engaged personnel and satisfied customers are the foundation of effective customer flow management. To support this, digital queuing software accounts for privacy, safety, service needs, accessibility, and individual timelines while still considering what the organization requires for operational success. With the ability to be effortlessly integrated into existing IT systems, virtual queuing systems help address growing challenges (e.g., increased demand, peak times, staff shortages) as they arise without interrupting current processes.
A progressive solution to an age-old dilemma, queue management software helps uncover inefficiencies so pharmacies can more easily identify areas for improvement and better the retail experience for all.
About Yoni Lavi
CEO and Founder of Qtrac Yoni Lavi is responsible for the global operations of the company, bringing more than 10 years of experience. His experience and leadership have been focused on developing and delivering technology-driven business services and solutions, providing outstanding client service, and driving profitable revenue growth. Yoni has successfully led strategic growth efforts at Qtrac in a variety of industries including retail, airline, construction, transportation, government, hospitality, banking, education, stadium and arena, healthcare, and entertainment.
