SUMMER 2014
NEGOTIATE THE BEST
RETAIL LEASE
TRANSFORM YOUR HR
DEVELOP A BUSINESS
ACTION PLAN
UNDERSTAND YOUR
LOCAL DEMOGRAPHY
www.guild.org.au
2
On the road to transformation…
Nick Panayiaris
Chair, Pharmacy Transformation Committee
National Councillor, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
What a delight it has been to get some great feedback on
the work the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has been doing
to support the transformation of community pharmacy!
It was especially encouraging for the Guild and QCPP to
receive positive affirmation of the transformed Excellence
magazine that now includes a broader range of articles
and information primarily based on 14 targeted pharmacy
transformation areas.
In the last edition I discussed that the Guild and QCPP have
identified 14 key areas to help you and your pharmacy business
and mapped these against four ‘pillars’ of pharmacy success —
script growth; professional services; enhancing S2/S3 revenue
(through better patient outcomes) and controlling costs.
I see pharmacy transformation as a journey; fundamentally it is
an exercise in change management. Many of you have already
implemented significant changes, building on the trust in the
community for pharmacy and working hard to be a whole-ofhealth primary care destination. However, some pharmacies need
more support and I am pleased to see so many of you reaching
out to the Guild and QCPP to provide that support.
Recently, the Guild promoted August as the ‘Month of Mapping’
encouraging access to a Guild ScriptMAP report. I believe that
ScriptMAP is the first step in any pharmacy’s transformation
journey; without it you just don’t know how large the impact
of price disclosure will be on your pharmacy.
Nearly 400 pharmacies took up the offer, gaining access to the
pharmacy industry’s gold standard for financial forecasting. If
you are creating a current business plan to maintain or grow, buy
or sell, you need to get a ScriptMAP report. ScriptMAP is still
available via www.guild.org.au/scriptmap.
Another resource we have had great feedback on is the
Pharmacy Financial Health Fact sheet (see www.guild.org.au/
business-resilience). This fact sheet includes ten separate
benchmarks enabling pharmacies to measure their business
performance against their peers in key areas such as financial
health, cost containment, efficiency and productivity, stock
turnover, and generic substitution. We were also delighted for
the success of the Pharmacy Business Network in Melbourne;
every conference session was filmed and we look forward to
offering these transformation-focused sessions online soon for
all members to access.
Again, this edition of Excellence continues the focus on tips and
tools for helping you transform your pharmacy business. There
are articles on managing your pharmacy lease, business planning,
knowing your pharmacy demographics, and more, with both Guild
and guest experts contributing. I hope to hear about your own
transformation journey soon! 
FROM THE GROUP EXECUTIVE
Andrew Matthews
Group Executive, Pharmacy Transformation Group
As Nick has outlined above, QCPP and the Guild have
focused on fourteen targeted pharmacy transformation
initiatives to help your business.
It is with some sadness that this will be my last article writing for
Excellence magazine. Though excited for my future new role
supporting credentialing of advanced practice pharmacists at a
different organisation, I will miss the many friends, colleagues,
Guild and QCPP members I have enjoyed working with over
the last five years.
What a journey it has been! We are so proud of the success
of QCPP and how it has helped improve standards across the
community pharmacy network.
Now, as we offer more through our pharmacy transformation work,
we look forward to further cementing the viability of community
pharmacy and enhancing the role of pharmacy as a trusted health
destination.
I wish to emphasise the respect I have for the staff and elected
officials of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. They work so hard
and are so passionate about community pharmacy and supporting
Guild and QCPP members. It has been an honour to work with you
all and the Guild. Thank you!
Excellence — a commitment that all Guild and QCPP staff and
officials make to community pharmacy. 
3
THINGS TO KNOW
THE NEW QCPP CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
NEW PHARMACY BUSINESS RESILIENCE KIT
QCPP has launched a new Customer Satisfaction Survey to
get your feedback on the program and services provided as
part of your assessment. This survey will provide QCPP with
the opportunity to enhance the services and products provided
to pharmacies through our quality assurance and improvement
program.
The Guild has launched a new Pharmacy Business Resilience kit
to support Guild Member pharmacies to take early action to secure
the future of their pharmacy business and better understand the
impact of Simplified Price Disclosure. The kit includes practical
and useful tools and advice on understanding your ScriptMAP
report, conversations to have with your landlord, maximising your
relationship with your accountant and liaising with your bank.
By understanding your business better, you’ll be able to better
articulate to your key business advisors and relationships the
support you need to remain profitable and successful.
The new QCPP Customer Satisfaction survey provides an
opportunity to rate your recent QCPP experience and provide
feedback or suggestions on how services can be improved.
Pharmacies will be sent access to the survey via email after their
remedial report has been submitted to QCPP, approximately two
weeks following assessment. We encourage you to participate
in the survey and we appreciate your feedback. If your pharmacy
was recently assessed, but has not received the link to the
survey, please contact the QCPP Member Services team on
1300 363 340 for assistance.
The kit is available for Guild Members from the Guild website at
www.guild.org.au/business-resilience.
CONTENTS
4
6
10
12
Discover More. Ask Your
Pharmacist
How to negotiate the best deal on a
retail lease
Change is a journey as well as a
destination
Good relationships essential
for good business
15
18
22
26
Transform your HR with the
Guild
Plan for the future of your business:
Develop a business action plan
Customer service success through
forward dispensing
Understanding the demography of your
local community
Excellence Summer 2014
4
discover
more
ASK YOUR
PHARMACIST
Natalia Webster — Communications and Marketing Officer
Trust. Service. Advice.
These three words are the epitome of community pharmacy
services and the important role pharmacists play as primary
healthcare providers. Last month, the Guild launched an
exciting and fresh campaign to encourage consumers to
Discover More. Ask Your Pharmacist. There’s more to a
pharmacy than ‘Whatchoocan-Sea’.
and introduce them to the Discover More. Ask Your Pharmacist
campaign characters.
The consumer campaign aims to strengthen community
pharmacy’s position as a primary healthcare provider by raising
the awareness of the role pharmacies play in the health care of all
Australians.
The Ask Your Pharmacist website also features pharmacy related
news. We encourage you to subscribe and stay up to date with
the issues and messages we are sharing with consumers through
the Discover More. Ask your Pharmacist campaign.
The campaign’s main objective is to promote the value of
community pharmacy and highlight the service areas that
pharmacies offer, such as pain management; after hospital care;
health checks and advice; and in-home care. See the insert in this
edition of Excellence for more information on these services.
The campaign provides pharmacies with an opportunity to consider
implementing new business projects around these services and
to capitalise on increased foot traffic or new customers entering
your pharmacy. It is a great time to consider the services you offer
now and what more your pharmacy can do and how your team can
promote these initiatives to new and existing customers.
Consumers are encouraged to visit the new Ask Your Pharmacist
website www.askyourpharmacist.com.au. The website will help
consumers locate their nearest pharmacy and better understand
the health services offered by pharmacies. This consumer website
will further explain the role of pharmacy, the pharmacy team
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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We encourage all pharmacists and their staff to become familiar
with the Ask Your Pharmacist website so you are ready to answer
any questions customers may have.
Get onboard – make your pharmacy the
preferred health destination for your
community!
If you are a Guild Member, there are four easy steps your
pharmacy needs to action to participate in the campaign: :
1. Display the Guild ‘gold cross’ Tile prominently in your
pharmacy (sent to Guild Member pharmacies in August)
2. Display the campaign materials in the FREE Starter Kit in
your pharmacy (sent to Guild Member pharmacies in September)
3. Order a free poster booster pack from
www.guild.org.au/consumer-campaign
4. Contact your State or Territory Branch with any questions.
Contact details are available from www.guild.org.au/guildbranches or email [email protected]
5
The most powerful assets for
the Discover More. Ask Your
Pharmacist campaign are the
community pharmacies across
Australia. This is why it is important
for Guild Members to prominently
display their gold cross tile, ensure
campaign materials are up and staff
are ready to provide service and
advice to customers. A prominent
gold cross tile links your pharmacy
directly with the television and
online campaign advertising.
behind the scenes of the
discover more. ask your
pharmacist campaign
The key challenge of any advertising is to create ‘cut through’,
to be heard above the noise and to be remembered by your
audience, your target market. The additional challenge for
the Pharmacy Guild, in creating the Discover More. Ask Your
Pharmacist campaign was how to represent something as unique
as community pharmacy.
Every Australian town is different and so is every person’s
experience inside a pharmacy, with staff and their services.
The imaginary world of Watchoocan-Sea was the answer and
animation was the key to making it come to life. The goal was to
create a place nobody has been to, but somewhere that everybody
can recognise and find some part of their own town. WatchoocanSea is near the bush and next to the sea, it’s full of people from
all walks of life and with different needs at their community
pharmacy. Importantly, animation has a unique ability to create a
strong emotional connection and is the ideal medium for carrying
the type of story and feel good message the Guild had in mind.
Before the final creative was developed the creative concept and
animation was shown during focus groups and through online
research, with consumers responding warmly and positively.
Importantly the creative clearly informed and communicated
the value of community pharmacy, indicating there was a high
chance of improving someone’s likelihood to visit their community
pharmacy for healthcare advice and services. Further research
is being conducted throughout December to measure the
campaign’s effectiveness, including recall of the Guild logo and
whether it has increased awareness of pharmacy as a destination
for services.
Some pharmacy services are clearly defined, like HMRs or
MedsChecks. Others flow naturally out of the advice and support
you provide every day. Through this research the Pharmacy Guild
also identified four areas that will enhance people’s understanding
of pharmacy. Pain management, health checks and advice, inhome care and after hospital care perhaps are not services in
the way we traditionally think of them, but they all represent an
expanded role of pharmacy.
An important part of this campaign is a brand new Ask Your
Pharmacist website. In addition to your community pharmacy
this is another key campaign destination for consumers. On this
website is information about how pharmacy works, more about the
services we can provide, links to medicines information and the
Find a Pharmacy portal. Why don’t you visit Ask Your Pharmacist
website so you know what customers will find there.
To watch the behind-the-scenes video and for more information
about the campaign and the four service areas you can visit the
campaign page at www.guild.org.au/consumer-campaign.
Excellence Summer 2014
6
HOW TO NEGOTIATE THE
BEST DEAL ON A
RETAIL LEASE
Marion Whalan — National Manager, Business Support
Phillip Chapman — Director, Lease 1
As a community pharmacy owner, your lease is one of the most important contracts you will ever enter into as a business.
Rent can have a huge impact on your business profit and can literally be the difference between success and failure. For
pharmacy owners setting out to secure a good deal on their lease, the better informed you are, the more empowered you
will be in negotiations with your landlord.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
I
www.guild.org.au
7
Using research to improve your business
In considering the best way to deal with your landlord, it is clear that information is key.
Be clear on what you want to achieve
There are some essential elements in
preparing to take steps to deal with rent or
occupancy costs in your business.
Go into discussions with your landlord with a clear picture of what outcome you would like
to achieve. There are some possible outcomes to consider before entering discussions.
 Preparation, research and documentation
 Reducing your lettable area
 Reducing your rental or occupancy costs
 Seeking a waiver of a rent review or
are mandatory
 Analyse your costs and how you compare
to industry benchmarks
 Put time on your side — know key
milestones in your lease agreement
 Create positive relationships with the
landlord or their agent
 Know the outcome you are seeking
series of rent reviews
 Reducing an annual rent review
 Seeking to have rental waived for
early payment
 Seeking to have rebranding, or other
such works like new signage, paid for by
the landlord
 Relocating the business
 Renewing the lease early to value add
the landlord’s investment in lieu of a
rent reduction
Before any dialogue
Know your situation. Prior preparation and research is required before any landlord meeting or discussion on rent or your retail lease.
Suggested Actions
Specific Research
Occupancy Cost Ratio (OCR — sometimes known as Rent to Sales ratio): occupancy costs for
the premises divided by the Moving Annual Turnover (MAT) as a percentage.
OCR — Calculated by dividing your total occupancy costs (include rent, outgoings etc) into your
gross turnover.
Analyse your costs
MAT — sales for a twelve month period calculated on a monthly basis. Use your sales including the
most current month available minus the corresponding month from the previous year.
Look at your OCR in two formats:
a. Occupancy Cost Retail (Front of shop only (FOS))
b. Occupancy Cost Total (FOS + PBS)
Turnover/Sales per square metre: This is your sales divided by the total number of square meters of
rentable area.
Analyse your costs against
industry benchmarks
How does your occupancy cost ratio compare to industry benchmarks? A ratio of 3% is the industry
average. A ratio below 2% is excellent. A ratio at 6% or above means you should be looking to
improve your OCR.
How does your turnover per square metre compare to industry benchmarks?
What is happening in
your business
Know your projections on the effect of price disclosure on the profitability of your business.
ScriptMAP is a reliable reporting method to use.
Know key milestones in your
existing lease
•
•
•
When is your next rent review?
When is your next significant lease event? (i.e. option/lease expiry)
Know the amortisation program of your capital/finance (i.e. when is your loan or fit out
paid down)
Know the outcome you are
seeking
•
•
•
•
•
Occupancy cost too high? – seek to reduce rental size or plan and act to increase your
retail sales
Turnover per square metre too low? – consider a reduction in lettable area
Review market pitch/branding
Be prepared to reset lease terms (i.e. extend lease for rental consideration)
Review location
Talk to Other Tenants
Some of the best inside information is from tenants already in a building. Approach your neighbors
within the property (specifically those who have just renewed their leases) and ask how things
went. What, if anything, did the landlord offer to them to stay? What terms did they agree to? Was
the landlord amiable to their requests? What you learn here may surprise you. Use this information
wisely in your negotiations/renegotiations.
Excellence Summer 2014
8
To be most effective it is imperative
that you read and understand
your lease
Even if you have found a suitable location
and worked out the “business terms,” such
as how much you will pay per square metre,
and how much of the fit out the landlord
will pay for, your negotiating job is not done.
The reason is simple — there are still all
those pages of terms and conditions in
the lease which should be evaluated to
be sure that your interests are protected.
Remember, you are planning to “live” with
that landlord for at least five to ten years,
if not longer. You need to know what the
small print means. One way or another, all
of those terms can affect your bottom-line.
If you simply sign the very official-looking
document that the landlord or their
leasing agent gravely hands you without
thoroughly understanding what all of the
terms mean, you may later discover to your
dismay that embedded in the tiny print
are clauses which can trip you up, such
as limitations on your ability to assign the
lease, duplicative maintenance charges,
site relocation requirements and kick out
provisions and the like.
Now you are ready to start the dialogue
with your landlord.
Frame the conversation
Open the dialogue around the impact on
community pharmacy due to government
intervention in the PBS through Simplified
Price Disclosure. Be prepared to state
that the current and financial impacts are
significant. Share your ScriptMAP report or
elements of it.
You wouldn’t be overstating the situation if
you used the phrase “a real game changer”.
Your opening line to your landlord can
be as simple as “we need to discuss the
future viability and changes needed for my
pharmacy to react and manage this risk;
and remain viable now and into the future.”
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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www.guild.org.au
9
Introduce others in the supply chain
Strategic lease management
Be prepared to include your wholesaler,
brand managers and franchisors into the
conversation of arriving at solutions with
your landlord.
As your lease and more so the remaining
term of your current lease has a direct
reflection on the value of your business,
managing the lease and strategically
managing renewal or extension of the
lease is critical.
Don’t be surprised if your landlord asks
you what assistance your brand/franchisor
is providing you as there will be an
expectation that the landlord is not the only
one involved in sharing the risk and effect
from the outcome.
Record, document, follow up
and deliver
It goes without saying but you need to
take notes, keep an accurate document
trail and set effective follow ups from any
meeting you have with your landlord. A
handy tip is to email or write to the landlord
after each meeting confirming the points
and views discussed. This will remove any
doubt between the parties. It would come
as no surprise that the major cause of
disputes is through the parties not having a
full understanding of the discussions held.
Documentation of all your discussions is
key. Be warned, if you don’t write it down,
you won’t be able to prove at a later date
that something was actually done, agreed
or conceded.
Keep the dialogue happening
As part of your ongoing lease management,
you should conduct a quarterly review of
your benchmarks for occupancy cost and
turnover per square metre to ensure the
processes you adopt to increase sales
and manage lease costs are delivering
improvements. If not, you will need to
review with your landlord in order to
explore other options for improvements in
your pharmacy business to build resilience
for your business.
You should be proactive in renewing
or extending leases early by creating
opportunities that may trigger such events
such as a rebranding, a mini refurbishment,
refinancing, a strategic re-positioning of
your pharmacy in accordance with your
business growth plan.
Here are some good business practices
when entering or renegotiating a retail
lease.
 As a Guild member contacting the Guild
for lease negotiation assistance
Understanding your obligations and those of your landlord when you sign a lease
 Knowing the lease requirements,
including the relevant legislative
provisions in the state or territory where
your lease will operate
 Consulting an adviser for any contract
and legal questions you may have.
At a glance
 Be prepared and do your research
before entering into lease negotiations
 Anything can be changed in the lease
by mutual consent – never just
assume “…the landlord will never
agree to that”
Know key milestones in your existing

lease — leave sufficient time to prepare
before any next significant lease event.
The information and advice contained with this article is intended to inform and assist pharmacy owners. However, the article is
necessarily generic and is not intended to provide specific advice on individual arrangements. You should always exercise your own
judgment and seek independent advice in relation to your commercial arrangements.
Excellence Summer 2014
10
CHANGE IS
A JOURNEY
AS WELL AS A
DESTINATION
Adam Casey — Business Development Manager, Guild Academy
There is an old
business saying that
goes: if you keep
doing what you’ve
always done, you’ll
keep getting what you
always got.
This adage is usually revived in times of
uncertainty and needless to say countless
pharmacy publications and conference
lectures in recent years have echoed the
sentiment that change is often a necessity.
If pharmacy is to buffer the income
pressures created by increased
competition and PBS reform one of two
things needs to occur.
What is often glossed over in the advice
of those campaigning the revolution of
pharmacy practice, is the complexity of
implementing change even within a small
business. An assessment of the pharmacy’s
procedures and resources, as well as an
action plan for implementation, monitoring
and evaluation, are in equal measure as
important as the idea for change itself.
Let’s say that after considering your local
 Improve the pharmacy’s product/service demography you decide to differentiate
offering to your current customers
 Offer your current products/services to new customers
Regardless of which path you take first, it
is inevitable that some part of your current
business and service delivery model will
need to change.
Now, if you’ve read the same pharmacy
publications and attended the same
conference lectures as I have you will
know that this is where the advice seems
to end. The case for change is made, a
few abstract suggestions are given and
you spend the next few hours dreaming of
all the positive changes you could make
to your pharmacy. By 10am the next day
however, your initial enthusiasm is replaced
with despondence as you contemplate the
staffing issues, the work flow problems
and resources necessary to achieve your
desired goals.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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your pharmacy by promoting yourself as
a destination for travel health advice and
products. The suburb has a high proportion
of baby boomers and you are often fielding
questions from them about the best way
to avoid gastro on their many holidays to
Thailand. Standing out from neighbouring
pharmacies by promoting an exceptional
travel health service is a good way to
build relationships with these customers,
increase shopper loyalty and potentially
become the dispenser for their noncommunicable disease medications.
The first step taken is often putting a sign
up in the dispensary proudly boasting
your new travel health service. For many
pharmacies, this is also the last step. Six
months go by and the new service is now
all but forgotten. You reflect and realise that
barely any new customers have enquired
about your service and so the sign becomes
just another thing to clutter the dispensary
wall.
11
Like all other aspects of the pharmacy,
effective change requires effective
management. As a concept, change
management is well practiced among our
larger industry peers. However, despite
its absence from the pharmacy school
curriculum, change management is just as
important to a small pharmacy as it is to
a multinational biotech. Whether we like
it or not, all organisations must change at
some point to remain relevant. Change
management involves the organisational
and behavioural adjustments that need
to be made to accommodate and sustain
change.
Let’s rewind six months and reconsider our
approach to the travel health service. All
pharmacies retail travel health products
and combined with the expert knowledge
of the pharmacist, you could argue
that every pharmacy therefore offers a
travel health service. But if this is to be
your key differentiator from competitors
you need to go above and beyond the
standard pharmacy offer. Think about
what resources you are going to allocate
to this service. Will you have a special
pharmacist working on the floor or offering
consult bookings? If not, what procedures
exist to ensure your front of shop staff
members refer customer enquiries to you?
If they do exist, are your staff members
aware of them? For that matter, are your
staff members confident advising on the
travel health products you retail and their
complementary sales? How do you plan to
train them?
All of these considerations and more must
be mapped out for the implementation
of such services to be successful. Once
implemented, appropriate monitoring and
evaluation is necessary to ensure it remains
a success. How will you manage your staff
if they stop referring customer enquiries?
What measure will you use to determine if
this allocation of resources is worthwhile?
What is a successful travel service?
In the coming months the Guild Pharmacy
Academy will be releasing the first in
a series of online learning courses for
pharmacies which focus on developing and
implementing improved service offerings
in pharmacy. Available through the Guild’s
online learning platform, myCPD, these
courses will be an essential resource
for pharmacists adopting change in their
business. Free to Guild member pharmacies,
the first course is titled Pharmacist Only
Health Solutions and will focus on improving
the provision of Pharmacist Only Medicines to
benefit the customer’s health and the growth
and sustainability of the pharmacy. Register for
myCPD today at
www.guild.org.au/academy and receive
updates on the release of this and future
courses.
At a glance
 Plan for change — implement, monitor and evaluate
 Change management is just as
important to a small pharmacy as
it is to a large group
 Make sure all staff are aware of
changes or new strategies
Excellence Summer 2014
12
GOOD RELATIONSHIPS
ESSENTIAL FOR
GOOD BUSINESS
Peter Guthrey — Pharmacist Consultant, Quality Pharmacy Practice
Jo Legge-Wilkinson — Senior Project Officer, Business Support
The Pharmacy Business Good business is about good
He cautioned against entering into
relationships — this theme reappeared
partnerships too quickly and to take the
Network conference
session after session. All speakers
time to find a partnership model which was
described the good business
right for you. Similarly, Georgina O’Dell of
(PBN2014) moved to
relationships were essential in every
Meridian Layers reinforced that differences
aspect of pharmacy business. The
can be resolved.
Melbourne for the
message was clear that business
first time in 2014. The
Staff
failure occurs when business
relationships break down or stagnate.
300 delegates who
It’s often said that staff are your most
important
business asset – and for any
Business
attended were treated
business the relationship you have with
partnerships
your staff is vital for business success.
to insight from some
A business partnership is much like a
Building effective working relationships
of pharmacy’s most
marriage. At the start, it should feel like
was the key focus of Irene Hazilias’ (The
the beginning of something wonderful
GEN Factor) session which helped bridge
respected business
— and if it all goes wrong you will be
generation gaps and better understand
wishing you had a very good pre-nuptial
experts at the ‘threewhat makes different personality types
agreement! At the PBN session ‘The dark
tick. A strong message from the Pharmacy
art of partnerships’ gave some insight into
day all-businessof the Year winners was that engaging
how petty some partnership disputes can
staff, actively seeking their input and
no-clinical-content’
become.
then giving them ownership of particular
conference.
services
was fundamental to success
While most partnerships succeed, there are
ways to avoid things going wrong, or secure
your interests if they do. Like pre-marriage
counselling, formal partnership agreements
give the opportunity for business partners
to clearly articulate roles, responsibilities
and communicate their expectations.
Frank Siriani of Medici Capital discussed
how open conversations and well drafted
agreements are often one of the best ways
to prevent things going awry.
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for transformational changes in their
businesses.
Nigel Collin from Ingenious Oz encouraged
delegates to harness innovative thinking
within their own team. Give permission to
your staff to explore ideas and take risks,
and the opportunity to let their creative
mind ‘go to town’ — allow as many creative
ideas and possibilities to flow.
13
He used the analogy of a funnel — pour all
your team’s ideas into the funnel and then
start to filter, test and analyse them. Do
these ideas meet your objectives? Are they
going to solve your problem?
But, there are times when things can
go wrong with staff and Natalie Fowler
(Pharmacy Guild, Victorian Branch) drew on
her years of workplace relations experience
to help delegates better structure difficult
conversations, including having open and
honest discussions as early as possible.
Banks
Finance is a reality of small business
and a positive relationship with your
bank is vital to your business success.
Relationship managers from all major
banks were represented at PBN. The clear
message from the banking sector was
the importance of open and transparent
relationships.
Kim McCauley, relationship manager from
BankWest suggested
Customers
Developing skills for starting customer
relationships was the subject of Nick Logan,
Alex Bongers and Sarah McInerney’s
session ‘Grow what you know’. Delegates
shared their best “S3 pick-up line” which
engaged customers in minor ailment
consultations. The session demonstrated,
both professionally and financially, the
value of relationships with customers
that develop through providing effective
Pharmacist Only Medicine solutions, such
as famciclovir, pseudoephedrine and topical
corticosteroids.
In a business context, high quality
customer relationships and loyalty often
require investment in technology, staffing,
training services and product value. Shelly
Thompson of Retail 360 described how to
quantify the lifetime value of a customer to
help guide this decision making. She also
helped delegates understand how to build
better relationships with net-promoters and
net-detractors of your business.
Daniel Martin and Rob Beveridge of
Aston Social highlighted how social
media can be used to build customer
relationships. Delegates use the golden
circle principles of ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ to
develop engagement messages of thought
leadership, humanising your brand and
product/service promotion.
PBN is designed to provide practical skills
and strategies for its delegates. For those
who attended, the end of year (or more
likely the quieter start to the new year)
is an opportunity to reflect on how you
have implemented the key lessons and
skills you developed at PBN2014. Did
you implement your business plan when
you went back to the pharmacy? Have the
strategies been successful? Do you need
to tweak your plan?
All PBN sessions were filmed and will soon
be available as another Guild pharmacy
transformation resource — and get ready
for PBN2015 when it returns to Melbourne
in early September!
‘You should spend one to two hours
a quarter talking to your relationship
manager in a face to face meeting about
your quarterly results so they understand
what you are doing in the business…
[Being] able to maintain your relationship
with your relationship manager and
to be able to get them to understand
the strengths of how you operate your
business is vitally important.’
He highlighted that the bank’s business
financing interests are the same as yours;
to achieve a good return on investment.
The more open you are with the bank
about your business, the more they are
able to support your business.
Excellence Summer 2014
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The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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www.guild.org.au
15
TRANSFORM YOUR HR
WITH THE GUILD
Chloe Hennessy — Joint Head, Quality Pharmacy Program
Marion Whalan — National Manager, Business Support
Effective human resource (HR) management,
including recruiting the right staff, inducting them
properly, ensuring staff are managed and trained
appropriately is crucial for any business and is
critically important for small business. Employees
are a key component of any business and in a
competitive customer centric industry such as
pharmacy, staff form part of the service delivery.
If HR is managed effectively there can be many benefits to your
business including an informed, engaged and motivated workforce,
which can lead to a productive working environment and lower staff
turnover. Having trained staff and the right people in the right jobs
can result in more business efficiencies and a better offering of
customer service. Successful HR management means less chance
of the pharmacy running into industrial relations issues at a later
date.
If HR is managed poorly it can have a negative impact on your
business. For example, if inappropriate recruitment practices are
followed and a staff member with the wrong skills is recruited to an
important role within the pharmacy, this can leave a vital gap in your
business and may even impact profitability.
business, it may seem like a challenge to keep HR management
at the top of your mind. But you don’t have to do it alone, we
are here to help you make HR a priority to ensure successful HR
management in your pharmacy. QCPP and the Guild offer a range
of resources and tools available to help manage HR and ensure it
is part of your day to day processes.
For QCPP members there are a range of example polices,
templates and forms available, including position description
templates, example leave polices, training record and staff exit
interview templates, all of which can be customised for your
specific business needs.
These resources are available for all QCPP members via the QCPP
Knowledge Hub by visiting www.qcpp.com/knowledgehub or
by contacting your local Branch QCPP team.
QCPP has recently conducted a study to measure the current
QCPP accreditation performance of pharmacies in order to identify
the areas of improvement at Element and action level.
After conducting this review, QCPP has identified that there
is room for improvement for pharmacies when it comes to the
following QCPP Human Resource requirements.
With the ever-growing responsibilities of managing a pharmacy
Excellence Summer 2014
16
• Element 12 - Recruiting Staff: pharmacy staff are employed
using a formal process
• Element 13 - Inducting Staff: the pharmacy will have a system
that is used for inducting staff
• Element 14 - Managing Staff: the pharmacy shall have systems
to manage staff
• Element 15 - Ongoing Staff Training: the pharmacy shall ensure
ongoing staff training is planned and delivered in a structured
manner
• Element 16 - Dismissals and Resignations: the pharmacy shall
have a system used for staff leaving employment
For Guild members, State and Territory Branches can provide
workplace relations support. The Guild has a strong network of
qualified and experience staff with expert local knowledge in
industrial relations matters. These Branch experts are the first
point of contact for members requiring workplace relations support
and advice. The National Business Support unit works with
Branch staff to provide excellent advice, support and resources on
workplace relations compliance.
A range of useful resources and valuable information can be
accessed in the Guild Member Only section of our website.
The Pharmacy Guild Academy also offers a range of HR
educational modules listed in the table on the next page.
Information on the courses can be accessed from
www.guild.org.au/academy.
QCPP Resources
Related QCPP HR
element
(available for QCPP members)
The Guild Academy
Training
• T12F Letter to unsuccessful applicants
Element 12 Action 1 and T12A Example Position Descriptions:
• Dispensary Assistant
• Pharmacist Manager
•Pharmacist
• Pharmacy Assistant Level 1
• Pharmacy Assistant Level 2
• Pharmacy Assistant Level 3
• Retail Manager and/or Pharmacy
Assistant Level 4
• Pharmacy Intern
• Specialist Area Coordinator
Element 12
recruiting staff
Element 13
inducting staff
• T13A Staff induction checklist
• P13A Inducting staff policy
Element 14
managing staff
Recruit and Select Personnel SIRXHRM002A
Making smart hiring decisions
Coordinate a pharmacy quality system SIRCQUAL401
Administer Human Resources Policy Sirxhrm001a
•
•
•
•
T14A Staff Roster
P14A Staff Disciplinary Policy
T14B Record of Interview
P14D Workplace Grievance Policy
Lead And Manage People Sirxmgt003a
Lead And Develop Pharmacy Teams Sirccpm501
Maintain Employee Relations Sirzmgt002a
Example leave policies and forms:
Process Payroll Bsbfia302a
•
•
•
•
Difficult conversations in the workplace
P14A - Example Staff Disciplinary Policy
P14B - Example Leave Policy
P14B - Example Leave Application Form
P14B - Example Parental Leave Application Form
Fair Work Act — making sure your pharmacy is
compliant
Effective performance reviews (CPD accredited)
Element 15
ONGOING STAFF TRAINING
•
•
•
•
P15A Staff Training policy
T15A Training Plan
T15B Training Record
QCPP Training Requirements Brochure
Element 16
DISSMISSALS AND
RESIGNATIONS
•
•
•
•
P16A Actions When Staff Leave Policy
T16A Staff Counselling Interview
T16B Statement of Service
Example staff exit checklist
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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www.guild.org.au
Implement continuous improvement BSBMGT403A
Avoiding the dismissal traps
17
HR to prevent industrial
relations issues
As an employer or manager, how do you view your role when it
comes to managing your staff?
Are you there to put out fires, remind people of what they are
meant to be doing and how they are meant to be behaving?
Or are you there to help your staff be the best they can be and
achieve the best outcomes for the business?
There is no right or wrong answer to these questions, but they
present the opportunity for you to stop and reflect on your
management approach. Are you reacting a lot of the time? Or are
you responding to the cues and information gathered from the
workplace?
Life in general, and the workplace in particular, seem designed
some days to test our ability to deal with difficult situations, often
giving rise to frustration — our own, and that of others. It takes
awareness and skill to behave well, rather than react, when facing a
frustrating or angering person or situation. This is where practising
some human resource management will be a better outcome than
jumping straight into managing an issue from a pure employment
policy or procedure perspective.
Let’s look at one example
An employee had been working for a pharmacy for about a
year, having moved to the rural town as a new resident. The
pharmacy manager noted that the employee wasn’t looking
his best and that his pharmacy uniform was unwashed and
unironed. The manager had also noticed that the employee
was pretty brisk with customers, whilst not being rude. The
manager asked the staff member how he was feeling. The
employee explained that he hadn’t been feeling well lately,
and the manager observed that the employee sounded very
tired and overwhelmed. The manager determined that the
staff member didn’t have a local family doctor, asked if he
would like the manager to arrange an appointment, and
proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to
be a minor one.
In this example we see a solid human resource management
approach. The manager was able to identify that the staff member
was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member
did not state this explicitly. Note that the manager didn’t pressure
the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked
them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of
direct, helpful action.
The alternate choice would have been for the manager to simply
point out to the employee the required standard in relation to
the pharmacy policy on presentation, appearance and uniform
standards, and behaviour toward customers. Because we know
the whole picture for the employee, we know with 20/20 vision
that this approach could have led to further issues, rather than a
resolution.
How to choose a HR approach
1. Put the situation in context. Always consider the context – what is happening and how the next step will best serve you, the
business and everyone involved.
2. Blend logic and emotion. The best decisions are both informed
by facts and infused with emotion. The goal isn’t to deny your
emotions, but to balance those immediate emotional responses
with thoughts and facts to fill in the blanks. This is the essence of
responding.
3. Ask yourself the key reaction question. The key question is:
Am I reacting? Simply asking yourself that question can ground you
and give you a quick mental break to perhaps choose differently.
4. Recognise choices. Often reacting comes when you don’t
know or think you don’t have any other option. When you realise
that you always have choices, you can remember to consider them
and the consequences they bring before moving forward.
At a glance
• HR management is vital for the success of your pharmacy
business
• The Guild has many useful resources and tools
available to help members manage HR successfully
• Undertake proactive HR to prevent industrial relations issues
Excellence Summer 2014
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PLAN FOR THE FUTURE
OF YOUR BUSINESS
DEVELOP A BUSINESS
ACTION PLAN
Peter Saccasan — Director of Pharmacy Services, RSM Bird Cameron
Ashley McKertich — CEO of Good Pharma and Director Zenbuu Pty Ltd
Marion Whalan — National Manager, Business Support
Every pharmacy
business owner
and manager
knows the daily
challenge is
knowing what
to do, when to
do it, and how
best to do it.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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Some days these are the challenges
that keep us awake at night. Anyone
who has developed a business plan
acknowledges that the value of the
plan is in its development; by nature
that means that the value is in the
planning process — the time to think,
evaluate, plot and action.
Now is the time to work on your business;
to develop a plan that safely navigates your
pharmacy business through the next few
years as further PBS changes take effect.
Business resilience involves purposeful
action to work out your plan, commit to
change and incrementally adjust.
Action planning is a process which will help
you to focus your ideas and to decide what
steps you need to take to achieve particular
goals that you set for your business. An
action plan executes the strategies you
have developed through your business
planning process.
www.guild.org.au
It helps you to organise and prioritise your
activities in order to achieve your stated
business mission and goals and execute the
strategies you have developed.
Before you move into the action plan, it is
very important that you take the time to
review where you are, determine your vision
and then set down clear goals you wish to
achieve.
How you achieve these goals is by
implementing one or more strategies that will
make each goal a reality. And the actions
are the steps you need to take to execute
each strategy.
The action plan is achieved by breaking
down the strategies you developed into
small, achievable steps and then identifying
the actions you need to take for each step.
It can be used as a short term (6-12 months)
action plan to achieve short term business
goals, a medium term action plan (2-3 years)
or a long term action plan (3-5 years).
19
Your action plan explains the specific
actions that need to take place in order to
achieve the business strategy, including
the timeframe, roles and responsibilities,
performance indicators and alternative
methods that can be implemented to reach
the business objectives.
Generally, the focus should be kept to a
small and manageable number of goals.
This helps to keep the plan realistic and
achievable.
For each action you should identify
• The timeframe and priorities for each
action
• The people who will be responsible for
undertaking each action
• Specific performance indicators to help
you determine in the future whether your
business has succeeded in achieving the
business goal
Breaking the various tasks down into
simple and specific steps enables you to
keep the plan on track and avoid getting
overwhelmed or losing control.
An important step is being able to evaluate
within a set period of time if the action plan
has been a success. Failing to do so could
result in a plan that continues on indefinitely
without ever actually achieving anything
positive for the business.
To evaluate your action plan, you should
have specific key performance indicators
(KPIs) which tell you if you are making
progress. Be critical of each strategy’s
success or failure in this stage. If your
original targets were too optimistic, reset
them in order to keep the team enthused
and focused.
Sometimes it may become apparent that an
action plan has failed to meet its objectives,
therefore you may need to reassess and
redefine your original strategies and start
again at the beginning, rather than waste
resources on a plan that isn’t working.
Right at the start, we highlighted that you
will set your goals, then the strategies to
achieve these goals and your action plan
will fall out from there, with KPIs that will
tell you if you are being successful.
Excellence Summer 2014
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‘A strategy
that is
90% right
but 100%
executed is
better than
one which
is 100% right
and never
executed.’
Peter Saccasan, RSM Bird Cameron
When setting your goals and KPIs, it is important to ensure that they are practical. To help
you do this you can use what is called the ‘SMART’ test. The SMART test ensures that
your goals are:
S — Specific: Great goals are well-defined
and focused. The moment you focus on a
goal, your goal becomes a magnet, pulling
you and your resources toward it.
M — Measurable: A goal without a
measurable outcome is like a sports
competition without a scoreboard or
scorekeeper. Numbers are an essential
part of business. Put concrete numbers in
your goals to know if you’re on track. A goal
white board posted in your office can help
as a daily reminder to keep yourself and
your employees focused on the targeted
results you want to attain.
A — Achievable: Check pharmacy industry
benchmarks to get a handle on realistic
performance outcomes to set smart goals.
Quality Care Pharmacy Program
R — Realistic: Achievable business goals
are based on the current conditions and
realities of the broader sector, as well as
the available resources and expertise within
the business.
T — Time bound: Business goals and
objectives just don’t get done when there’s
no time frame tied to the goal-setting
process. Whether your business goal is to
increase revenue by 20% or find 15 new
customers, choose a time-frame in which
you will seek to accomplish your goal.
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YOUR BUSINESS PLAN TEMPLATE
ANALYSE
ANALYSE
Look at your data. What trends do you observe? Identify areas
where you are doing well and areas that need improvement.
Do you need to work on script growth? Do you need to improve
your professional services? Can you grow the retail arm of your
pharmacy? Do you need to control costs within your pharmacy?
HOW
WHAT
WHY
WHY?
Determine your vision. What is your pharmacy’s mission? To
what purpose are your pharmacy’s goals directed? Your vision
determines what you will do and what you won’t do. If you
achieved all your goals your pharmacy would look like
... Your vision is the “why” of your plan.
WHAT?
What are your business goals? Goals should be SMART –
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.
HOW?
What strategies will you use to support these goals?
REVIEW
WHO/WHEN
ACT
ACT
What actions are needed to implement these strategies?
The list opposite contains actions across different strategies. You
would have an action list for each strategy.
WHO/WHEN
Who will be responsible for these actions? What is your
timeframe for completion?
REVIEW
How will you measure whether you have achieved your goal?
Review your
 Finance reports
ScriptMAP reports
 Sales reports
 Industry financial benchmarks
 Management practices and systems
Talk to your
Accountant
 Bank’s Relationship Manager
For example
 To be the best provider of healthcare solutions
in our community
 To be the best retailer of products for health
and beauty
 To be the first source of trusted advice for
families when it comes to their health issues
 To be the cheapest pharmacy in town
For example
 Achieve an increase in script growth of xx%
over 12 months
 Implement professional services to provide
$xxx of net contribution to profit
 Achieve retail sales growth of xx% by increasing
professional engagement with the customer
For example
 Increase customer engagement by being more
visible in the community
 Become an expert in something — establish a
medical compression garment clinic
 Improve the customer experience by implementing
a Maître d’ Pharmacist role
 Develop an engaging social media presence
For example
 Develop a Maître d’ pharmacist roster
 Support the community
 Build relationships with key stakeholders in allied
health
 Fit out consult room with hardware and software
 Set up a business profile on Facebook
Remember
 Delegate. Give your team members ownership of
actions. Be sure to provide them with the resources
and time to achieve these actions
 Be realistic. Make your timeframes achievable.
Follow up. Adhere to the timeframes
For example
 Measure pharmacist floor time
 Calculate number of referrals over defined time
period
 Consults are able to be executed seamlessly
 Pharmacy has live profile on Facebook
Excellence Summer 2014
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CUSTOMER SERVICE
SUCCESS THROUGH
FORWARD DISPENING
Glenn Guilfoyle — Principal, The Next Level
Andrew Matthews — Group Executive, Pharmacy Transformation Group
The Korda Mentha Industry report pulls no punches. Community
pharmacy is in a maelstrom, due largely to the twin forces of the
discounters and PBS reform.
Korda Mentha. Pharmacy — a challenging and changing outlook. February 2014. Available at: www.kordamentha.com/docs/default-source/publications/14-01_pharmacy.pdf
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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www.guild.org.au
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“I don’t have time to forward dispense”.
Conversely, for those who have
successfully implemented such changes
the perception of these pharmacists is “I
don’t have time NOT to forward dispense”.
Before highlighting some change
management models, let’s look at the stats
that represent the current level of customer
service at the dispensary. At time of
writing, Next Level’s data was sourced
from 115 pharmacies in all states and in
major cities/towns.
Customer service
benchmarks for
mainstream mid-large
community based
pharmacies
•
In order to survive and thrive, forward
pharmacy — where the pharmacist is
the focus of customer engagement,
pharmacists are not part of the script
processing and every script is handed
to the customer by a pharmacist — is
just one of the recommendations often
reiterated by industry leaders. But the
forward pharmacy model is not just a
single model and effective variations
are evident.
Pharmacy owner Christine Richardson
at Amcal Fairfield Central in Queensland
says ‘the Next Level data was very
powerful because it identified the specific
opportunities for increasing efficiency
and customer engagement. We used it
to redesign our dispensary with small
changes to the physical layout as well as
putting the right people in the right places.
So far we have seen improvements in our
average retail sale and health category
sales.’
Next Level is an organisation that gathers
real time observational data on site at
pharmacies, which focuses on customer
engagement effectiveness, script process
efficiency and associated business metrics
like health category solution sales.
Our experience in conducting our scoring
and benchmarking service, is that many
pharmacists are aware of the concept
of forward dispensing, but are reluctant
to undertake the change management
required. Often their perception is
48% of customers stay at the dispensary
for the duration of their script dispense;
more than half go ‘to do their shopping’
and return later — often because staff
suggest this to them
•
Regardless of this scenario, the script
bearing customer spends on average
4 minutes 52 seconds at the dispensary
•
Of this time, 49% (2m 22s), is spent
engaged by members of the dispensary
team; critically, more time (2m 30s) is
spent disengaged, standing in queues
or waiting
•
Perhaps more sobering, is that of this
engagement time, only 38s on average
is invested in proactive medicines or
health counselling; the remainder is just
responding to the enquiring customer or
general conversation
•
Benchmarks show that only 48% of
script-bearing customers receive some
proactive medicines counsel
Excellence Summer 2014
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•
On average, it takes 4m 16s to process
ONE script item; less than half that time
is actual processing; 2m 14s is dead time
with the script waiting to be processed
•
53% of the time the pharmacist is away
from the customer undertaking the lion’s
share of script processing
• The average script customer ‘companion
sell’ ratio is 17 - for every 100 script
customers, 17 non-script health category
products are sold
•
The average non-script health customer
‘basket size’ ratio is 116 - for every 100
such customers, 116 non-script health
category products are sold
The same data providing these benchmarks,
also allows for correlation strength to be
tested at the behavioural and commercial
levels.
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Problem vs opportunity
•
Create a compelling value proposition to
keep your customers at the dispensary
for their dispense
•
Data shows retaining customers at the
dispensary leads to longer engagement,
shorter processing time, and higher
frequency of proactive medicines
counselling
•
Correlations demonstrate that minimising
rehandling (‘straight through processing’)
and reducing ‘white space’ (idle time) are
key
•
Correlations demonstrate that longer
engagement time DOES lead to longer
time proactively counselling
www.guild.org.au
•
Correlations demonstrate that pharmacies
that position pharmacists in a more
forward orientation at the dispensary
counters, are more likely to deliver longer
proactive health counselling to script
customers
However, there is a mixed picture as we
move from these behavioural correlations
and search for their alignment to
commercial correlations. Nick Logan, from
Artarmon Pharmacist Advice said “We
found that our forward dispensing model
gave us excellent metrics with regards
to customer retention and professional
interaction times but that the direct
commercial benefits had waned since
our Next Level assessment in 2010. We
have since redesigned and rehearsed
our category offers to fully harness the
opportunities made available by our
workflow”.
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Back to the point “parked” earlier … that
there is no single forward dispensing
model, and that there are variations. But
our data shows 90% of pharmacies still
practise the traditional rear dispensing
model.
•
The customer is separated from the
script, which goes over the back into the
dispensary, and the customer also moves
backward (either to step back and wait,
go to the front of shop to browse, or
leave altogether)
•
The pharmacist’s ‘home base’ is the rear
processing counter, which is the focus of
his/her activity
•
The pharmacist will venture forward to
engage selected customers on a
perceived as-needs basis, but return to
the rear counter as soon as practical
It appears the proactive medicines and
health counselling is not necessarily
the major component of consumer
engagement in a typical pharmacy. We
believe that the data shows the call to
action is clear
•
Convert pharmacists from rear to front
•
Convert customers to stay at the
dispensary
•
Convert stay to engage
•
Convert engage to counselling
•
Convert counselling to solution sale
•
Convert survive to thrive!
Some pharmacists are trying to come
forward more often and more proactively,
but without repositioning dispensing
terminals/printers and product, this
can only provide for limited increased
engagement and counsel.
But the good news is, there are alternative
models and some pharmacies are taking
progressive bite-sized steps to full
forward dispensing. One model is where
technicians become the mainstay of
script processing, and the pharmacist is
home-based at the script-out counter as
the medicines are handed over. Another
is triage-based direct dispensing where
there is no longer a first-come, first
served approach. It involves certain triage
rules that provide superior engagement
and streamlined processing (e.g. not for
poly-pharmacy customers). The customer
is engaged by the pharmacist at script
in, which features a dispensing terminal
and printer, so as the whole dispense is
conducted with the customer in one fell
swoop.
The pharmacist is able to accomplish this
because of able support by a dispensing
system (e.g. robot and/or a co-ordinated
dispensing technician). This concept
runs counter to the traditional notion of
separating the customer and the script,
and paradoxically customer engagement is
maximised, and processing is streamlined.
In true forward pharmacy, a pharmacist
is on the floor at both S2/S3 and script
counters. In the maître d’ model (see last
edition of Excellence) the pharmacist will
host the customer to the right counter,
based on the information gathered and
counselling provided on the floor.
Consistent with the Guild’s pharmacy
transformation message, pharmacy
must shift its focus so that profit
from script product supply is more
balanced with profit from service and
pharmacist-only product; where pharmacy
becomes much more of the health
service destination in their community.
At a glance
•
Gathering metrics on your dispensary
efficiency is useful, and can be used to
help dispensary redesign including
locating the right staff in the right
places.
•
Engage with customers and create a
compelling value proposition to keep
your customers in the pharmacy whilst
their script is dispensed.
•
Incremental changes to a forward
dispensing model can improve pharmacy
performance and have result in financial
gains.
Excellence Summer 2014
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UNDERSTANDING
THE DeMOGRAPHY
OF YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY
Kevin de Vries — Project Pharmacist, Guild Academy
More than ever before, business success in community
pharmacy depends on your pharmacy’s ability to understand
and respond to the needs of your customers.
Every pharmacy’s mix of customers is different and is influenced
by your location and by the nature of your pharmacy - full
service provider, medical centre based or discount retailer. Your
customers may be comprised of people who live or work quite
close to your premises, or they may travel many kilometres to
access your services. No matter how far your customers travel, an
understanding of their age, health conditions, cultural background,
education, language, employment and income will help your
pharmacy determine the products it stocks, the services it provides
and the marketing it implements.
The study of the composition of communities and their social
statistics is termed demography, taken from the Greek word demos
meaning “people”. Understanding your community‘s make-up is
fundamental in determining your pharmacy’s target market and for
identifying segments of the market your pharmacy intends to serve.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
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For example, most broadly, your pharmacy may wish to target
•People over the age of 60 years - because they are more likely to have health conditions requiring prescription and other medicines
•Women aged between 18 and 45 years - because they are more likely to be purchasers of cosmetics, fragrances, complementary medicines and products for babies and children
Studying the demographic characteristics of your community
will help to determine whether and where your target-market
customers are located in your community (residences or
workplaces), and whether there are other significant customer
segments to which your pharmacy could promote its products and
services.
27
How you can use demographic data
• Identify customer groups which you already serve, and tailor your marketing approach to encourage loyalty, repeat business and additional sales
•Identify local residents or workers in your target market(s) who
do not currently use your pharmacy. You can use this information to develop specific marketing to encourage them to visit your pharmacy
• Identify a new target market such as a group of customers with common characteristics who might benefit from your pharmacy’s products or services but who may not currently be well-served by competitor pharmacies or businesses. These new customer groups could be based on age, location, ethnicity or culture, health condition or lifestyle
Demography can help identify changes we need to implement
to better respond to the needs of specific customer groups and
can help us refine marketing and communication approaches.
Knowledge of your community and their preferences can build
your business and provide better health outcomes for your
customers.
•Should the pharmacy employ a staff member with additional language skills, or from a particular cultural background?
•Would customers respond positively to specific imagery, e.g. colours, graphics, or pictures in your pharmacy’s advertising?
•Would a home delivery service assist older people or mothers with newborn infants?
•Do you need to make changes to your pharmacy’s layout to Your pharmacy will already hold some information that details
from where your customers are drawn. This may include patient
records in your dispensing system, other health service records
like NDSS or weight-loss programs, customer account records and
loyalty programs or clubs. This information is useful to compare
against those of external providers. It can tell you who is using your
pharmacy, but does not usually identify those customer groups who
do not use your business.
Data from external agencies may include sources such as the
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Local Government profiles,
Medicare Locals, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and
more. This information is objective and statistically valid, but it may
be several years old or be presented for an area or region larger
than what your pharmacy serves.
While it is easy to dismiss hunches and gut-feels as being biased
perceptions lacking objectivity, sometimes you or your staff
members will be aware of changes in your community which can
become business opportunities. Examples include new housing
developments, residential care facilities, new employers, major
construction developments, or changes to parking or bus routes.
These may take time to be shown in internal or external data, but
by being responsive to such developments you find a way to further
build your business.
The next edition of Excellence will contain a further article on this
topic in which we will look more closely at some of the nationally
and locally available data sources you can use to build a profile of
your local community.
The Guild Pharmacy Academy is also developing an online module
which will assist Guild Members to understand the composition of
their local community. Look out for this in the coming months.
respond to consumers with poor mobility or specific disabilities?
•Do the health conditions prevalent in your community indicate a need for specific pharmacy programs such as obesity management, diabetes care, asthma care, or immunisation services?
There are several ways in which you can develop a profile of the
people living in your community. You can use data recorded by your
pharmacy, data available through external agencies, or hunches
and gut feelings.
At a glance
•Demography is the study of the composition of communities
•Demographic characteristics can include age, education,
employment, income, housing, health conditions, language
and culture
•Understanding the demography of your community can help your
pharmacy select the products it keeps, the services it offers and
its marketing approach to existing and potential customers
Excellence Summer 2014
28
REFRESHER TRAINING
The following courses have been approved for Refresher Training since the last
edition of Excellence. This approved list is correct at Monday 1 December 2014.
To see the complete list of currently approved activities go to www.qcpp.com/resources/training-requirements.
Training
Approved Duration
Approval Period
Format
Training Provider Contact Details and Notes
S2/S3 Refresher
Training
2 hours
19/9/14 – 18/9/16
Face to Face
Pharmacy Training Solutions
[email protected]
Pain Training
Presentation
1 hour
24/9/14 – 23/9/16
Face-to-face
Allergy Training
1 hour
24/9/14 – 23/9/16
Face-to-face
CounterConnection
(PSA Self Care)
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
[email protected],
[email protected]
Threadworms
1 hour
1/9/14 – 31/8/16
inPHARMation (September 2014)
Angina
1 hour
1/10/14 – 30/9/16
inPHARMation (October 2014)
Low-Dose Aspirin
1 hour
1/11/14 – 31/10/16
inPHARMation (November 2014)
Contact the Guild at
[email protected]
or the Guild’s National Secretariat
on 02 6270 1888
BRANCHES IN EVERY STATE AND TERRITORY.
www.guild.org.au/guild-branches
Contact Guild Academy at
[email protected]
03 9810 9930
www.guild.org.au/academy
Contact QCPP at
[email protected]
1300 363 340
www.qcpp.com
Supporting Excellence in Pharmacy
Thank you to Charnwood Capital Chemist, Charnwood, ACT; Priceline Pharmacy, Springwood, NSW; C.P. Peoples Outback Pharmacy,
Broken Hill, NSW; for their participation in the photography. QCPP is committed to adopting environmentally friendly practices and chooses
to print Excellence on 100% recycled paper.
The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
I
www.guild.org.au