As an independent pharmacy owner, how often are you connecting with your patients? While there is no denying the importance of face-to-face communication with patients during prescription drop-off and pickup, there needs to be more touch points even when customers are not physically present in your pharmacy. With the overwhelming prevalence of social media and always having “an app for that,” your pharmacy should be no different.  If you’re not already, you need to take advantage of the technology at your fingertips and build a mobile communication platform for your patients and customers. Branding and marketing through social media is another effective way to market your pharmacy to new and existing patients. Here are some more ways to utilize Datscan Pharmacy Software to stand out from the competition and connect with more customers in 2020.

So what types of messages should your pharmacy be sending to its customers? Number one—it’s important to keep patients up to date on their prescription profiles. Through Datascan’s MobileScripts Application and web fill software (integrated into your store’s website), pharmacies are able to offer their patients an easy to use, feature-packed app that not only links them to their pharmacy, but gives the patients access to view an up-to-date medication profile. Providing each pharmacy with the ability to customize the displayed information, our clients have control over what their patients are able to see. Not only can your patients view their own prescription profiles, but parents can be linked to their children to quickly and easily access their medications and send refill requests in as well.

Through MobileScripts, Datascan’s Pharmacy Software will also send notifications to participating patients for things like prescriptions ready for refill, prescription pick up notifications, and pick up reminders if patients forget to come in for the medications. These types of reminders are quick and easy ways to build better medication adherence and compliance. Simple text or app notifications let your patients know when it’s time to refill a prescription they may have forgotten about, and also lets them know when it’s time to stop in and pick it up. If your pharmacy offers delivery services you can even send a notification to let your patient know their medication is out for delivery. Our primary focus is to fill more prescriptions and help our patients better manage their medications.

Pharmacy patients opting not to use the mobile refill software are still able to receive notifications via text and email from your pharmacy. Sent directly from the pharmacy software, patients can opt into reminders for refills due, prescriptions ready for pickup, adherence reminders, and even pick up reminders. This type of messaging helps ensure patients are filling their prescriptions on time and also reminds them to stop in to pick them up, all part of building a more compliant pharmacy. Aside from compliance and prescription-based messaging, Datascan Pharmacy Software also allows you to customize special birthday text messages or emails to your patients. All of our notifications can be set up to send automatically or manually, depending on your needs and preferences. Datascan makes it so easy and affordable to connect to your patients. If you need to send a custom message to your patient, you can! Our pharmacy software gives you the ability to select prescriptions and send custom messages to each patient. Your pharmacy can even send out bulk messages to notify patients for things like emergency closings or even drug recalls. Through our Point of Sale system, pharmacies can send alerts and notifications to customers about in-store promotions and sales, keeping your front-end customers informed and connected!

Are you advertising and promoting your pharmacy through social media? Nowadays most consumers and patients expect to find your business on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and you should be taking advantage of the opportunity to reach your customers and engage through social media. Creating and managing social media platforms is simple and helps drive business. It’s a great way to promote in-store sales and store happenings and notify customers of important industry related news.

As we embark on 2020 we hope to see more and more pharmacies taking advantage of the technology available in Datascan’s Pharmacy Software. We never want our clients to fall behind or miss out on offering their patients the most up-to-date and convenient features. If you’re not already using notifications and mobile applications in your pharmacy there is no better time to start. Let’s gear up, get connected, and start building better customer loyalty. Not offering many of these “conveniences” puts your pharmacy at a serious disadvantage over other local independents and undoubtedly the chain pharmacies in your area. It’s time to embrace technology and build bigger, better, and longer lasting relationships with patients.  Let’s move into the future of pharmacy together!