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Culture change needed

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Culture change needed

The staff culture within community pharmacy needs to transform if the sector is to be as highly regarded by customers as companies such as John Lewis, industry leaders have been told. This customer service revolution has to stem from attitudes and cannot be taught, keynote speaker Andrew McMillan (pictured) explained to delegates at the conference.

Mr McMillan, who is principal at customer experience and employee engagement specialist Engaging Service, was basing his recommendations on the 28 years he spent at UK retail giant John Lewis as customer service lead. Delivering high levels of customer satisfaction would lead to increased loyalty and sales, as well as fewer complaints, said Mr McMillan, with the added benefit that staff would feel more motivated and enthusiastic about their work.

The way to invoke this shift is to work hard at developing relationships with pharmacy customers, said Mr McMillan. There were three aspects to building a successful business, he suggested: accessibility, provision of high quality products or services, and customer engagement. Pharmacies are on the high street so are easy to get to and are experts at providing medicines and advice so cannot improve in these areas, he said. This meant that the time was right to focus on delivering an experience “so consistently good that the staff become the organisation or brand in the eyes of its patients”.

However, unlike becoming familiar with details of a new service or recently launched product, staff cannot be taught how to engage with customers using a traditional “training” approach, Mr McMillan advised. Instead, managers needed to make sure they recruited the right people to work in their businesses, and lead by example instead of issuing targets that they expected their staff to meet. “People work for people, not organisations,” he reminded conference attendees.

“Leadership is about setting standards by example, and providing coaching and encouragement.”

Staff also need to switch the emphasis of their work, he stated: “Make the day customerfocused rather than task-focused. Be intuitive, take risks and have fun… Do what you think is right.” This was of the utmost importance in an environment where the customer may well be feeling vulnerable due to ill-health.

“Be thoughtful and caring, show an interest,” advised Mr McMillan. “If you can build personal relationships with your customers, they will never go anywhere else.”

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