Maybe you are switching brands…moving premises…gearing up for a significant refit and investment. Maybe you have dusted off your original sketches, looking to see the degree to which your current design and configuration meets your current service needs. Any of these scenarios, and more, should lead you to take a step back and think deeply about the needs of your immediate service model, given all the both negative and positive forces reshaping the industry.

Whilst your mind races through all the physical aspects clearly sketched in on the plans, use this opportunity to also consider the critical, invisible design and configuration features. Ideal process workflows, customer traffic flows, the human magnetic that will attract patients to stay in the store , rather than go to the supermarket. This is the perfect time to define in detail your total engagement; complete solution health customer visit experience.

The peak bodies have been exhorting for years to get the chemists out the front; the techs out the back and the assistants to play the linchpin role to bring it all together and manage ebbs and flows of customer traffic. Of course, with every change management pursuit, the easy bit is saying what needs to change and why. The hard bit is “the how”. Also, of course, there is no single definition or manifestation of “forward dispensing”. Think about all of this with the so-called Apple store customer experience in mind.

Total engagement and complete solution…what, precisely is that going to mean for your health customers?

Firstly, define what total engagement is going to mean. Think about this in terms of the five vital customer touchpoints on their visit -:

• The approach to the chosen counter
• The hand-in and script induction
• The period whilst the script is being processed
• The hand-back at script out
• The cash and wrap

Debate, amongst your team, the who, the what, the how of seamless engagement from one touchpoint to the next. In so doing, define your version of your forward dispensing model. Do you want to adopt a model where the bulk of the rich consultation with the pharmacist takes place at script induction? Or do you want to design around the model where the bulk of the rich pharmacist consultation takes place at script out? Regardless, are you going to offer your script customers a “direct dispense” service for “simple singles”?

Your counter design and set up will assist you to round out your total engagement: complete solution offering.