Wizard Pharmacy has hosted workshops with its franchisees to deliver the group’s strategies for reducing the impact of 60-day dispensing.
The workshops involved a state-of-play analysis involving a deep dive into franchisees’ current financials to identify areas of improvement and then moved on to identify the 10-step approach recommended.
Not alone in navigating challenges
Wizard Pharmacy Chief Operating Officer Sally Parker says their franchisees were not alone in navigating these challenges as the entire team at Wizard Pharmacy Services was 100% behind them to support them in any way they could.
“We have come up with a variety of recommendations that, based on our current calculations, have the potential to not only minimise the potential loss of revenue from 60-day dispensing but increase our revenue,” she says.
“Some of the strategies include a new global Eftpos deal for all our pharmacies, ideas on how to reduce the naked script count from our 24% average and emphasis on meeting our current KPIs, including dead stock <5% and Wizard Rewards sign-ups, which are all supported by the frequent in-store visits from our People & Culture and Pharmacy Services teams.”
Franchisees were also given access to Wizard Pharmacy’s Opportunity Calculator, allowing franchisees to plug in their own calculations to see how these recommendations would improve their returns.
A comprehensive communications action plan
The workshops are being conducted alongside a comprehensive communications action plan that has allowed for a franchisee’s out-of-stock list to be sent automatically to their local MP and other automated, educational emails on how 60-day dispensing will specifically impact their own community.
Ms Parker says that overall the group had had a remarkably supportive response from their community.
“Over 550 of our Wizard Rewards members have signed the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s petition, over 100 have sent a letter to their local member of parliament to express their concern, and over 1000 people have viewed our chief pharmacist’s video plea,” she says.
This response has come off the back of our educational communications plan to our customers to explain our side of this proposed policy change and how it will actually affect them.”
Ms Parker says she has been amazed by the collaboration, support and united front the pharmacy industry has shown during this challenging time.
“It goes to show – when the going gets tough, the tough get going!” says Ms Parker.
