Have you been considering a Customer Loyalty program but aren’t sure if it is right for your store or how to get started? Here are five key benefits to consider, along with a solution to help you promote strong customer relationships and build your business:

Customer Retention

Loyalty programs not only attract customers but also encourage them to keep coming back. With immediate discounts and other benefits designed to “surprise & delight” or the fun of building up points for even better rewards and opportunities to redeem,customers are influenced to return to your store on a regular basis. As a result, customer retention rates improve, creating a stronger customer base to help you grow your business.

Staying Competitive

Customers have come to expect greater value in the form of rewards and other incentives for their patronage. And while independent retailers have often relied on more traditional means by which to compete, like price and customer service, inflationary pressures and changes in consumer behaviour have made loyalty programs increasingly important. Loyalty programs not only allow you to compete more effectively but are an ideal way to differentiate your business; especially when they are done well.

Larger Basket Size

Loyalty programs aim to increase basket size through various incentives, including bonus points on promotional items, and “spend and get” rewards in the form of points, discounts, and free merchandise. These types of loyalty events encourage customers to buy more items to earn greater rewards and optimize value. They also create opportunities for cross-selling and upselling to boost revenue.

Increased Visit Frequency

Loyalty programs drive sales growth by inspiring customers to shop more often. Customers will not only come back to redeem but will shop more often to earn bonus rewards. To receive benefits faster, customers are also more likely to shop at the same store rather than “cherry picking” across competing retailers.

Stronger Customer Relationships

Loyalty programs make customers feel appreciated. This attention to your customers contributes to higher satisfaction, trust, and long-term relationships. When customers discover the great benefits of your Loyalty program, they become your most valuable advocates, spreading the word to others of your incentives!

Propel POS Customer Loyalty Module Loyalty

The Customer Loyalty and Gift with Purchase modules available with Propel POS will help you to achieve all the benefits described above. These modules are highly configurable and will allow you to define how and when your customers are rewarded. Here are a few highlights:

Rewards

• Base points can be awarded by item or by dollar. Most retailers choose the latter for simplicity. For example, ten points for every $1 spent.
• Bonus points can be offered on specific items or at a global level based on a spend threshold. For example, spend “$50 Get 25,000 Points” or “Spend $25 Get Double Points”. In addition, sign-up bonuses can be used to attract new members.
• Non-points rewards including discounts, free items, and “bounce back” coupons can be awarded to promote larger purchases, increase visit frequency, and offer greater value to customers.
• Exceptions can be used to exclude Items like lottery tickets from loyalty rewards. These exceptions can be set-up at the department, category, fineline and/or item level.
• Loyalty Levels set-up to supply greater benefits to your most valued and frequent customers.

Redemption

• Redemption Rate is set-up bydefining the number of points needed to equal one dollar. For example, 2,500 to 1.
• Redemption minimum is used to define the minimum number of points that can be redeemed. For example, 25,000 points, equaling $10.
• Redemption increments can be enabled, requiring customers to redeem in multiples of the minimum. For example, 25,000. 50,000, and so on.
• Maximum point redemption will allow you to limit the number of points customers can redeem in any given transaction.
• Redemption prompting, when enabled, will remind the customer to redeem when eligible; thereby reinforcing ongoing benefits.

In addition to all the notable features described above, Propel POS will allow you to capture email addresses and communications consent, email letters to loyalty members to promote engagement, and generate a variety of loyalty and customer reports.

To learn more about the Propel POS Customer Loyalty and Gift with Purchase modules, see the Associates and Loyalty sections of Propel POS Online Help.

Our PTS Customer Care team is available at 1-800-387-6093 option #3 for questions and to supply more information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dawn is our Quality Assurance Team Lead and has been an important part of the POS team for 15+ years. Throughout her Career she has developed a passion for customer care, experience and satisfaction starting in telecommunication and transitioning into Retail Pharmacy.  Dawn enjoys working closely with her teammates and adding value to your POS solution. 

Propel POS Self-Checkout was designed from the ground up following two years of research and development in collaboration with industry leaders. The mandate was to build a self-service solution that was affordable, reliable, easy to use, and appealing to customers. Quick and user-friendly, Propel POS Self-Checkout makes the last touchpoint in a pharmacy a pleasant one. Despite the benefits and growing consumer demands, there are some misconceptions that we would like to clear up. Let's debunk the myths and educate ourselves on the truth behind self-checkout.

If you have a small store with one staff checkout and one or two cashiers, the addition of a self-checkout allows you to offer your customer the convenience of a second lane without adding to labour costs. It also has a much smaller footprint than a traditional checkout and will fit nicely into a small space.

Customer who may not attempt to scan a large cart of groceries at the self-checkout, wouldn't hesitate to self-checkout with a small basket of health and beauty care items - especially with a shelf to rest the basket.

Customer resistance to self-checkouts has often occured when retailers forced customers to serve themselve. This isn't optimal service. On the other hand, not giving customers the choice detracts from the customers experince. 

Placement of the self-checkout is an important factor in preventing theft and providing good service. We recommend placing self-checkouts near the staffed checkouts, where they are in full view and easily accessed when assistance is required.

Simple, intuitive, and with clear concise audio-visual instructions, Propel POS Self-Checkout makes it easy by enabling the customer to easily scan and pay. We excluded the bag scale that's often cited as a annoyance by customer who dislike the command to "place the item in the bag" or worse, being told to remove the unrecognized item and wait for assistance. By limiting friction and interaction with the screen, check-out time is minimized.

PTS strongly believes in the value of self-checkouts. Not to replace cashiers, but to offer customers the choice to check-out how they prefer. Shorter lines, always available, faster throughout, and more productive use of labour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Glen joined Pharmacy Technology Solutions in June 2018 with 35+ years of experience in front shop operations and retail systems.  Glen is passionate about technology and how it can be used to optimize the customer experience and improve organizational efficiency.  In his spare time, Glen likes to engage in activities that promote health and wellness. 

Data Backup and Recovery and Cybersecurity are not interchangeable and do not offer the same protection, but together, they provide the stability and safety your business and customers deserve.

If you choose to have Data Backup and Recovery solutions (which safely secures your data in the Cloud), you can rest assured that if a disaster should occur like a flood, fire or theft, your data can be downloaded and restored within hours. But before you get too comfortable, let's take a closer look at the word theft. That's an interesting word as its definition has been evolving over the years. TThere's physical theft and then there's cyber theft (which continues to be on the rise).

Let's play out some scenarios.

You have Data Backup and Recovery back-up but didn't feel the need to invest in Cybersecurity. One day, a staff member receives an email from what appears to be a legitimate source and they open the email. Congratulations! You have now fallen victim to ransomware. The hacker encrypted all of your files and demands you pay a ransom. While a copy of your data is safely stored in the Cloud, another copy is in the hands of the hacker. What do you do? Do you pay to get your data back? What do you tell your patents? How do you know your information hasn't already been sold or shared with others? The possibilities are endless, and the outcomes are never good.

Sound dreary? It doesn't have to be.

Investing in Cybersecurity intercepts malicious attacks on your business and ultimately, your patients. Imagine that your pharmacy can't operate because of a cyber attack. Your customers could lose confidence and shop elsewhere.

You value cybersecurity and recognize its importance, but opted out of EVault backup solutions.

You recently took over the store and you have too much on the go right now. You'll get around to it when you have some spare time. (We know, you're chuckling right now. There's no such thing as a pharmacy having spare time.) You're so busy with the new store that you haven't heard about the string of robberies in the surrounding towns. In walks a customer, wearing a mask, but it's not a COVID mask - it's a robbery. In addition to the narcotics, you're demanded to hand over computers, which these days, are about 7" sq. and about 2.5lbs - easy target. The server is gone and the workstations won't function without the server. What do you do? You know you'll never see that server again. How are you going to refill prescriptions or look up a patient record? Everything is gone without a trace. A nightmare indeed.

Data Backup and Recovery solutions. It's the spare key to your business.

While it doesn't ease the pain of having been robbed or been a victim to natural disasters, you can take a great deal of comfort in knowing that PTS Business Continuity solutions will have you covered.

Data Backup and Recovery and Cybersecurity protect your business from different angles and in different scenarios - they are not interchangeable. Each plays a role and both are equally important to running a business where patient information is safe and secure.

To learn more about these solutions and how they can help your business (or to enroll), please contact your Sales Representative.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lesley joined PTS in 2018 and brings 30 years of pharmacy experience to the McKesson family. When Lesley isn’t striving to make stores more efficient and profitable, you can find her challenging herself during her workouts. Lesley is never one to sit still!

Common crisis scenarios happen every day in pharmacies.  Ensuring there’s a recovery plan in place that reflects your business needs is the key to minimizing risks to your pharmacy’s day-to-day operations. Read about four everyday scenarios that can easily be prevented.

How to manage an internet outage with little to no interruption

Pharmacy technicians are processing compliance packaging batches for the week. Claim adjudication becomes agonizingly slow and claims begin to fail. There are now a large number of failed claims to resubmit. To make matters worse, the wait time for walk-in patients has doubled due to the slow claim adjudication. It turns out there is an internet service outage, and pharmacy claims have defaulted to dial-up adjudication. With the internet out, pharmacy team members also can’t access key patient care resources, and risk missing the daily order cut-off time.

Solution

Bell Fibe internet service strengthened by wireless LTE Internet backup, providing fast, reliable uptime. In the event of an internet service outage, connectivity automatically switches to Bell’s LTE cellular network. Most importantly, pharmacy claims and debit/credit transactions continue processing smoothly, with no impact to your business. It’s business as usual!

How to avoid lost opportunities

It’s Saturday afternoon. The store is busy and there is a steady line of customers at the checkout; a perfect day for any retail business owner, until debit and credit transactions start to fail. Since you can only accept cash, customers aren’t buying and are leaving the store in frustration. An excellent business day has turned into a disaster. The internet is up and fully functional, so why are the transactions failing? The culprits are employees streaming movies on their lunch break, taking up all the bandwidth. That same bandwidth is required for debit/credit claims. As soon as they shut down the streaming, debit/credit is back up and running. But how many sales did you lose in the meantime? How many of those customers will not return to your store?

Solution

A Cisco Meraki MX68CW router allows you to manage how internet bandwidth is allocated within your network, ensuring maximum uptime for your business systems. A percentage of bandwidth can be allocated for public Wi-Fi and employee devices, allowing employees to access Wi-Fi without impacting business continuity.

How to manage cybersecurity

It’s first thing Monday morning – one of the busiest days of the week for any pharmacy. Instead of starting the week on a positive note, you have received an irate telephone call from a parent of one of your teenage part-time employees. It seems the employee witnessed the weekend relief pharmacist surfing inappropriately explicit websites on a dispensary computer. As the owner/operator, you now have a number of potential issues on your hands: workplace harassment, labour board complaints, employee discipline, uncomfortable conversations with the impacted employees, appeasing the parents, addressing the overall situation with your entire workforce and the possibility that viruses or malware are now infecting your business systems. Your week will be consumed with putting out this fire.

Solution

Avoid this situation altogether. The Cisco Meraki MX68CW router uses content filtering to block access to undesired content, preventing anyone from browsing questionable websites. In addition to protecting critical business systems from potential cyber attack, this proactive approach to cybersecurity also minimizes exposure to risk and liability when it comes to complying with labour and workplace safety regulations.

Crisis overload

You’ve received a panicked phone call from the Store Manager. The internet browser on every computer displays an ominous message indicating that files have been encrypted until you pay a fine, or else they will be destroyed. Your business systems have been attacked by ransomware and are unusable. Do you pay the ransom, or have the systems restored from backups? Neither solution is ideal and there is a risk of lost data even if the ransom is paid, but business is at a standstill until this is resolved; no front shop sales can be processed, and no prescriptions dispensed. It can take days to restore and there’s still a possibility of lost data. How did this happen? The manager innocently clicked on a link in a suspicious email, unleashing the attack.

Solution

With unparalleled security capabilities and features to protect your business systems before, during and after an attack, cybersecurity (powered by a Cisco Meraki MX68CW router) scans data that is being downloaded from the internet, blocking and containing ransomware. Realtime detection discovers and enforces against intrusions, preventing damage from occurring. Cybersecurity is standing guard to ensure this scenario can’t happen to you.

Having a business continuity plan that includes internet backup and cybersecurity really goes a long way to reducing your downtime. discover more about business continuity and find the solutions that best support your disaster and recovery plan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A part-time job at an Independent Pharmacy led to a 30+ year career in Pharmacy. Over the years, she has played key Product Management leadership roles in collaborating with retail pharmacy teams to design and develop both Nexxsys and PharmaClik Rx, the predecessors of Propel Rx. Sheri-Lyn currently oversees marketing for McKesson Canada's Technology Solutions division and believes that understanding the day-to-day challenges of Pharmacy puts PTS in a position to bring you the solutions you need to run your business.

As organizations around the world prepare for a potential increase in cyberattacks linked to the situation in Ukraine, we want to share important reminders on how PTS helps you stay vigilant. Your entire team plays a critical role to keep your business, your customers, and your patients cyber safe.

Phishing attacks

Phishing emails are typically linked to current events and create a heightened sense of urgency for the recipient to respond immediately to the request. Currently, phishing emails related to COVID-19, donating to the situation in Ukraine, and tax season are very common.

What can you do?

Your continued awareness and actions are a crucial part of preventing cybersecurity attacks. When it comes to keeping your cyber skills sharp, keep these tips top of mind:

1. Promptly report suspicious emails
2. Use strong passwords
3. Think before you click
4. Be careful with emails and mobile text messages
5. Beware of unexpected Multi-Factor Authentication requests

What else can you do?

PTS is committed to providing robust business continuity solutions that protect the safety, security, and integrity of your pharmacy. Business continuity is about having a plan to manage difficult situations (e.g. fire, flood & cyber attacks) so your pharmacy can continue to support patients with as little disruption as possible. Solutions like:

1. Cybersecurity  Keeps confidential files protected and safe
2. LTE Backup  Your business remains connected no matter what happens
3. Data Backup & Recovery  Ensures your data safe and recovery automatic
4. Store-to-Store VPN  Allows you to operate your business from any location
5. Remote Access  Enables your entire team to safely and securely from any location

The key to achieving peace of mind and security is having a business continuity plan in place should the unthinkable happen. Coupled with ongoing education with your pharmacy team on cybersecurity is your best bet to ensuring that the threat of a cyberattack never becomes your reality.

If you're been putting it off, now's the time to schedule a chat with one of our team members. Invest your time with a 15 minute phone call and explore your options.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diana joined PTS in fall of 2020 as their Product Marketing Specialist. Diana’s passionate about how storytelling and messaging create value-add, business changing content. She enjoys collaborating with her team to achieve results. When Diana’s not busy writing, she’s exploring the local forest trails near her home north of Toronto, Ontario.