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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin brings 20+ years of experience in community pharmacy from both a corporate and independent setting. She's passionate about patient care and believes that investing in clientele and building relationships leads to patient retention and overall customer satisfaction. In Robin’s spare time, you’ll find her renovating her home and tending to her gardens. With any luck, the peonies she planted last fall will bloom!

Propel Rx has enhanced the Intake window to streamline data entry. As we return to in person industry events, we heard Propel Rx users weren’t taking advantage of some of the new and enhanced features in this window. Here are 3 things to START doing in the Intake window.

1. Start using the Profile button

Once a patient has been searched and selected, the Profile button becomes available. Prescriptions can be easily refilled or reauthorized. Attachments and notes are carried forward for reauthorized prescriptions and everything can be viewed in a single window.

2. Select Copy Rx to add another instance in the Intake window.

Two prescriptions can be processed together by selecting Copy Rx. This will allow another instance in the Intake window. Think of it as adding another page.

This is an alternative to the “/ ” method you might be using today. Give it a try!

3. Add prescriptions to Data Entry for later.

Ever start an intake prescription that you want to finish later or want someone else at another workstation to continue working on it? Start utilizing the Add to Workbench button to add it to the Data Entry queue.

The Intake window is your ticket to more efficient data entry. Explore more about the Intake window by visiting Propel Rx Online Help.

​​​ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin brings 20+ years of experience in community pharmacy from both a corporate and independent setting. She's passionate about patient care and believes that investing in clientele and building relationships leads to patient retention and overall customer satisfaction. In Robin’s spare time, you’ll find her renovating her home and tending to her gardens. With any luck, the peonies she planted last fall will bloom!

Excitement has been building around the training required for Propel Rx. Trust me, we share your excitement! You’re already a PharmaClik Rx expert which will make learning Propel Rx easier than you think.

Allow me to walk you through what the learning journey leading up to Propel Rx will look like.

Keeping you updated

Getting ready for your upgrade to Propel Rx is made easy through a series of weekly countdown emails beginning four weeks prior to your upgrade, and ending just over a week after the upgrade. These weekly emails contain everything you need to ensure a smooth transition and an even smoother go live day. Remember to check your junk in case these emails end up there!

Enclosed in these emails is a toolkit containing all the critical information and a checklist that will keep you and your pharmacy team on task with the activities required during the four-week countdown.

Your eLearning journey

Your team will have four weeks to complete eLearning. With the help of the Retail Learning Academy (RLA), your pharmacy team will be able to learn about Propel Rx at their own pace, when it's convenient for them. Keep an eye out for your "Prepare for Propel Rx" email that outlines your four week journey. You'll also receive an additional email that will contain an RLA enrolment key, where you and your team can then view the assigned curriculum and enroll.

Self-directed learning is engaging and interactive and includes:

1. eLearning

2. Guided demos

3. Hands-on simulations

Flexible learning environment

The eLearning courses can be completed on various devices like a laptop, tablet, or a desktop computer. The course window will adapt to your chosen device, allowing more flexibility for your pharmacy team. If you’re unable to complete a course in one sitting, don't worry, it will remember where you left off, so you’re not required to start from the very beginning.

Completing the eLearning prior to being upgraded is mandatory and will ensure that you and your team are familiar with Propel Rx on your Go Live day. You’re already experts with PharmaClik Rx and navigating this new platform will become second nature to you in no time!

The PTS Learning Team hosts weekly live online "Ask us Anything" Q&A sessions. Get a chance to experience Propel Rx with an expert trainer to guide you the along the way. The sessions are designed to support your learning journey and are free to attend for as many times as you need. Drop in for 10 minutes to ask a question or stay for the hour. It's up to you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - ZLATA ZOVKO, MANAGER, LEARNING

Zlata is curently the Learning Manager and has over 20 years of experience in the pharmacy industry.  Zlata is passionate about learning and believes that investing in learning leads to increased autonomy and ultimately more time to spend with patients.

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. 

Banks, law firms, manufacturers, and technology companies. One thing they all have in common is well-defined business continuity plans. Plans that ensure the organization can quickly bounce back or better yet, be unfazed, in the face of disaster.

Unplanned interruptions take many forms.

Business continuity is about having a plan to manage difficult situations so your pharmacy can continue to support patients with as little disruption as possible.

Any event that results in a disruption of business operations falls under business continuity. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that unplanned business disruptions can take many forms. Whether the disruption is caused by a complex public health emergency, a major natural disaster or a commonplace power outage, it can have an impact on whether or not your pharmacy can provide critical healthcare services to the community. Sometimes it’s those minor disruptions that cause significant amounts of damage – consider the havoc wreaked by a broken water line leaking through the ceiling, damaging computer equipment.

Is your pharmacy prepared for the unexpected?

The importance of a business continuity plan is often overlooked, particularly when it comes to small and medium-size business. Perhaps the complexity of building a plan is overwhelming, or maybe it’s a case of being aware that a plan is important, but there’s no time or urgency to focus on creating one. Unfortunately, once the need for a business continuity plan becomes urgent, it’s already too late.

40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster.

An alarming statistic that pops up over-and-over in research shows that 40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster and another 25%, that do reopen, fail within a year. [1] These are businesses without a plan.

On the other hand, 96% of businesses with a business continuity plan in place fully recover operations. [2]

This statistic is impressive. It tells us that prioritizing a business continuity plan is an investment in the future of the business. Regardless of whether doors are open for business, fixed operational costs continue to be incurred, and revenue streams need to be restored. The faster the business can return to regular operations, the more likely it will recover from the disruptive event.

Business continuity is more than just “keeping the lights on”.

Business continuity ensures that your pharmacy’s critical operations are not disrupted. It’s about being proactive: advance planning and preparation gives the organization the capability to continue delivering its essential products and services during a disruptive event.

It’s important to plan and prepare not only for events that will stop operations completely, but for those that also have the potential to adversely impact services (like that water leak, for instance).  A thorough plan details steps to be taken before, during and after an event to ensure a successful return to regular operations.

From an IT perspective, key components of business continuity plans include:

• Prevention: Disasters aren’t always caused by fires, floods and windstorms. Data and security breaches are very real threats, particularly when it comes to confidential data such as personal health and payment information. Build a wall around your network with a Cybersecurity solution, protecting it from outside threats.
• Preparedness: Consider all the possible types of risks and disruptions that may impact day-to-day operations and how they can be mitigated. Perhaps your pharmacy is in an area prone to power failures and internet outages, impacting pharmacy claim and debit/credit payment processing. An LTE cellular backup solution creates redundancy, allowing operations to continue uninterrupted when there’s recurring power surges or line drops.
• Recovery: A critical component of restoring operations and minimizing downtime includes offsite data backup and the ability to restore data from the cloud. Remote access solutions should also be considered – they afford owners the ability to tap into their business remotely, from an off-site location or, in the case of multi-store owners, from another store in their network (called Store-to-Store VPN).

Business continuity matters.

Don’t wait until disaster strikes – by then, it’s too late. Invest in the future of your business by building a well-documented business continuity plan to maximize uptime in the face of disruption.

PTS provides technology solutions to support your business continuity plans. Book a meeting to discuss options with one of our Sales Team members.

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[1] Finlinson, J 2021, Why Disaster Recovery Is No Longer Optional For Today's Businesses, Forbes, accessed 31 January 2022, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/10/12/why-disaster-recovery-is-no-longer-optional-for-todays-businesses/>

[2] Rock, T 2020, 23 Disaster Recovery Statistics You Should Know, Invenio IT, accessed 31 January 2022, < https://invenioit.com/continuity/disaster-recovery-statistics/>

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.

In previous Business Continuity articles, we’ve mentioned the importance of being able to securely access your pharmacy from an off-site location. Not only is this a crucial component of any business continuity plan, it’s invaluable for boosting day-to-day productivity. In the course of a regular work week, being at an off-site location could mean many things: working from home, participating in rounds as part of a long-term care facility’s healthcare team, or working from another store in your small chain.

PTS offers two solutions that allow owners and their employees to access a pharmacy remotely: Store-to-Store VPN and Remote Access. In this article, I’ll explain both solutions and share why one Independent pharmacy owner thinks everyone should use Remote Access.

Let’s begin by understanding what’s meant by a VPN.

A virtual private network (VPN) is a secure private network extended across public networks such as the Internet. By using encryption and other security measures, a VPN allows computer networks to create a secure tunnel to exchange data across shared public networks as if they were privately connected. McKesson's VPN is a secure connection between PTS and our pharmacies. This security powers both Store-to-Store VPN and Remote Access.

Convenient and secure operations management.

Ideal for owners of multiple pharmacies, Store-to-Store VPN provides the flexibility to operate your business from any location in your network. Authorized employees can access any computer at any location, from any location (or even at the same location). In short, to use Store-to-Store VPN, it’s necessary to be onsite at one of the locations.

Optimized staffing is one of the many operational benefits afforded by this solution. Let’s say you own two pharmacies, and one store tends to be busier than the other. When there’s a lull at Pharmacy A, an employee at that location can log into Pharmacy B to pick up the overflow. Productivity improves at Pharmacy B without increasing the number of onsite employees.

Run your business from anywhere.

Arguably the more versatile of the two solutions, Remote Access provides a secure connection into a pharmacy’s network from just about anywhere in the world. Once a laptop or tablet is configured with Remote Access, you can be in another room, another city or another country and still be able to access the pharmacy’s POS and\or dispensary systems.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, this practical solution allowed owners to balance employee health and safety with the importance of patient care. Provisioned with Remote Access, team members could focus on work that didn’t require them to be present in the pharmacy, helping sustain the pharmacy’s overall productivity.

Why one pharmacist believes every owner should use Remote Access.

Pandemic aside, there are day-to-day practicalities of Remote Access. Just ask Vijay Shukla, a pharmacist who owns two pharmacies in Ottawa: Barrhaven IDA Pharmacy and Cedarview Guardian Pharmacy. I recently had a chance to catch up with Vijay and knowing that Remote Access is one of his must-haves, I wanted to learn why he considers it such a vital tool.

How does Remote Access help you run your business?

“It allows me to know what’s happening in my stores at any point in time. Most importantly, I can provide phone support for my team. It lets me be available to them at any time and help them right away, especially for quick things. When it comes to software, being able to troubleshoot their problems means we don’t need to call PTS Customer Care every time. That helps everyone: us, PTS and other pharmacies; we only call in for support if there’s a problem we can’t solve on our own, so it frees up the phone lines for people who really need Customer Care’s help.

As an owner, I can be at home, working late at night and need to check something – maybe I need to run a report or check something on a patient’s record – I can do it immediately. Being a pharmacist, 80% of the time I’m connecting to the dispensary system, but it’s also useful to connect to the POS system. For example, I’ve been able to check and compare front shop product pricing at both locations and make corrections as needed. All without being in a store.”

Author Note: "I can attest to Vijay being a one-person support centre! More than once, I’ve witnessed him field a call from a team member, then immediately log into the store to help solve a problem."

What would you tell other owners about purchasing Remote Access?

"It's a no brainer. I wouldn't think an extra second about it. You need to have it. I can't live without it!”

It’s clear that Remote Access and Store-to-Store VPN both have their own unique benefits. Depending on the pharmacy’s operational needs, it may be worthwhile to explore one or both services. Either way, this fact is true: geography doesn’t have to be a roadblock in providing patients with superb and timely care.

PTS provides several technology solutions to support your business continuity plans. Book a meeting to discuss options with one of our Sales Team members.

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.