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12 INDUSTRY EDUCATION FROM TRANSACTIONS TO TRANSFORMATIONS By Peter Howard. Return of service Despite the disruption of a pandemic, retail’s rapidly evolving environment means today’s community pharmacists can’t lose sight of the urgent need to become tomorrow’s creators, collaborators, and change champions. With a change in the retail sector and 7CPA around the corner, no pharmacy can rely on past success, and it remains important for new products and services to be added to a pharmacy’s existing offerings. In this feature, we explore the concept of pharmacy professional services as a way to increase pharmacy revenues while also building a health hub for the local community. We look at why it’s needed, how it’s done, and what’s required. In this month’s Men’s Health feature on page 34 we also offer a comprehensive case study showing how that professional service has transformed an individual pharmacy. Why should I change? In March, the Pharmacy Guild’s Business Support Pharmacist, Michael Garrett, explained in his APP Online presentation how the retail landscape is changing, based on technology, consumer trends and competition. The challenge is for pharmacy to remain relevant and attractive in the face of increasing competition. Today’s consumer is far more aware and educated than ever and, with access to multiple sources of valuable information, increasingly exercising choice on where they spend their dollars. With discount pharmacies competing on price, and other up and coming companies offering services across the whole customer journey, from online video consultations with a doctor, e-prescribing, dispensing, online shopping and medicines delivery all from the comfort of the consumers’ home, community pharmacies need to move away from price towards being a value-add provider of total health solutions. Also, pharmacies need to introduce professional services because of changes in patient behaviour. Today, when a script runs out, patients have multiple options. They can go back to their doctor, consult Google, contact scripts online or choose to use a new online doctor. While all these offer a solution, this is transactional rather than transformational, which is what patients really need. But to provide an entirely transformational solution, we must understand our patients at a much deeper level than ever before and offer far more than merely transactional solutions – and this includes professional services. How do I start? Mr Garrett says that when it comes to solving patient needs, research has been about challenging how a “In this feature, we explore the concept of pharmacy professional services as a way to increase pharmacy revenues while also building a health hub for the local community.” RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • JUN 2020