Pharmacy Alliance Marketing – Page 6

Posted on July 20, 2020July 20, 2020

Join an alliance that strengthens your independence

Be part of an alliance of independent pharmacies that deliver better care. Pharmacy Alliance is a team of experts working with a network of supplier partners and member pharmacies, to simplify running independent pharmacy so they can deliver a genuine quality of care.

Our team will help equip you for success. We provide innovative and effective tools and services to pharmacies including buying, merchandising, marketing, and operations.

It takes understanding a pharmacy’s customers, looking at their service offering, and marketing approach that all go into making a business profitable. Something as simple as a retail makeover can transform your pharmacy into a dynamic, unique, or contemporary business that offers an in-pharmacy experience that influences the buying decision of customers.

Become an Alliance Pharmacy co-branded Member and we will set you up for success with a retail makeover valued up to $20,000. Conditions apply.

For more information, contact our Sales Team on (03) 9860 3300 or email sales@pharmacyalliance.com.au

Take the leap. Join an alliance that strengthens your independence.

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Posted on July 9, 2020July 9, 2020

COVID-19 Member Resources

The increase in COVID-19 infections, particularly in Victoria, is concerning and the stage 3 restriction levels are likely to place immense pressure on pharmacies.

As healthcare professionals, we can help slow the spread of COVID-19 in Australia. The Pharmacy Alliance team is here to help members navigate through this phase of COVID-19 and continue to support members with pharmacy visits; managing stock, and supporting your customer service efforts with the necessary tools to encourage social distancing and best practice.

To protect ourselves and others, it is important to:
• practise good hygiene,
• practise physical distancing,
• follow the limits for public gatherings, and
• understand how to isolate if we need to.

Pharmacy Alliance have a range of resources that can help you, your teams and customers stay safe. These resources are available on the Member Support Hub and will be updated as new resources becomes available. Please check back regularly. Alternatively, email the Pharmacy Alliance Marketing Team for any other resource enquiries.

For regular updates from the Department of Health, click here.

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Posted on July 6, 2020July 6, 2020

An Alliance for Retail Success

When customers walk past your pharmacy, you only have a few seconds to draw their attention. With the right look, image, product, and presentation, you can excite them and lure them in. It is important to ensure your pharmacy, and primarily its storefront, is attractive.

With some novel ideas, a dull window can be transformed into a dynamic, unique, or contemporary information display. The in-pharmacy experience is very crucial to the buying decision of today’s customers who usually favour brightly lit, colourful and vibrant places which are well organised as well.

A transformation, to be sustained and helpful, takes more than paint. It takes understanding the pharmacy’s customers, looking at the service, and marketing models which all go into making a business profitable.

For more information about becoming an Alliance Pharmacy co-branded Member, contact our Sales Team on (03) 9860 3300 or email sales@pharmacyalliance.com.au.

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Posted on June 19, 2020June 25, 2020

COVID-19 Update from Simon Reynolds, Managing Director

I would like to congratulate our members on managing and operating their pharmacies through an unprecedented global pandemic over the last few months. It is important to keep you updated you on how we will support you as we approach the new financial year.

PLANNING FOR THE NEW FINANCIAL YEAR IS CRITICAL

As we presented during our recent Members Live & Online webinar, our recommendations as we approach a new financial year and as the ease of COVID-19 restrictions evolve, is to develop your new financial year plan by:

Taking a deep dive into your trading patterns during the pandemic. Look at what is happening now and look out for short, medium, and long-term opportunities.
Learning from COVID-19 stock impacts and pre-plan events like Cough & Cold and Flu to ensure you are prepared. By participating in our Group Buys, we can help you look at your pharmacy requirements in advance to secure stock and best market price.
Introducing the next evolution of our Alliance Pharmacy brand with our Healthcare Heroes campaign to Alliance Pharmacies. This campaign will help you be famous for being protectors of community health and be known as local heroes in immunity, pain, diabetes as well as being known for supporting causes that are important to your local community. If you have not yet installed Alliance Pharmacy signage, I strongly encourage you to make this part of your plan.

SUPPORTING YOU THROUGH THE NEXT PHASE OF COVID-19

The Pharmacy Alliance team is keen to help you navigate through the next phase of COVID-19 and will support you with:

Pharmacy Visits – Throughout COVID-19 restrictions, where possible, our Operations team visited members to help serve customers, restock shelves, and implement social distancing measures. The team will continue to support you in this way.
Managing Stock – We managed to source high-demand products such as hand sanitiser, masks, and thermometers and will continue to monitor market changes to manage evolving needs and trends. With Group Buy for Cough & Cold, after navigating OOS issues, we have been able to secure stock. If your pharmacy participated in this Group Buy, you should now have received all stock. Please look out for notifications on our upcoming Group Buy for Allergy.
Customer Service with Social Distancing – Although restrictions are easing, social distancing is still being encouraged. As such, we have introduced some tools to help you serve customers who want to minimize contact:

InstantScripts

InstantScripts was implemented in more than 500 pharmacies since April 2020. It gives customers an alternative channel, through an app, to get prescriptions without having to physically visit a doctor. In April 2020, InstantScripts provided 3,500 scripts across participating pharmacies.

MedAdvisor

We negotiated a member rate for MedAdvisor so that we have a consistent and cost-effective platform across our group to allow customers to send prescriptions, provide click and collect, request home delivery and request bookings for professional services.

eHealth

With e-prescriptions expected to be available by the end of May, Pharmacy Alliance co-hosted a webinar with e-RX to help pharmacies prepare.

EVENTS

We can’t wait to get members together again, but we have had to put our events on hold until we have a better understanding of restrictions nationally and how venues plan to manage operations around social distancing and managing food and beverage service with large groups

PHARMACY OWNER OUTLOOK SURVEY

Finally, to better support you and your pharmacy, I would like to gain a better understanding of your outlook in managing and operating your pharmacy as we navigate through what lies ahead with COVID-19 and into the future.

Please take some time to complete our Pharmacy Owner Outlook Survey by or before 30 June 2020.

I look forward to seeing you again soon at one of our future events, but in the meantime, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or the Pharmacy Alliance team for assistance.

Regards,

Simon Reynolds
Managing Director

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Posted on June 17, 2020June 22, 2020

MedAdvisor strikes Pharmacy Alliance partnership

Med-tech company MedAdvisor (ASX: MDR) is partnering with Pharmacy Alliance, Australia’s largest independent pharmacy group, to offer pharmacies access to their industry leading medication management mobile app, providing pharmacies a long-term solution for e-Health.

The partnership means Pharmacy Alliance will make the MedAdvisor app available to more than 750 independent pharmacies to help them accelerate digital adoption in their workflows and improve customer loyalty.

MedAdvisor CEO Robert Read said: “We’re delighted to welcome Pharmacy Alliance to the MedAdvisor family. As one of the largest independent pharmacy buying groups in Australia, this partnership will go a long way towards enabling technology adoption in independent pharmacies across the country – helping pharmacists work smarter by streamlining the important tasks of dispensing medications and promoting improved adherence and health outcomes for patients.”

Pharmacy Alliance Managing Director Simon Reynolds said: “With social distancing continuing to be in practice as a result of COVID-19, the MedAdvisor app will allow our members to help their customers manage their medication when they are not able to visit their local pharmacies.”

The partnership comes ahead of the launch of ePrescribing in Australia which will boost the use of digital solutions to provide customers with convenience, access and choice.

“MedAdvisor is a secure, digital script wallet that connects directly with the pharmacy. It helps customers organise and manage their eScripts, plus they can be easily and securely sent right to a pharmacy’s dispensing workflow from within the app. This removes faxes, emails and other disruptive processes that pharmacists currently experience with digital image dispensing. For pharmacists, processing of tokens will be similar to paper scripts, meaning minimal change and disruption to current workflows,” Read said.

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Posted on June 9, 2020June 22, 2020

National Hearing Care Partnership – Free Hearing Test Referral Program

In Australia, approximately 1 in 6 people have hearing loss to some degree. That is as many as 64% of people over the age of 60 and for people over 70 years, this increases to 3 in 4 people.

Hearing loss can occur at any time but becomes more prevalent with increasing age. Hearing, just like the other four senses, plays an important role in our well-being. Our hearing can change very slowly.

Did you know that it takes an average of seven years for someone to make the call to get their hearing treated? Seven years is a long time to ignore hearing loss.

From July 2020, selected member pharmacies can refer customers for a free hearing test with National Hearing Care (NHC) and receive commission for every eligible customer tested.

For more details about the referrals program, or to check if your pharmacy is eligible for this referrals program, visit the Member Support Hub.

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Posted on May 29, 2020June 22, 2020

Celebrating 155+ Alliance Pharmacies

Despite the multitude of challenges 2020 has thrown at us, we are happy to share that we now have more than 155 Alliance Pharmacies across Australia – with many more in progress. Over the coming weeks, we will feature pharmacies that have recently come on board as Alliance Pharmacy.

The Alliance Pharmacy brand solution was developed as a membership benefit to help independent pharmacies compete more effectively against franchise pharmacy brands. Alliance Pharmacy signage allows us to support our members more effectively with national marketing programs, local area marketing campaigns and merchandising and procurement support.

Alliance Pharmacy brand solution provides a balance of national and local marketing that:

Helps you stand out from your local competition and
Allows marketing activities to direct customers to your pharmacy and service offerings.

Signage is an important but cost-effective part of your marketing strategy. Signage works for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year giving you prominent exposure in your community to those who drive or walk past.

Speak to us about how the Alliance Pharmacy brand solution can make a difference to your pharmacy.

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Posted on May 12, 2020May 12, 2020

Merchandising for your Pharmacy

Having a gift range has helped many pharmacies boost their sales and engage customers to build their basket. With pharmacies having a loyal customer base, having a great gift range means that a busy customer can not only take care of their prescriptions but buy gifts for themselves, for a special person or for a special occasion.

However, gift ranges are subject to trends and changes in lifestyles. Here are some practical ways you can entice customers to buy more than prescription and medicinal products:
1. Do your market research and understand your customers’ needs.
2. Use your pharmacy’s floor plan to your advantage.
3. Train your team to cross-sell and upsell.
4. Build strong customer relationships – listen intently.
5. Stock related products.
6. Offer customer service that sizzles.

Identifying opportunities to increase sales is not always easy and the Pharmacy Alliance team are here to support you with the right merchandising solution for your pharmacy – including developing your gift range with our new Gifting Guide.

For more information, contact our Merchandise Team on (03) 9860 3300 or email merchandise@pharmacyalliance.com.au.

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