Independent pharmacies truly offer a customized service for consumers. People prefer these pharmacies for their personal touch. They stand out in customer courtesy, helpfulness, speedy checkouts, fast prescription filling, and the pharmacists' knowledge and accuracy.
But the competition is fierce, and independent pharmacies need to boost their efficiency to stay in the game. Profit margins are getting tighter, and mergers between mega drugstores and health insurance companies are common. Additionally, even Amazon is competing in the drugstore/pharmacy sector.
Given these challenges, it's clear that adopting strategies like offering home delivery is essential. Additionally, with nearly a third of independent pharmacies at risk of closure in 2024, it's clear that the dominance of large drugstore chains is putting significant pressure on these smaller businesses.
In this post:
Understanding Pharmacy Software
Pharmacy software refers to the various software tools used to operate a retail pharmacy. These tools are essential for daily tasks such as the following:
- point of sale,
- document management,
- barcode creation,
- e-prescribing,
- customer service,
- employee scheduling,
- handling medical claims and benefits, and more.
eLogii provides independent pharmacies with the routing and scheduling features they need to stay competitive, making home delivery possible.
How eLogii Enhances Pharmacy Efficiency and Competitiveness
eLogii’s route optimization software allows pharmacy owners to keep filling prescriptions, maintain special customer relationships, and compete with major players like Amazon. Never thought about delivering prescriptions to your customers before? With its helpful features, our software supports your pharmacy business at every step:
- Automate deliveries by transforming order spreadsheets into work schedules with an easy-to-use tool.
- Plan your operations and organize your team's workflow on a weekly basis.
- Keep in contact with drivers and send routes to their phones instantly using our Driver app.
- Track deliveries and receive updated ETAs.
- Send real-time delivery notifications to customers via email and text.
- Utilize proof of delivery features with image scanning to attach delivery photos and customer signatures.
- Plan reloading stops and estimate time of completion.
eLogii's has helped many companies improve efficiency and reduce operating expenses.
eLogii has made a significant impact for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, a major NHS provider in the U.K. Before they were struggling with an unreliable route optimization system and cumbersome manual processes. They found eLogii’s solution to be transformative.
The trust saw a 52% reduction in human error and a 90% cut in time spent generating reports. Driver efficiency was improved by over 33% and driver training time slashed by more than 50%.
With eLogii’s advanced features, including seamless barcode scanning and efficient route planning, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust can now handle time-sensitive pickups with greater accuracy and speed. The intuitive driver app and automated planning have streamlined operations, allowing them to meet and exceed service levels effectively, making eLogii an indispensable tool in their daily operations.
Other Pharmacy Software Solutions
These pharmacy management tools can enhance your pharmacy's operations beyond just scheduling and routing.
Pharmacy Management Software
These systems automate your workflows and help minimize errors when filling prescriptions, which enhances patient safety.
Micro Merchant Systems
Micro Merchant Systems supports various aspects of pharmacy operations, including prescription processing, managing workflows, handling claims, and generating labels. They offer automated refill management and patient record keeping, which reduces the chance of mistakes in drug dispensing. Their software also automates administrative tasks, data backups, and report generation, allowing pharmacy staff to focus on essential tasks. Additionally, they provide point-of-sale software to streamline co-pay transactions.
Liberty Software
Liberty Software helps you automate prescription filling and manage your inventory by connecting with wholesalers’ systems. It brings together many of your pharmacy’s tasks into one easy-to-use platform with its document management and point-of-sale features. This software saves your employees time by handling tasks that can be automated. It also includes workflows for checking final products and customizable stages. Plus, it has tools for compounding, advanced bin management, custom prescription labels, and detailed reporting.
Amplicare
Amplicare is a decision-making platform created by pharmacists to help improve patient care. It works with most pharmacy management systems to enhance existing workflows, improving performance and reducing fees. Patients can compare different plans, and independent pharmacies can maintain personal communication with their customers, ensuring a personal touch.
Inventory Management Software
One Consumer Reports survey found that 21% of consumers had trouble getting a needed drug because it was out of stock at their pharmacy. Inventory management software helps ensure you have the medications people need, so you don’t lose customers due to low stock levels.
Supplylogix
Supplylogix is a specialized tool for managing pharmacy inventory. It uses supply chain technology to provide insights into your stock and manage inventory across different locations. This software helps reduce mistakes and make better inventory decisions using data. It focuses on inventory analytics and automating various parts of the inventory process to keep you informed and responsive.
Customer Relationship Management Software
Customers choose independent pharmacies for their personalized service and the relationships they build with community pharmacists, unlike the big chains that don’t know their names. With customer relationship management (CRM) software, you can take personalization to the next level.
Creatio
Creatio is a CRM tool designed specifically for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. It helps automate your business processes and improve customer experiences. Creatio provides a customer database to track interactions, tools for segmenting and targeting marketing campaigns, and detailed account management features.
Customer Service Software
Good customer service is crucial for loyalty. Your pharmacy needs to be prepared to handle customer inquiries and concerns through phone, email, or chat.
Zendesk
Zendesk combines email, chat, social media, and phone support into one platform. This allows you to answer customer questions in the way they prefer, which is vital for handling sensitive personal information. Although Zendesk isn’t pharmacy-specific software, its strong customer support features, like omnichannel support and AI tools, are valuable for pharmaceutical businesses.
Employee Scheduling Software
Ensure you have the right staff scheduled at the right times to meet customer needs with effective scheduling tools.
PayCor
PayCor Scheduling lets you quickly build reliable, error-free work schedules that you can update anytime. You can create templates, assign shifts, and easily adjust schedules with just a few clicks. By automating scheduling, you save time and can potentially save thousands of dollars annually. It also helps reduce miscommunication and allows employees to manage their own schedules, increasing engagement.
TSheets
TSheets integrates time-tracking and scheduling into a single platform. Its mobile app offers flexibility for tracking, submitting, and approving times for both employees and employers. It provides a complete view of all projects and generates reports to help you assess the efficiency of your scheduling.
Try eLogii to Boost Your Delivery Efficiency
Pharmacies face more competition today and need software to stay ahead. Using a pharmacy software system can help enhance customer loyalty, improve efficiency, and increase revenue.