Customer journey tracking is a common and effective way for all kinds of businesses to understand how customers experience every stage of engagement with them. In practical terms, this means seeing the experience of being a customer from the customer’s perspective and making improvements based on the findings you uncover.
Why? According to global consulting firm McKinsey, appropriate use of customer journey tracking can increase revenue by 15% and grow customer satisfaction by 20%.
In this post we’ll explore how this approach can be applied to the pharmacy customer journey and how HasHealth can be used to both gain this understanding and take action to eliminate points of friction.
What is customer journey tracking?
Customer journey tracking is where a typical end-to-end customer journey is mapped out into its constituent touchpoints (i.e. points of customer engagement) along with how each relates to essential customer-related processes. This includes the different ways a customer engages with a supplier before completing an order. In the pharmacy sector, this could relate to processes surrounding a patient first booking, and then attending, an appointment.
The activities that go towards customer journey tracking often involve creating some kind of visual representation of the customer journey – a customer journey map. This map can also record other aspects of customer experience delivery in the same visual framework. For example, the communications channels available at each touchpoint; even the information systems and workflows required to support each customer action.
How does mapping the customer journey help pharmacies?
The fundamental benefit of mapping the pharmacy customer journey is gaining new insights you would otherwise be unaware of. These can help optimise how you interact with customers to achieve a broad set of objectives, such as in the following three areas:
- More effective communications and marketing
- More efficient and streamlined business processes
- An easier, more frictionless experience for customers
Communications and marketing
By analysing the many communications touchpoints in the pharmacy customer journey, you can ascertain how effective your communications approach is. For example, determining customers’ preferred channels of communication (i.e. webchat, phone, in-person, etc.) and which are the most appropriate to execute each action in the process.
Customer journey tracking helps from a marketing perspective too, by comparing the relative performance of marketing campaigns and messages in eliciting the desired response. Examining your current marketing approach in this way should indicate what to do more or, and less of.
Streamlining processes
Mapping and tracking the pharmacy customer journey is also really important for identifying ways to streamline existing processes. For example, by collecting data around certain touchpoints you can detect how long interactions take or how often exchanges of information are needlessly repeated. By streamlining processes, pharmacies can become more efficient and better utilise their existing resources without compromising customer experience.
Reducing barriers for customers
Perhaps the most critical application for customer journey tracking is making the customer experience as effortless as possible. Naturally, low-effort interactions cost less to deliver. What’s exciting is that, according to Gartner, effort is the strongest driver to customer loyalty. So if you can alleviate effort from the customer experience, you’ll have happier customers that are more likely to return again and again. Often this entails removing friction from interactions and giving customers simple ways of saving time, such as providing self-serve options.
4 common points of friction in the pharmacy customer journey
Here are 4 common points of friction in the pharmacy customer journey and how HasHealth helps to overcome them.
Not wanting to talk to someone
Some pharmacy customers are uncomfortable talking. It could be because they’re sensitive explaining why they need an appointment to discuss their medical condition or requirement in private (e.g. sexual health). Maybe they have accessibility issues that make verbal communications difficult. Or perhaps it’s a generational thing – younger demographics tend to prefer digital channels rather than speaking on the phone or visiting in person.
HasHealth addresses this challenge via its online booking tool that allows customers to secure an appointment without having to talk to someone about it. The same tool also makes it very easy to cancel or reschedule appointments if necessary.
Using up valuable appointment time on admin
It can be both annoying for customers, and an inefficient use of a pharmacist’s finite time, to have customers fill-out medical questionnaires at the start of their appointment. This can be especially galling if the questionnaire reveals an issue that means the treatment (e.g. a vaccination) cannot be carried out.
Far better is to issue a pre-screening questionnaire to customers as a touchpoint between the appointment booking and the appointment itself. This ensures that all necessary admin is processed efficiently ahead of time, and that 100% of the allotted appointment time can be spent focused on the patient and their needs.
Appointment no-shows
Having a great booking system is no guarantee that patients will show up. Appointment no-shows can lose money for pharmacies and require re-booking for customers who forgot or hadn’t properly diarised the commitment.
HasHealth minimises no-shows by facilitating online payments that can be taken in advance of when the appointment happens. For products like Viagra Connect, patients can be pre-screened, payment taken (if passed) and they then just need to collect their order. Another good idea is to automate the issuing of reminders to customers, via email or SMS.
Supply chain problems causing cancelled orders or appointments
Another avoidable point of friction is having to cancel appointments or orders due to supply issues. The risk is customers becoming so frustrated that they choose to use an alternative pharmacy.
HasHealth helps mitigate these risks through its staff and stock availability feature. This can be set to ensure that no further appointments can be booked into the staff calendar once stocks run out or have reached a certain threshold.
Another HasHealth feature is the waiting list, which allows pharmacies to measure potential demand ahead of ordering the necessary products to meet it. For example, showing the pharmacy how many patients have registered their interest in a flu jab and are waiting to be scheduled. This helps guide pharmacists on the appropriate quantities to order.
To find out more about how HasHealth can remove friction throughout the pharmacy customer journey, book a demo with our team today.
