Give Back and Grow Your Pharmacy
Spread the word. You can count on the fact that these charities have a media partner working to raise awareness for the charity drive. They will announce the charity’s donation details through social media, radio, and newspapers, and with these announcements will be your pharmacy’s name, location, and status as a drop-off site. That’s free publicity right there! Just this alone can help increase traffic to your pharmacy, but you should take it a step further. Promote the charity drive on your pharmacy’s social media platforms! Encourage your community to help give back and head to your pharmacy to drop off their donations. You can take a few photos or videos of donors (with their permission) to use on your social media accounts and continue to promote the charity. It’s low-cost and effective! Reward donors for giving back. First, always thank them for making a donation and supporting their community, then give them a little something that will pique their interest. I love giving out bounce-back coupons for them to use on their next visit. That can increase the chance that they return to your pharmacy to save $10–$20 dollars on their purchase. This is also when you and your staff should offer to transfer their prescriptions to your pharmacy! You can always sweeten the deal by allowing them to use the bounce-back coupon immediately. You should also ask if they are interested in anything specific, like cold medicine, vitamins, or probiotics. Ask if they have any ibuprofen at home for the occasional headache! Simply do what you can to convert them into customers, even if it’s just for an OTC purchase. This is an incredible first step! Ensure they come back! Some charity drives involve multiple visits, like The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree. I would partner with The Salvation Army because it involves a person coming to your pharmacy and choosing an ornament with a child in need’s name and Christmas wish list. They take the ornament and return with the holiday presents, so that’s a new person visiting your pharmacy twice ! Offer them a bounce-back coupon each time and do what you can to give them the best customer experience. Partnering with a local or national charity is an excellent way to gain new patients and position yourself as a compassionate community-based pharmacy. All you need to do is connect with each donor who walks through your door.
We’re smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, and there are plenty of ways we can use this to increase traffic. My favorite method is partnering with charities. Not only is it a way you can support those in need, but it’s also a way to get more people into your pharmacy and position yourself as a community-based business. Countless charities look for partners during the holiday season and year-round to support their donation drives. For these charities to actually receive donations, they need to make the donation process as simple as possible. What better way than to partner with local businesses and designate them as drop-off sites? This is where your pharmacy comes in! Become a drop-off donation site. Your goal is to convert these donors into customers and, hopefully, long-term patients. When picking a charity, there are endless options. For the holidays, consider Toys for Tots, which provides toys and gifts for children in need during the holiday season. However, there are plenty of other charities to choose from, such as local foster care homes, animal shelters, homeless shelters, blood drives, and so on. Canned food drives were all too common in my area, so I collected pet food to be a purple cow and gain more attention. The one thing you need to ensure is that your pharmacy becomes a drop-off site for their donations so you can turn this into a business opportunity.
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