Why is there a need to improve services at retail pharmacies?
- Increasing competition in the small market (Population 4 million) with the of Watson Pharmacy
- Slow growth of the retail market
- High cost of labor
- The need for the elevation of the status of pharmacy practice in the retail setting
However improvement in services is harder than an improvement in the manufacturing sector because in manufacturing, production is a relatively homogenous process. In services, people (the basic unit) are unpredictable; because they have different level of skill sets, motivation and experience.
How do you improve services?
DMAIC = Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.
- Internal Benchmark: Therefore Guardian and Watson should not attempt to benchmark against each other. The reason is because it is difficult to define what your competitor is measuring and may lead to frustration when scores vary tremendously and detailed metrics are available when you use an internal benchmark.
- Measuring Root Cost: Detailed cost analysis is required as expense may not necessary explain the underlying cause of the expense. For example, high cost of staffing requirements will not explain the causal root of a poor warehousing system which causes in efficiencies
- Expand the Cost Tree and Choosing Metrics: Measurement of services should be as specific as possible whenever possible. Therefore, instead of measuring how efficient and competent a pharmacist is via checking interventions or sales, other forms of measurements have to be included as well. These measurements may include immediate feedback from customers, (Taking a cue out of the banking sector, banks have a keypad by which customers can rate their service provider), giving out cue number in order to measure time to serve customers (Obviously this may not be the best measurement available because the best measurement will be achieved by not counseling at all but should be used in conjunction with the other metrics)
The above recommendations are not exhaustive and additional suggestions are most welcome
Posted by pharmer 
