Why Get A Product For A Client When It Is Out Of Stock In Community Pharmacy

What will you do if a client walks into your community pharmacy demanding for a product you don't have at the moment? Promise to stock it in your next purchase? Say you don't sell that product because of some reasons? Source for it yourself around for the client? Or let the client walk away? This is a crucial decision every community pharmacy contend with almost all the time. The wrong approach can harm the business in the long run.

Client and pharmacist

Community pharmacy businesses survive from patronage from clients. Getting new clients is the desire of every community pharmacist and retaining them is the goal. As long as the community pharmacy shop is in a good location, having new clients is easy. But retaining them requires so many things.

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Both pharmacists and support staff always get training on how to make clients happy. Management always makes sure products are available. But there are times a client may demand for a product that is out of stock or don't stock in the pharmacy.

In a situation like that, what is the good thing to do? Let the client leave looking for it at another community pharmacy? Show the client where to get it? Get it from another community pharmacy around by yourself? Or promise to get the product when next you go to the market?

Why the last line is what many community pharmacies do, it in most cases leads to loss of sales. Worst still the client may buy from another community pharmacy and become their loyal customer. So you lose not just the sales for that product but also a potential loyal customer. The question now is what can you do in a situation like this? Simple!

You don't want to lose your clients due to being out of stock. Many clients hate looking at different community pharmacies for a product. They consider the stress and cost of transportation. They want all their products in one place. You can use that to your advantage.

In Nigeria, pharmacists are entitled to 10 percent of the cost of a drug in a community pharmacy. That is if you are a pharmacist and want to buy a drug in any community pharmacy in Nigeria, 10 percent will be deducted from the official price.

Source For Product

Now here is the thing. Encourage the client to wait in the pharmacy for you. Just give a time estimate when the product will be ready. Different persons may have different waiting times. However, the majority will be willing to wait for an hour if you assure them the product will be available soon. Some will even go home and come back at the said time. Go to another community pharmacy, get the product at the discounted rate. Give it to the client at the retail price you use to sell or the other community pharmacy sold it for you excluding the 10 percent. The 10 percent will cover the cost of transportation.

But in a situation where the transportation was much, you can add a little bit like 200 naira to the cost price to cover that. Many clients know this and are willing to pay for it.

Use E-commerce Solutions

Sometimes, the product may be a scarce supplement. E-commerce platforms are another way to source for these products. Most e-commerce platforms have discounts for persons that purchase at large amounts. Jumia.com.ng is a good example where you can get health products. What you can do is to pay for free delivery. Regular customers enjoy the benefit of express delivery.

It is not every case that this should be done. It is economical for products that are expensive. We are not talking about paracetamol, etc. We are talking about products that are above at least one thousand naira.

This advice is very suitable for new community pharmacies without a customer base. To make it easy, get the contact of other community pharmacies around you, especially wholesale outlets. Get good rapport with them. Introduce them to your sales assistant so that they will give them the same preference as when they see you as the pharmacist.

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In most of these cases, you may not gain or the gain will be low for such transactions. However, you have achieved one thing. Clients like coming back to a community pharmacy where they can get all their product. With that, you have been able to convince that customer that even a product you don't have can be gotten for them whenever they need it. You have won their trust. Your customer base is growing.

Unfortunately, many community pharmacies don't like doing this. The managing director of a community pharmacy once said that that idea is more beneficial to the community pharmacy that will sell the drug to her. I made her realise that the client will leave now and get that same drug from that community pharmacy. They may win the client over and that is game over. Although that did not change her stand, I was able to pass the message to her.