Patient / Customer Relationship

While the patient/customer relationship is somewhat related to competitive advantage, it is nevertheless deserving of recognition on its own. How likely are your patients to return to renew a prescription/re-purchase a product or even better, refer friends and family to your pharmacy? The majority of your peers do not actively seek out – or quantify – the answer to this, but your corporate competitors actively pursue this information.
Stability, consistency, repeatability, reliability, and sustainability are a few of the key attributes to establishing a meaningful customer relationship. Your quality marketing program needs to create name recognition (of both the business and key employees) and build customer awareness and loyalty. A long history of efficient operations, producing timely and accurate prescription output, and complimentary professional advice will drive a valuable reputation in your community.
While the value of your business will in part, be related to the hard, tangible assets, it is the goodwill that constitutes the majority of the price a buyer will pay. Therefore, it is these softer profit-building factors that will help drive goodwill in your pharmacy business. Relationships and patient/ customer habits remain the nectar of the valuation gods.