Your senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell—all play a part in emotional connection. That’s why the smell of baby powder might remind you of your grandmother, or the feel of sun on your skin makes you think of summer.
Your senses don’t only translate to personal memories and feelings. They also contribute to how customers feel about businesses, like their local grocery store, a hair salon and, yes, your pharmacy.
As a community pharmacy, you want your patients to connect with your business. You want them to feel like they’re a part of the pharmacy family, so that they’ll always choose their hometown pharmacy over the impersonal big box store down the street or the lure of supposedly cheaper prices at national chains. Help out your business by marketing to your customers’ senses.
The sensory experience
Your physical pharmacy can say a lot about your business. What does your store look like? Smell like? Feel like? What can patients imply about your business simply from the information they can gather with their senses?
Start by searching for off-putting sensory experiences. Consider, what patients will feel when they see boxes cluttering up one of your aisles. Or, what experience new patients have when they see stains on your carpet. Before you make any other adjustments sensory-wise in your pharmacy, eliminate negative sensory experiences from your store.
Create a positive atmosphere
While friendly and helpful staff can aid in your efforts to appeal to customers, take it a step farther. Create a positive experience for your patients by considering how each of the senses contributes to the atmosphere in your pharmacy.
What kind of music do you play overhead? Does it add to the feel of your store? Do the colors on your walls contribute to the feeling you want your pharmacy to represent, such as blue for a calm feel? Does your store smell “clinical-clean” or “freshly scrubbed”? Do patients wait for their prescriptions in comfy armchairs or run-of-the-mill plastic chairs?
The small details, if paid attention to, can create a unique signature for your business. Patients will remember (and return to) a pharmacy that offers them a tasty cup of coffee or iced tea while they wait for their prescriptions to be filled!
Remember that emotional connection drives customer loyalty and word of mouth, which will keep your current patients at your pharmacy and get you more new customers. So, pay attention to the senses and what they say about your pharmacy.
