Three Tips for Independent Pharmacies to Increase Doctor Referrals

Increasing doctor referrals can provide independent pharmacies with a larger and more robust customer base. While improving customer service may lead to increased revenue through repeat purchases and higher volumes of future transactions, the following tips to increase doctor referrals are often essential for independent pharmacies seeking to attract and acquire the new customers needed to ensure greater commercial success in the future. The following three tips make it easier to obtain referrals and improve revenue.

1. Cultivate and Maintain Superior Relationships With Physicians and Practices

Building a better relationship with not only a healthcare provider, but their entire staff, can allow pharmacies to secure referrals with greater ease and success. Making an effort to learn more about providers, their professional background and interacting with their staff on a more personal level can help to ensure that independent pharmacies are less likely to go overlooked when it comes time to provide a patient with a referral. Cultivating a relationship with an entire practice allows pharmacies to discover new ways to help ensure healthcare providers are able to meet their needs.

2. Implement a More Aggressive Sales Strategy

From hiring a full-time salesperson and customizing a sales strategy to targeting a more specific audience, crafting the right sales strategy can play a major role in ensuring pharmacies are able to expand their clientele. Effective sales techniques allow pharmacies to stand out from the competition, an issue which cannot be taken lightly when it comes to building or improving a customer base. Pharmacies that lack the staff, expertise and other resources needed to implement an aggressive and effective sales strategy may benefit by hiring an in-house professional or working with a third-party marketing service in order to ensure their efforts are able to be as effective as possible.

3. Build a Better Brand

Independent pharmacies are able to enjoy a greater degree of flexibility when it comes to meeting the needs of their customers. Chains and franchise operations are frequently limited by policies that may impede their efforts to work alongside healthcare providers or meet the needs of their customers. Building a better brand or crafting the right image allows independent pharmacies to more easily establish themselves in today's marketplace. Developing a reputation for providing extra effort to educate customers or to assist them in addressing needs they may have can ensure that pharmacies are more likely to receive doctor referrals, especially for patients who may have special needs or who have had issues with chain pharmacies in the past.

More Referrals Means More Sales Revenue

Being overlooked by practices and healthcare providers can quickly find independent pharmacies struggling financially. From creating a better reputation to making weekly visits to local practices in order to provide coupons, samples and learn more about the specific needs of the staff, there are plenty of ways that pharmacies can improve referral volume.