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The future of the pharmacy is affected by technological development, with the emergence of enterprise resource management (ERP) software and pharmacy customer relationship management (CRM) software, especially after these programs started to rely on artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies.
In the past, collecting customers' data and recording their inquiries, comments, and purchases were a burden on pharmacy management. It was not possible to analyze these data and retrieve it instantly to provide customized service that suits the needs of each customer.
But thanks to CRM software, it became easier and safer to manage customers' data and provide personalized patient care based on accurate analysis of available information.
They are integrated technology solutions that connect your pharmacy with its customers by collecting, storing, processing, and managing their data.
In addition, the CRM provides comprehensive features, such as managing customer communication, controlling marketing programs, loyalty programs, offers, and discounts.
The CRM software aims at enabling pharmacy management to develop customized services that meet the needs of customers, which in turn contributes to raising patient loyalty to the pharmacy, thus increasing profitability and growth of business.
Pharmacy CRM software is generally part of CRM software industry, and the profit of the top four CRM software providers had exceeded 26 billion USD worldwide in 2015.
If you are planning to invest in purchasing pharmacy CRM software, make sure that these features are within your priorities list, to ensure achieving the biggest ROI:
The most important feature that should be available in your pharmacy CRM software is to be built on cloud computing because it provides permanent data availability, the ability to use the program at any time and from anywhere, in addition to advanced protection of customer data.
The effectiveness of cloud computing is particularly strong in pharmaceutical business, where you can manage and link pharmacy customer data in all branches instantly.
Communicating with customers through all possible channels is extremely important because you do not want to lose potential customers who prefer to communicate via social media, phone calls, email, etc.
So your pharmacy CRM software should be integrated with all means of communication to be able to effectively and efficiently manage communication with your existing and potential customers.
Your choice of CRM software should primarily depend on AI technology, as well as its ability to filter and analyze customer data, giving you the ability to manage your customer relationships automatically.
This includes automatically filtering potential customers' data and linking the database to your marketing and sales software to study the impact of marketing campaigns and their revenue.
Managing loyalty, gifts, and special customer programs are one of the most important advantages that should be available in the CRM software.
These activities guarantee an increase in customer satisfaction and loyalty rates, which is reflected in the increase of your pharmacy profits.
CRM software should integrate with electronic payment options in in-house branches and online stores to facilitate and enhance the customer experience.
Integration with electronic payment tools saves customers time and improves their experience and ensures your ability to serve more customers in less time.
Ensure that your pharmacy staff receives adequate training and permanent technical support when purchasing one of the CRM softwares. Ignoring training phase might harm the targeted investing revenue.
Some studies indicated the inability of some pharmacies to use CRM software to their maximum benefit, due to lack of technological expertise or inadequate training.
This issue can be avoided by planning a training session with the pharmacy CRM provider to give continuous instructions to employees, team members, and management.
Because the future of pharmacy is moving towards providing customized patient care, investing in CRM software can help you achieve this goal.
Providing personalized patient care helps you understand customers more deeply, and thus customize the services provided to them.
