The annual autumn conference of the Institute of Pharmacy Management International was this year held on November 5 as a joint meeting with the Australian Institute of Pharmacy Management, which had organised a 12-day visit to Britain combining conference sessions and fact-finding visits with social and sporting events
Pharmacists who wish to improve their business performance should develop a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) that show how the business is performing, Mr David Jury (former retail operations director, Somerfield Stores) told the conference.
But in the independent sector it was important to keep thing simple, reducing the information available to a manageable range of meaningful indicators and monitoring them monthly. Another aspect of keeping things simple was "reporting by exception" - for example, looking not at the total sales of every item but just at the best and worst lines. One should keep records so that trends could be identified. Using KPIs allowed one to play to one's strengths, give good service and provide added value.
The range of KPIs should include indicators of quality of service. Examples included customer complaints and requests for advice, for which lists should be kept. Another example was product availability, assessed by counting the number of lines that were unavailable. The average basket size was an indicator of customers' level of satisfaction with the business overall. Staff complaints could also be a useful indicator. A further possibility was to employ a "secret shopper" to assess the quality of service.
Other subjects discussed include:
The pharmacist as vending machine
Australia's community pharmacy accreditation system
Should new non-NHS drugs be P?