Are you sitting on your COVID waiting lists, or are you making the most of them?
COVID is making a comeback, and I bet many of you have a ton of contact information from your COVID waiting lists just sitting around.
Are you educating your list?
Inviting them to visit your pharmacy?
Let’s go through the options you have to monetize your COVID waiting list. Here at DiversifyRx, we’re always discussing ways to help make your independent pharmacy more profitable. Even though we’re talking about “just a list,” it’s a potential gold mine.
How Do I Convert My COVID Waiting List?
Below are seven ideas on how you can potentially turn your COVID waiting list into patients. The list below isn’t all-inclusive because there are always other creative ways to do just about anything. These are just a few I wanted to mention to you personally, and as you’ll see, most of them are pretty easy to do!
Before you get started, take a few minutes to get familiar with your list to know how many people signed the waiting list and what information you’ve collected about them (i.e., email, phone number, address).
For any of the ideas below, choose the best way to market your idea. It could be by text message, email, recorded messages, social media, personal one-on-one phone calls, and even mailers. You know your demographics, so pick the one you feel will work best for your community.
COVID Waiting Lists
Many pharmacies created waiting lists for the vaccine, whether handwritten on a notepad, clipboard, or digitally. Nevertheless, this means you now have hundreds to thousands of opportunities to nurture these leads and turn them into patients.
As business owners, we can’t sit around and wait for the people who signed up to get the vaccine to return to the pharmacy. It’s a possibility, but it’s certainly not a guarantee.
7 Ideas On How To Convert Your Vaccine List
Idea #1: Educate Them About Supplements
An apple a day won’t keep COVID away, but supplements will certainly help! You already do an excellent job of recommending supplements to your customers throughout a typical work week, but have you thought about recommending supplements to your wait-listers? It not only shows your pharmacy cares about their health and well-being, but it also may expose them to supplements they’ve never considered taking or heard of before.
Some examples of supplements you can educate them about are Vitamin C, Zinc, Vitamin D, Quercetin. You can even package them yourself if you have a strip packaging machine (i.e., RxSafe RapidPakRx). Check out our supplement article here to learn more about other supplements and resources.
Idea #2: Educate Your List On Health Habits
If customers or patients don’t get reminded to do things, they may forget. And believe it or not, it goes for simple basic human needs, such as sleep and exercise. Sleep benefits the human body in many different ways, like repairing cells, resetting our mental state, and it allows our body to heal and regenerate. It is an essential part of staying healthy and helping our bodies fight off diseases and illnesses.
Remind those on your COVID vaccine waitlist of how beneficial sleep is to be healthy and to stay healthy. You can offer them products such as PharmaCanna’s CBDream (CBD/melatonin) to help sleep better. Exercise is critical to overall health. Give them easy tips to move their body they can easily fit into their lifestyle.
Idea #3: Sell Hand Sanitizer
Hand sanitizer has been flying off the shelves way beyond a year now, and when the bottle runs dry, stocking back up is the only option. Maybe it’s just me, but not all hand sanitizer is created equal. Some are sticky, smell terrible (ugh, tequila smell), or just feels yucky when you put them on. You can also carry unique sanitizers, such as 24-hour formulas that typically can’t be bought elsewhere. Be proud of the brand you carry and promote it.
It’s a great idea to announce that you have plenty in stock, so they will know exactly where to buy more when they run out. Believe me, when people find a favorite hand sanitizer, they go back and buy it again and again. Repeat customers!
Idea #4: COVID Testing
Do the wait-listers know you do COVID testing? Maybe you think “everyone already knows,” but the cold truth is that many people may probably don’t, or if they did, they have forgotten.
You never know when someone from your COVID waiting list may need an urgent test for work or a flight. It could give them relief when they see your message or take your call about COVID testing because now they know exactly where to go.
You should also consider becoming a COVID testing partner in your community. Partnering with local businesses for testing raises awareness about your pharmacy, and it’s free marketing too! Contact local wedding planners, entertainment venues, or large employers to ask about becoming their COVID testing partner. We talked about working with community sponsorships here – don’t forget to take advantage of your relationship and talk to them about becoming a partner if they need one.
Idea #5: COVID Vaccine
This may seem a little repetitive, but yes, even though they signed your waitlist, you should still remind them you offer the COVID vaccine. People forget (like I mentioned earlier), so gentle reminders of your offerings are beneficial, especially if they weren’t in much of a hurry to get it in the first place.
If you have other helpful information about the vaccine, consider including it in your message. It goes a long way and shows you care about the people that walk through your doors.
Idea #6: Tell Them Why You Are Awesome
YES! You and your pharmacy are unique and awesome – but does everyone know that? You provide an array of helpful services, and you should scream it from the rooftops.
For example, do those on the COVID waitlist know you deliver medications to households? Are they aware you perform saliva testing? Do they know you perform compounding services for drugs? What unique service or product offering could you tell your list about? They may have signed up for your list, but that doesn’t mean they know about your pharmacy, its history, and all the perks your offer to your patients.
Idea #7: Help Your List Reduce Their Risk of Complications
Comorbidities increase the risk of COVID complications. One of the most worrisome risk factors is being overweight. Help your community lose weight by starting weight-loss coaching or holding a weight loss challenge. Eating better and exercising more will help in the short and long term. Closely related to weight is another high-risk comorbidity, diabetes. Invite diabetics to contact you to ensure they are doing all the right steps to take better care of themself.
Remember, these members of your community that signed up for your waiting list care about their health and want to be healthy. You can help them in many ways besides offering a vaccine.
Other Information You Can Share:
- Updates on vaccine availability at your pharmacy or share your pharmacy’s vaccine procedures.
- New information is coming out all the time about COVID vaccines, like local statistics or local guidelines that will be soon enforced or enacted.
Whatever You Do, Take Action
As you can see, there are tons of ideas on how you can communicate and interact with those who signed up for the COVID vaccine at your pharmacy. These ideas will help generate revenue and increase profitability, so gather your pharmacy staff today to start discussing your plan of action.
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