5 Reasons Why Small Pharmacies Benefit from Point-of-Sale

Over the 10+ years I’ve worked at RMS, smaller pharmacies continually bring up the concern that they are too small to benefit from POS.  They feel that because their front end is limited, they have a small staff, or don’t do a huge script volume, point-of-sale is overkill.  This couldn’t be further from the truth, and let me explain why.

• Workflow Completion – As a pharmacy, dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s is at the top of your priority list, especially if you want to be reimbursed by the 3^rd party insurers. What better way to make this happen than to capture all necessary signatures at the register?  Signatures captured can include HIPAA, Safety Cap Declines, Prescription Acknowledgement, Credit Cards, A/R, PSE, Controlled Rx’s, Returns, just to name a few.  Why not do this all on one single machine?
• Preventing lost sales – You carry OTC’s for a reason, to make money and offer convenience to your customers. How effective are you at identifying what needs to be ordered each day?  Even missing 1 bottle of aspirin could cost you.  Cost you how, you say?  Consider the lost profit of that item, the risk of losing a returning customer, and the labor you wasted to send someone out to the shelves to build an order who obviously didn’t do it well.
• Employee Reporting – We’ve all heard it before – employee theft is the number one area of shrinkage in a retail store, far exceeding shoplifting. But employee theft isn’t just about tossing a bottle of Advil into their pocket when you’re not looking.  It’s really about their activity at the register.  I’ve heard story after story over the years about how cashiers try to embezzle thousands of dollars by cutting corners at the register.  This not only hurts your profitability, but also hinders your cash flow and could ultimately put you out of business.
• PSE Tracking – This is a no-brainer. With scanning technology today, you shouldn’t have to spend excessive amounts of time entering data into a website just to sell some cold medicine.  Here’s the easy way – scan the PSE item, scan the driver’s license, wait for NPLEX approval, capture the customer’s signature, and tell them not to forget the orange juice and chicken noodle soup.  What if you get audited?  Spend 3.6 seconds and print a signature log.  BONUS: Shut down the meth labs in your neighborhood (Chalk it up to good community service!)
• A/R Management – Now this doesn’t apply to every independent pharmacy, but it does for most of you. Though it’s 2017 and everyone has a credit card, many pharmacies still allow their customers to charge on account.  Poor management of this costs you time and money.  Make it easy for you and your customers by: printing real-time balances on their receipt, allowing family accounts, emailing statements, and preventing customers from exceeding their credit limits.

There are plenty more reasons why small (and medium and large) pharmacies can benefit from POS, but you’ll just have to call us to learn what they are.  With 19 years of working solely with pharmacies under our belt, we’ve learned a thing or two about making our customers the most profitable in the industry.