How Payroll Deduction of Employee Purchases can Help Your Pharmacy

What could be more convenient than picking up prescriptions, OTC medications and other pharmacy necessities in the same building that you work in? It seems like a given that employees would default to their own pharmacy for any of these purchases.

But as much sense as it might make for employees to swing in for that box of band aids and the bottle of antibiotic ointment over lunch or after a shift, pharmacies large and small still face competition from grocery stores and chain drug stores that carry everything an employee might need and more.

At the end of the day, your pharmacy and health system employees are like any other customer. They’ll respond to pricing, convenience, and service. The one difference is that their expectations are likely to be higher. Employees will expect more out of the experience than your average customer.

Over the last several years, we’ve seen an increased drive to create a solid customer base out of pharmacy and health system employees. Along with creating special employee pricing and other incentives, payroll deduction has played a major part in this initiative.

While it might seem like a relatively small piece of the puzzle next to something like employee discounts, pharmacy point of sale systems with an integrated payroll deduction solution can play a big role in how many health system employees make use of a pharmacy’s services.

Removes Barriers- Most health system employees probably don’t wander around work with their credit card. Which means if they wanted to stop by the pharmacy to pick up a few items, they’d have to add an extra step in to grab payment. With payroll deduction, the employee can be in and out quickly, without really having to think about it. An employee lookup at the till or scan of a badge is all they need. And when their paycheck arrives, those pharmacy purchases are already deducted with no extra steps for the employee.

Easy for pharmacy staff – The pharmacy employee processing the transaction will benefit greatly from an integrated payroll deduction system. Processing purchases for employees is quick and easy. A simple method of payment selection allows the transaction to be tendered without any extra unnecessary steps.

Minimizes labor- With easy exports of employee purchases, your billing department eliminates extra steps and funds collection. There’s no tracking down payment for an A/R account, no bills to go out, just a simple deduction on the employee’s paycheck.

Fewer processing fees – Payroll deduction also has the potential to reduce fees associated with credit card processing. More payroll deduction purchases mean fewer credit cards swiped and lower fees every month for your pharmacy.

Increase Customer Loyalty- Yes, even with employee purchases, customer loyalty is a factor. An employee that frequents their organizations pharmacy is definitely more likely to recommend it to friends and family. Payroll deduction just gives them one more reason to keep purchases within the health system.

Integrated Payroll deduction offers benefits to every facet of your organization and is an important piece of the puzzle for any pharmacy or health system looking to increase customer loyalty and drive incremental revenue.