The Value of In-person Installation and Training

Everything is done online these days: shopping, setting appointments, renting a movie, obtaining product support. You name it, there’s probably an option that doesn’t involve getting out of your favorite chair.  We’re in the age of convenience. The age of faster is better, or at least perceived to be.

Just because it’s feasible to take a shortcut to do something doesn’t always mean it’s going to offer the best outcome. Clothes that you order online might not fit right or look like you expected them to.  The dinner that you ordered from your favorite restaurant via Uber Eats doesn’t quite taste the same as it does when it’s fresh out of the kitchen. And let’s face it, email conversations are convenient when it comes to obtaining support, but phone conversations are better. And sometimes you just can’t beat an in person, face to face interaction.

At RMS we support customers all across the United States. And since we can’t be everywhere at the same time, a majority of our product support is done over the phone and sometimes online via chat or email. But there’s one area where we do pretty much insist on in-person service. When it comes to implementation and training for your point-of-sale system, having a pharmacy point-of-sale expert on-site at your pharmacy is a must in our opinion. 

Of course, in today’s world where convenience is king, this approach might seem a little old school. But even if it is, we know it’s the absolute best way to go. We’ve learned that over 20 years, and here are a few reasons why. 

Fewer distractions lead to better comprehension – While I tend to get pretty excited about new point-of-sale features, I know it’s not quite as engaging a subject for most people. So, imagine that you’ve got your pharmacy staff gathered around a computer screen for an online training session for a point-of-sale system they’ve never used before. They’ve got a voice over the phone, a monitor, and that’s it. No actual person to engage with. No hands-on demonstrations. No one to walk them through steps on the equipment that they’ll be using and provide feedback and input. Now imagine how easy it will be for those staff members to sneak a look at their phone, or get distracted thinking about other things they need to do. They just aren’t going to absorb as much. For short blocks of time, remote training, videos, and webinars can be great tools. But when you’re talking about learning something completely new from the bottom on up, having an expert on site to train is going to allow you and your pharmacy staff to engage and learn in ways that can’t even compare. 

A fresh pair of eyes never hurts – Have you ever painted a wall in your house a new color that was only a little different than the old color? Like going from white to taupe. At first you can see clearly where you’ve painted and where you haven’t. But after an hour or two of staring at the paint everything starts to blur together. Is that just the light hitting the wall funny or did I miss that spot? This is where a fresh set of eyes come in handy. Someone who hasn’t been looking at the same two colors on the same four walls all day long. Well the same goes for your pharmacy. You get used to doing things in a particular way and you might not see where there’s an inefficiency or connect how a solution you didn’t think would be helpful could actually be implemented. If we never came on site, we might never see that opportunity for change that could make running your pharmacy so much easier. 

Staying in compliance – While we think the benefits of on-site implementation and training make it worth the time and any additional expense, there’s one other big reason that it’s a must for any new point-of-sale implementation plan. Part of PCI (Payment Card Industry) Compliance now requires that implementation of new card acceptance environments be completed by a QIR (Qualified Integrators and Resellers) certified company. Basically, when you install with RMS, you’re adhering to PCI requirements by having your system implementation completed by a certified installer. Our experts adhere to guidelines set forth by the PCI Security Standards Council so that you can feel confident in the integrity of your install and that it meets industry compliance standards.

There’s one final thing that’s important when you’re talking about on-site installation and training. Flexibility. Sure, there are requirements that have to be met. And there are best practices that we recommend for any pharmacy new to RMS. But just like point-of-sale, training is not a one size fits all solution. That’s why every pharmacy that purchases an RMS system goes through a detailed, tailored, pre-implementation program built to give every user the best experience possible.