Independents should look beyond pharmacy at other sectors such as food retailing in an effort to improve efficiency and streamline their processes, according to Rupert Newman, sales director at AAH Pharmaceuticals. “It is about marginal gains or doing lots of little things differently. Work smarter, not harder,” he said.

To illustrate his point, Newman described how LloydsPharmacy had made a series of practical changes to operations at branch level to improve customer service and make their pharmacies more efficient.

“Walk daily in your customers’ shoes” to really understand what they want from pharmacy and make sure you have the right people at the right time in the right place, especially during busy periods, he told delegates. It was about matching staff numbers to workload and asking people to be flexible in their hours rather than imposing changes. This approach had paid dividends at LloydsPharmacy, he said.

Do the important tasks consistently well and don’t take hours out of the business in response to the cuts, Newman continued. Instead, look at things like optimising dispensary layout.

“If you could take 20 seconds out of the dispensing process, for instance by arranging things so people take fewer steps, that would add up to several hours by the end of the month.” The time saved could be invested in staff training or new service development, he told the conference.