Loyalty programmes are an essential tool for retaining clients and aiding businesses in keeping their clientele. But maintaining a fast expanding customer base while innovating is a problem that pharmacies and drugstores must overcome. Pharmacy loyalty programmes are essential for retaining both current and potential consumers as well as motivating them to stock their carts with a variety of goods other than just prescription drugs. You may serve and engage your diverse customer base more successfully by using a loyalty programme to target different customer groups based on their interests.

What Are Loyalty Programs for Drugstores and Pharmacies?

Pharmacy and drugstore loyalty programmes serve a market with a high purchase frequency by serving as instruments for client retention (and occasionally acquisition). Drugstore and pharmacy loyalty programmes seek to provide customers a reason to stick with a particular brand in a highly competitive market where they have a wide range of options to fill their prescriptions and buy health-related products, including internet webshops.

Given that retirees and recovering patients, who make up the second-largest customer segment and account for about 35% of the total customer base, tend to make their significantly high-value purchases at the same store and also contribute the most to over-the-counter medicine sales, loyalty and brand advocacy are particularly crucial in this sector. As a result, all pharmacies should make keeping this customer base happy their top priority by implementing a loyalty programme.

The requirement to strike a balance between two different client groups—those who are price-sensitive and those who prefer convenience—makes pharmacy loyalty programmes particularly special. Accordingly, the reward system should, on the one hand, offer some kind of incentive to persuade customers that spending money at the store either enables them to save money through discounts or grants them more value through free goods.

The Biggest Challenges for Pharmacies and Drugstores in Customer Retention

Any pharmacy chain or drugstore should be able to increase customer lifetime value, but there are a lot more difficulties that are industry-specific that a next-gen loyalty programme should be able to address.

Despite the fact that pharmacies are resilient to economic downturns, it can be challenging to differentiate yourself from the competitors. Because of this, a loyalty programme is essential to improve brand perception by fostering favourable word-of-mouth and bolstering marketing communications.
A pharmacy reward programme should also include elements that encourage users to add OTC and HBA products to their carts through double point promotions and other deliberate events.
It’s important to emphasise that loyalty programmes are effective marketing strategies for creating a sense of value among customers and for giving back to the community. A reward system is also a fantastic tool for educating clients about certain diseases or treatments and motivating them to adopt better behaviours.

Numerous drugstore companies currently provide a reward programme, but it is frequently store-specific or specialised. Another achievement a 21st-century pharmacy loyalty programme needs to be able to accomplish is unifying the loyalty experience and enabling participants to accumulate and redeem rewards at any store.

The Best Pharmacy and Drugstore Loyalty Program Features

Now that our objectives are clear, let’s look at the things that pharmacy loyalty programmes have to offer.

The fundamentals
a collection of reasonable programme rules

Planning a loyalty programme requires careful consideration of the point-to-cash ratio. Members may be put off from joining if you are too rigorous and make them labour (or spend) too much to get rewards. Similarly, being overly kind might entail giving gifts or discounts to clients who would continue doing business with you regardless. The general norm is to begin with a stricter attitude and gradually grow more generous.

This is so that customers don’t have a bad experience when pharmacies and drugstores unexpectedly impose restrictions and make it harder to accumulate points.

electronic loyalty cards

Pharmacies and drugstores have long used physical loyalty cards. Even more convenient keychain cards from pharmacies like CVS helped make them less obtrusive. Cards are still simple to misplace or leave at home, though. On the other hand, a user’s smartphone can access digital membership cards. This implies that they are always accessible and can be securely stored with other virtual coupons in your customers’ wallet apps. Additionally, digital cards enable you to connect the online and offline customer profiles to obtain a comprehensive understanding of your customers’ purchasing patterns. Consider adopting a Mobile Wallet solution or developing a loyalty app that enables users to quickly access their available loyalty coupons for an even more wholesome experience.

The moment has come to begin planning.

As a chain or independent pharmacy, you must move rapidly if you want to keep your customers. Please feel free to schedule a demo or submit an RFP so that we can demonstrate how our loyalty platform may benefit your company. We love to share our knowledge.

Don’t forget to download Antavo’s Customer Loyalty Report 2022, a comprehensive study that highlights present and projected market trends to aid you in navigating the world of next-generation loyalty programmes.