Not fitting the box in a pharmacy can be a big problem that goes beyond money itself missing and that is not resolved with an automatic collection machine.

On my last trip to Jerez, to give training in the Course of Senior Management and Entrepreneurship Program in Pharmacy Offices (PADEOF) I saw that "it is fashionable" to have a box that turns around like those in airports. Is a automatic collection machine and we will see several companies at Infarma 2017 offering them, such as the new "must" for the pharmacy. I was hallucinated, I asked and they told me: "the box doesn't fit us." The new toy for the pharmacy costs, I was told, more than € 5,000 and doesn't really add anything to the business from the pharmacy IMHO.

Let's go in parts:

Manage collections: is the automatic collection machine necessary?

Managing a sale is not difficult and it is not difficult to go around either when, in addition, the pharmacy systems that all pharmacies have include the laps to be given in the ticket. You don't have to think or be a mathematician, you have to return what it says on the ticket or on the computer screen.

If the sales don't fit you, it may be because three reasons:

 

1.- They rob me and that's why I put an automatic payment machine?

If the problem is that someone steals you have to know who he is and take action. If you steal money, you can also steal other products and the pharmacy should not forget that it sells, among other things, narcotics, so the lack of trust with an employee must be resolved in the quickest and best way, that does not necessarily mean paying a huge compensation. Paying for the automatic collection machine is not only solving the problem, it is leaving it dormant. I propose that you come to Madrid to me course on "how to manage problems with employees in the pharmacy" that we will give Madrid. You can sign up in the footer of the post.

2.- You will give it to me another day

If what happens is that things are left to dutyWe are facing a management problem and thus the cash will never square if that credit that is given is not computed in some way. Again, the pharmacy needs financial management, but possibly personnel if what happens is that the employee himself takes a product to pay for it later (this is very common).

3.- Don't worry about the penny

If they are finally done discounts on the go that it can be something as silly as I forgive you the centimillo, because the problem is still one of management. The machine in this case would return everything, including the cent or make a change with many coins for a single cent, but that is what the pharmacy should do if the collection is done manually.

In any of the three cases you have a problem and it is not solved with the automatic payment machine but with improvement in pharmacy management, the implementation of work protocols, optimal personnel management and taking measures.

Having said that, three reflections:

1.- At a time when credit cards are increasingly popular, I think that investing in a payment machine is like investing in mp3 players to listen to music today: who uses them now? The future is not cash money. And I don't say it, just search.

2.- Since it is intended to automate everything (robot and automatic payment machine) what contributes professionally the pharmacy has to be very visible If you do not want to fall into the automation of the entire process, in which case there would be plenty of pharmacies and pharmacists. A robot with a box in the hospital or health center would cover the same function.

3.- The most important: it is essential diagnose problems and see how to solve them and there it is worth investing, because it is learned not for a specific case but for the future and the pharmacy must ensure its business with good strategies and protocols.

Novelty!!!

Sign up for my courses! They are limited places and you will receive documentation that is worth for your day to day:

Course 1. "»Work issues in the pharmacy: solutions and advice«”. In Madrid on May 26, 2017. 

AND Course 2. "Action protocols with pharmacy employees”. Date to be confirmed in June

Features: 4 hours + coffee break. Price € 150 (without VAT for being training)

Place: Paseo de la Castellana 95, Torre Europa, Madrid (In front of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium). Fill in the following form and we will contact you. Do not forget to indicate the course and the date you want.

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