Your Chemist Shop owner and pharmacist, Mahmoud Galal, explains that the pharmacies specialise in compounding medications on-site, with a growing number of patient prescriptions prepared and home-delivered to meet the needs of remote customers.
Enhancing the remote payments experience
Your Chemist Shop has explored multiple payment solutions that promised to help the team take remote payments for compounded prescriptions and other services. Despite aiming for a seamless experience, Mahmoud encountered challenges, from hidden fees and time-consuming processes to restrictive integration issues.
Most recently, Your Chemist Shop has adopted CommBank’s Smart Health for Pharmacies solution, a single payments platform that lets his team take payments from customers wherever they are. The integrated ecosystem sends payment requests directly from the pharmacy’s point-of-sale (POS) system to customers’ mobile devices or an in-store payments terminal.
When patients need to pay but are not in-store, they receive a payment request via SMS and can pay securely through Scrypt Pay. Payments are then completed and auto-reconciled within the pharmacy’s POS system.
“We used to have staff home-deliver medications and take the payment with mobile EFTPOS terminals,” explains Mahmoud. “We’ve removed that hassle so that payment has already been finalised, and staff just complete the delivery.”
Mahmoud says using Smart Health for Pharmacies to take remote payments can positively impact sales, particularly for pharmacies that don’t currently offer it. “Its ease of use can encourage remote sales and home delivery take-up, which, in our view, could increase total pharmacy revenue by up to 15%. If the service is well marketed, it could grow beyond that figure.”
Enabling remote customer retention
Before using CommBank Smart Health for Pharmacies, Mahmoud says it was difficult to collect payments from remote customers, who had ongoing scripts to compound and fill. Now, he has a more efficient and controlled remote payment option that benefits patients and the pharmacy.
“We have had compounding requests from customers in areas outside the local area, in places like Sunshine Coast and Cairns. Due to the delay and hassle of collecting payments, these tended to be one-offs. A better remote payments option has helped retain these customers and avoid refusing services for smaller purchases.”
Mahmoud says that it has optimised payment collection and simplified Webster pack home deliveries. The team have also noticed that amid rising awareness of payment scams, customers felt reassured receiving requests from CommBank over other payment services.
There are other ways that the right remote payments offering can benefit customer relationships and a pharmacy’s bottom line, according to Mahmoud. He says that for pharmacies using other third-party platforms to send scripts to patients, Smart Health for Pharmacies offers the advantage of dealing directly with the customer and lifting profitability.
“By allowing regular remote customers to order from your pharmacy using Smart Health for Pharmacies, you can control the interaction and eliminate third-party transaction and platform fees. That can generate potential savings of between 15% and 20% of the revenue collected from remote sales,” Mahmoud says. These savings allow Your Chemist Shop to offer their remote customers better value without the markup typically associated with third-party payment platforms.
Saving time and improving workflows
Because CommBank Smart Health for Pharmacies auto reconciles payments, the solution has significantly reduced the time Your Chemist Shop spends managing payments and receivables. Pharmacists appreciated this more streamlined payment collection process, according to Mahmoud.
“One of the issues we face is running different software systems that aren’t always integrated,” Mahmoud says. “I might receive payments via a phone call or external platform, then use dispensing software and place deliveries through another portal.”
“I’ll need to check those platforms to see if payments have been made, and navigating different systems and portals can add time and errors. Some integration exists, but there’s still a gap,” Mahmoud says.
Mahmoud notes that when comparing the Smart Health for Pharmacy POS integration for remote payments and other online methods, the former saves more money and time, helping to preserve margins.
“If a pharmacy chooses to use CommBank’s solution over other options for collecting remote payments, they can reduce costs by lowering transaction fees, and staff will spend less time reconciling payments. This could lead to savings of approximately 3% to 5% of a pharmacy's revenue from remote sales.”
Mahmoud points out that implementing the CommBank Smart Health for Pharmacies and integrating it with POS systems was smooth from the outset, with responsive support during onboarding.
Staff also found it easy to use because it was part of the POS system, and “when it was time to finalise a sale, instead of clicking the button for cash or EFTPOS, you just click the SCRYPT PAY button”.
Mahmoud expects these workflow improvements to gather momentum, given his intention to expand compounding and service delivery. With simpler, more efficient remote payment collection, he anticipates improved customer convenience, more loyal patients and an expanding sales pipeline.
