The other day as I passed this pharmacy I have often walked by, my eye was caught by the bright light coming from this brand new… vending machine! I was so intrigued I had to stop.
And indeed, here it was: a vending machine for « emergency » pharmaceutical products. The mom in me was particularly pleased to see powdered milk amongst the products sold.
The more I reflected on this relatively small « add-on », the more I realised what a brilliant move it is! Aren’t pharmacies after all more of a service supported retail offer (at least in Belgium)? And this new vending machine perfectly aligns with that.
There is currently quite a lot of talk about human-centricity and putting customers at the core of a corporation’s every decision. Yet few (at this point in time) manage to deliver on this, often citing elevated costs. But here is a very concrete example of how simple and rather « cost efficient » such an approach can actually be.
Let me detail:
As far as I’m concerned the biggest « cost » in terms of the store design is the loss of a window, something this specific location can afford. Besides this, the implementation itself is quite simple and there is very limited impact on the sales floor.
Admittedly, I am not an operations girl, but I also suspect this vending machine would represent limited « costs » in terms of operations as well, though I’d be happy to hear thoughts from those with more sales floor experience.
Thus, in my humble opinion: limited « costs ».
BUT, what this small implementation communicates to customers is invaluable:
- we are at your service…
- we understand your needs…
- we do our best to deliver on both… even outside our working hours!
This builds an image of reliability and trust, placing THIS pharmacy above others in people’s minds!
Regardless of whether the machine itself brings revenue, I am sure it is contributing to the store’s overall sales by this message it creates.
This represents for me a great example of how decisions regarding the « costs » of retail design shouldn’t be considered in silo (ie: the specific ROI of the machine on its own) but in terms of wider impacts (ie: how the machine has impacted customer outreach and loyalty).
The one thing that wasn’t clear to me looking at the machine is whether the doors on the right are for some sort of order collection service, which would be yet another great added service to consider. An additional explicative signage about this could easily erase these doubts and perhaps build an even stronger connection with customers.
Would you like to discuss how to bring similar quick-win solutions to your store design?
Get in touch.
