Walgreens unveiled a new service Thursday that makes it possible for pharmacy customers to chat with a pharmacist online 24 hours a day.
Available at Walgreens’ Web site, customers register online to give a pharmacist access to their prescription information, just as they would in a pharmacy, and a registered pharmacist pops up in a chat window to answer confidential prescription-related questions.
Deerfield-based Walgreens is hoping to rise above the competition by giving customers enough time with pharmacists to establish the same kind of rapport they might have with their doctor, said Nimesh Jhaveri, executive director of pharmacy services.
“When you go to the doctor, you never say, ‘I’m going to the doctor’s office,’ you say, ‘I’m going to see my doctor. But when you go to pick up your prescription, you say, ‘I’m going to pick up my prescription at Walgreens.’ We think people should have the same kind of relationship with their pharmacist as they do with their doctor,” he said.
Pharmacists at typical brick-and-mortar stores are increasingly busy, and may not have as much time available to spend with customers as they did in the past, Jhaveri said. In early testing of Pharmacy Chat, he said, the average transaction lasted 8 to 10 minutes. There are no time limits to the chats and customers can ask for a certain pharmacist by name.
If a user is booted off the system for some reason, Pharmacy Chat attempts to reconnect them to the same pharmacist. The pharmacists available through the service work in a central location in Florida, and, for now, Jhaveri said, the group of pharmacists is small.
“It’s unfettered – It’s you and the pharmacist,” he said.
Inside stores, Walgreens spokesman Jim Cohn said the company has also implemented a number of programs recently to help provide customers with more fact-to-face interaction with pharmacists, including diabetes testing, consultations, flu shots, immunizations and an “optimal wellness program.” Cohn said the programs are designed to give customers greater access to pharmacy staff.
Walgreens also recently introduced prescription text alerts, which notify mobile phone users via text message when their prescriptions are ready, or if there are any status changes. The chat service does not generate direct revenue, Jhaveri said, but the company hopes giving customers more access to pharmacists will establish loyalty with the Walgreens brand.
pharmacy