Background
Blooms the Chemist was formed in the 1980s by a group of passionate pharmacists who shared the vision of a network of pharmacies. From a single store in 1997, it expanded across the metropolitan and rural regions of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria with 86 stores.
With the goal to become the “first call pharmacy professionals”, Blooms the Chemist has partnered with pharmacy owners to improve clients’ health and wellbeing. It shares its values with every store it partners with, which is why several have won local prestigious awards including the Outstanding Pharmacy title in the Liverpool Local Business Awards.
What further makes the community health retailer stand out is its dedication to establishing and maintaining meaningful relations with clients inside the store. Blooms the Chemist takes pride in being a customer-centric, customer-first enterprise. That is why it is constantly strengthening the company’s culture through change to retail activities.
The Problem
Under the leadership of Chief Executive Phil Smith, Blooms the Chemist shifted its focus to its retail activities. Of the retail network’s processes, capturing new store information was the most inefficient. This is especially true considering the 100+ tasks required to meet the numerous requirements for opening a new store.
The process required the use of paper forms during client meetings. In addition to wasting time on data entry, employees felt frustrated while transferring data and images into emails to send to head office. The manual process was also stressful as the New Store Acquisition Manager single-handedly had to liaise between everyone involved, and document and securely store each paper involved.
The Solution
Blooms the Chemist expressed its interest in having Makeen Technologies help it capture both new store information, and information exchanged in client meetings. As the user groups of both were different, two white label mobile forms apps were created.
The first app included six forms which allowed users to:
Quickly and accurately collect the information of individuals joining Blooms the Chemist as licensees
Carry out calculations for return on investment and break even for new stores
Collect new member details while communicating important details like key contacts
Document client meeting notes better, especially with the help of photos and notes
Ensure no opportunities are missed by quickly reporting acquisition business cases
Guide business partners through checklists to remain compliant with statutory requirements for proprietors
Meanwhile, the second app was designed to automate the tasks associated with the company’s New Store Opening Kit (NSOK). Upon successfully logging into the app, a user can select a new store and view the tasks related to it. For each task, a due date, priority are listed. The department and employee responsible for completing the task are also displayed.
Users can indicate whether the task has not been started, is in progress, or completed. They can also add days and weeks out, as well as comments to highlight important details.
The Result
Both the Blooms and NSOK apps have helped the company save around $3,440 by converting its paper forms to mobile forms. This is in addition to other savings including the cost of printing forms, transportation to and from corporate headquarters to pharmacies, and data entry overtime. However, the sum is expected to increase as the app rolls to a larger group.
