James Stevens powerpoint 09-22-22

1. This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.
CVS/Pharmacy
James Stevens
09/22/22

2. Overview
CVS/Pharmacy is a retail pharmacy that is used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of
people all over the United States. With this being such a big corporation, not all encounters with
the pharmacy staff are enjoyable. This presentation will reflect on the experiences I, as a
customer have had with CVS, and the ways it could be resolved.

3. Introduction
CVS/Pharmacy being as big of a company as it is, needs to focus more on
their quality of service rather than for example, the amount of scripts they
have a goal to fill per day. The service is what makes customers turn into
regulars, and no company will gain regularly returning customers with
poor and sloppy behaviors, and service. This can be achieved by making
changes within the workplace.

4. The Opportunity: The Current Situation
Throughout the last year, I have noticed a great decline in the service and
quality at the retail pharmacy. This ranges from the quality in the service I get
from the pharmacists, to the pills being miscounted in my prescriptions. Going
to the pharmacy typically isn't for the best reason in the first place as it usually
means you are picking up medications for mood stability, illnesses, or an
infection of some sort, so when you combine that feeling with bad quality
service or a bad experience in general, it makes the customer feel worse or
perhaps even feel like the staff does not care enough to make the trip to the
pharmacy at the very least, pleasant. Since you cannot change the personal
circumstances as to what is going on with the persons health, you can change
how that customer feels when they walk out of that store.

5. The Opportunity: Key Success Factors
There are many key success factors that CVS/Pharmacy can use to improve the quality of their
service and experience as a whole for their customers. For example, the staff constantly staying
in relevant and accurate communication will ensure that things are getting done on time, and
everyone is in the loop of what is going on within the pharmacy. Also, this includes
communicating with the customers if there is any delay in filing a script, not having it in stock,
or any insurance issues. In addition, team- work is also a key success factor that could be used.
Although the technicians in the pharmacy may have different roles, they should all be working
together to get every patients prescriptions filled in a timely and accurate manner. Lastly, time
management in the pharmacy and scheduling technicians in a way that aligns with the high
volume hours of the pharmacy. Not only will this factor help get customers their prescriptions
and leave them with a quick and efficient experience, but it will also lower stress levels of the
staff and pharmacists.

6. The Opportunity: Analysis of Alternatives
Even though some of those key success factors seem almost obvious, and effective to us as
customers, they may not be the best option for the company itself. So one reason they might not
be able to or choose to schedule multiple technicians at peak hours, is because of restriction to
how many hours are given to the pharmacy. I have heard about retail pharmacy technicians not
getting scheduled often due to corporate cutting the amount of hours that are spread
throughout the pharmacy staff. This is a valid reason for not being able to keep up with all of
the prescriptions or the demand for the pharmacy, but to an extent. Regardless, the staff should
still give each customer a professional, and positive experience to avoid a flawed and rushed
experience.

7. The Opportunity: Strategic Option
• A strategic option would be for corporate to emphasize and bring constant attention to the
code of conduct in the pharmacy. This ensures that there is a guideline for pharmacists and
techs that must be followed when it comes to the behavior that is displayed, so that the
customers know that they have a trustworthy and reliable resource available for
their pharmaceutical needs.
• Maintenance should come in on a monthly schedule to ensure cleanliness of the
pharmacy carpets, counters, and even the drive through area, I have seen many cobwebs and
even black widows at a CVS drive through before and this could be a health hazard for
customers as well as the staff.

8. Benefits and Risks of Strategic Option
Benefits
• Customers will notice that corporate CVS/Pharmacy cares about how their customers are
treated in the pharmacy, and the technicians and pharmacists will be well aware and
knowledgeable on what is the appropriate and efficient way to run the pharmacy on a day to
day, year- round basis.
• The benefits of getting maintenance to come in monthly for the pharmacy, is that there is
little room for error in terms of cleanliness or sterility when it comes to
handling prescriptions for people who may be severely immunocompromised.

9. Benefits and Risks of Strategic Option
Risks
• The risk of emphasizing the code of conduct is that the technicians may not like the mandate
on the code of conduct, and there will be an increase of valuable employees parting with the
company, which will result in an even bigger issue with a high volume of customers at the
pharmacy and not having enough help in the pharmacy.
• When it comes to the risk of having maintenance come to the pharmacy monthly, the risk
would be at the corporate/specific store location level. It could be too high of an expense for
the company to keep maintenance on a monthly schedule to solely clean up the
pharmacy and keep an environment for the customers that is safe for them to get their
medicine from.

10. Final Recommendation/ Call to Action
• My final recommendation to CVS/Pharmacy is to stop focusing on meeting goals and
deadlines and start focusing more on meeting their customers' needs. Doing this will look
better on the pharmacist as well as all of the staff in general. When you as a big corporation
are not striving to meet your customers' needs and go out of your way to make sure the
customer has a pleasant experience, then you are not doing what is in the best interest of the
company as a whole.

11. Highlighted References
• Gabler, E. (2020, July 16). CVS fined for prescription errors and poor staffing at pharmacies. The
New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/cvs-pharmacies-oklahoma.html
• Blank, C. (2020, July 20). CVS addresses complaints of understaffing, prescription errors. Drug
Topics. Retrieved September 22, 2022, from https://www.drugtopics.com/view/cvs-addresses-
complaints-of-understaffing-prescription-errors