Owner and pharmacy manager Sazan “Sam” Sylejmani, PharmD, spent over 6 years working in big-box drug stores before buying the pharmacy in 2018. With a passion for supporting his community, he was excited for the opportunity to offer quality care while working in an established local business.
Earlier this year, Sylejmani and the Westmont Pharmacy team experienced an overwhelming influx of patient calls due to COVID-19. Although his staff was hesitant to implement an IVR system, they just couldn’t keep up with the demand and turned to Digital Pharmacist for help.
It took just a few days to get Sylejmani’s IVR up and running. and when we launched Westmont Pharmacy’s new cloud-based IVR system in early May, the results were immediate.
Since launching their IVR in May, Westmont Pharmacy saw:
598
calls within the first week of launch
23,100
call minutes in first 3 months
40%
average call containment rate
In less than a week of launching their IVR, the pharmacy received almost 600 calls, totaling over 1,200 minutes. By August, they had logged over 10,400 calls totaling more than 23,100 minutes.
Sylejmani was originally concerned that some of their older patients wouldn’t like calling into an IVR. But when the results became clear, he was happy to see that the pharmacy could leverage technology and operate more efficiently without losing customers.
Over 40% of the calls received by the pharmacy were handled completely by the IVR without requiring the staff to pick up the call.
The Westmont Pharmacy team has been able to manage their IVR system entirely through the self-service pharmacy dashboard rather than relying on Digital Pharmacist tech support. The portal allows them to configure settings and make updates at the store, or in Sylejmani’s case, from home as well.
One thing Sylejmani particularly appreciated was the ability to change his pharmacy greeting easily and quickly. During the peak of COVID-19, he’d update his greeting twice a day, including information about supplies like gloves and masks to help manage patients’ expectations as they called to see if he had items in stock.
“I like that I can schedule different messages for doing things at different days and even different times of day,” Sylejmani said. “I even had to do it from home a few times and it was super easy.”
He was also impressed with how many custom messages he could save in the system. To date, he has recorded, uploaded, and stored over 65 custom messages and pharmacy greetings.
Digital Pharmacist’s digital engagement platform has supported thousands of pharmacies across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our cloud-based IVR system offers a fully-configurable system with visual voicemail and infinite call capacity, supporting business operations and medication adherence.
To learn more about how IVR can transform your pharmacy and help you operate more efficiently, get in touch with us today.
