Claims:We Claim:
1. The system for digital customer relationship management for retail community pharmacies, wherein the system comprising:
a. a database to store and manage the user’s communication details;
b. a software application for the pharmacy to be accessed through the electronic devices for enrolling and collecting the contact information of the patients or users who require prescription and non-prescription medicines from the pharmacy;
c. a software application for the patients’ or users to be accessed through the electronic devices for contacting the said pharmacy to avail the desired services
wherein, the said system creates a connection between the said pharmacy and the patients’ or the users through the said software application for the pharmacy and the said software application for the patients’ or the users, where all the information related to all the patients’ or the users who avail services from a said pharmacy is used to build the said database.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the said pharmacy can remain independent and manage customized discounts, services and promotions.
3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the said pharmacy is required to build a profile in the said system.
4. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the said software application for the pharmacy includes plurality of promotional templates for offering promotions to their customers which can be customized based on the preferences of the said pharmacy.
5. The method for digital customer relationship management comprising of:
a. user registration by the pharmacy with the said system and uploading the profile of the said pharmacy by providing the information related to the pharmacy;
b. downloading the said software application for the pharmacy by the said pharmacy on their electronic device;
c. enrolling the patients by the said pharmacy who walk into the said pharmacy for availing prescription or non-prescription medicine at retail community pharmacy by using the contact number of the said patient;
d. sending a ‘thank you’ SMS by the said system along with a feedback form to the newly enrolled patient via a mobile communication network;
e. sending a link to download the said software application for the patients’ to the patients’ who submit the feedback via a mobile communication network;
f. accessing the said software application for the patients’ by the newly enrolled patient to communicate with the said pharmacy for enquiring about the services wherein the said pharmacy can provide the desired services to the said patient by either home delivery or by patient’s visit to the said pharmacy; and
g. sending regular product repurchase reminders to the patient by the said system along with the information related to the promotions and offers offered by one or more pharmacies.
6. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein, the said medicine repurchase reminders sent to the said patient is received in the form of a text message via a mobile communication network.
7. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein, the said pharmacy receives a weekly report including information related to the enrolments made by the said pharmacy, summary analytics of the customer feedback, sale enquiry performance of that week; information of the repetitive customers, number of medicine repurchase reminders sent to the patients in the week; information of customer satisfaction for waiting/delivery time, pharmacy staff and hygiene for the week.
, Description:TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present disclosure relates to a digital customer relationship management system, and more particularly to a system and method for the online management of digital customer relationship management service through a mobile application designed for retail community pharmacies
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication.
Retail community pharmacies have traditionally developed customer relationship by offering discounts and free home delivery services to selective patients. A systematic approach to build and nurture a customer database with professional customer engagement and retention, for all customers, has been missing. The rapid growth of online pharmacies using digital technology with the convenience of mobile apps has been steadily eroding the customer base of retail community pharmacies. Digital technology has helped online pharmacies to build customer database, send repurchase reminders, collect customer feedback, run sales promotions and ensure repeat business in an efficient and scalable manner. Despite the familiarity and confidence inspired by retail community pharmacies, the success of online pharmacies has exposed the limitations of the traditional pharmacy customer relationship management practice. Continued growth of online pharmacies threatens the business viability of retail pharmacies and can potentially lead to a closure of retail pharmacies. This can significantly damage the healthcare ecosystem of large unorganised and fragmented markets.
Existing software applications used by retail pharmacies are not designed to manage customer relationships. Softwares used by retail pharmacies are exclusively used for stock management and generation of invoices. These software do not have any functionality that can be used by retail pharmacies for digital marketing, collecting feedback, generating monthly reports and leveraging the accumulated customer database.
A Korean patent application 101252959B1 discloses a system and method for managing stock medicine of pharmacy that serves as a drug inventory management system. The drug inventory management system extracts the amount of the drug-related sales from the pharmacy terminal, decides whether the amount of the sales collected exceeds the amount of the drug-related safety inventory and, as a consequence of the assessment, the amount of the sales exceeds the amount of the safety inventory. In this case, it is to allow the distributor to handle the pharmacy's drug effectively by inducing the order of the drug into the pharmacy terminal. However, this prior art does not work to retain customers by sending promotional offer notifications nor does it receive customer feedback or aid the pharmacy in building relationships of faith and trust with the customers.
US patent application 8924303B2 discloses a method and system for obtaining feedback for a product where the registered user places a request, develops, submits, and receives feedback of any product from the Internet. An email message to a consumer is a part of the invention. A request to check a product received by the customer in a transaction is included in the email message; a ranking input area and/or a text input area; a verification token with a transaction code corresponding to the transaction; and an HTTP form submission command to deliver the customer's response to the request to a remote device. A rating entered in the ranking input area and/or in the text entered in the text input area and verification token are included in the response. However, this prior art does not work to maintain profiles for any company like pharmacy nor does it aid in the management of customer interaction via reminders and promotional offers.
Therefore the present disclosure attempts to provide a solution to the problem of lack of a robust system of online customer relationship management for pharmacies. Therefore, in light of the present discussion, there exists a need to overcome various limitations associated with existing solutions of online customer relationship management at the pharmaceutical industries.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the present invention to provide a system and method that allows the retail pharmacy, as a user, to implement the most effective and efficient customer relationship management system for pharmacies.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method where the pharmacy, as a user, can enhance customer interaction by maintaining an electronically-enabled customer database, generating reminders for customers to make purchases, establishing firm relationship with the customers, and operating direct and fruitful promotions with the patients enrolled with the digital customer relationship management application.
SUMMARY OF THE IN VENTION
The present disclosure relates to a digital customer relationship management system, and more particularly, to a system and method for digital customer relationship management for the retail pharmacies, that allows the registered pharmacies as the user, to maintain an electronic database for the storage and maintenance of customer details, to transmit reminders for making purchase, to send promotional offers directly to the enrolled customers, and build strong and lasting relationships with the customers, with the objective of cultivating and retaining a loyal customer base.
According to the present invention, the system for customer relationship management comprises of a digital database for the storage and maintenance of the customer information. The software application for customer relationship management facilitates the development of strong and sustainable relationships with customers by allowing any pharmacy, as the user, to register with the software application and then enroll new patients in the pharmacy’s database to enable the patients to get access to the company's profile at the software application for using the pharmacy's medicine delivery services and getting access to the reminders and promotional offers of the pharmacy.
The present invention also discloses a method of online customer relationship management for retail pharmacies, comprising the steps of a sequence of steps that includes registration of the pharmacy with the online customer relationship management software application and then downloading and installing the software application of online customer relationship management for retail pharmacies in any electronic device, to enroll new patients at the registered retail pharmacy with the profile. The enrolled patients can get access to discounts, home delivery, reminders and promotional offers via their registered contact numbers.
One should appreciate that although the present disclosure has been explained with respect to a defined set of functional modules, any other module or set of modules can be added/deleted/modified/combined and any such changes in architecture/construction of the proposed system are completely within the scope of the present disclosure. Each module can also be fragmented into one or more functional sub-modules, all of which also completely within the scope of the present disclosure.
Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure.
FIG 1 discloses the system of the present invention.
FIG 2, an embodiment of the method of the present invention, is a representation of the sequence of steps to be followed for the operation of the online customer relationship management software application for retail community pharmacies in the form of a flowchart.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure depicted in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details.
The present invention pertains to a system and method for digital customer relationship management that enables the user which is a retail pharmacy to create and maintain a customer database, generate detailed customer feedback, send repurchase reminders and run promotional activities which are currently being done by online pharmacies and thereby making retail pharmacies competitive and strong.
The components of the present invention include the software application for the pharmacy owners, pharmacy employees, patients which have respective features through which they can operate the application for enquiring and purchasing medicines.
FIG 1 discloses the system of the present invention. With reference to FIG 1, the said system comprises of a registered pharmacy, a customer who can be a patient or any other person who can call and enquire about the products and offers.
According to the present invention, the said pharmacy must register and upload its profile including the name of the pharmacy, location, phone number, business timings, discount, home delivery and promotions / offers including GST ID, Drug License number to enter the platform.
According to the present invention, the system comprises of promotional templates, and the retail pharmacy can select from a menu of the said promotional templates, which can be personalised according to the choice of said pharmacy through which they can select promotions. The pharmacy installs the “Pharmacy Application” on its cell phone after registration is done. The said application allows ‘Terms & Conditions’, ‘Privacy Policy’ and other website information to be read by the pharmacy. The application further allows the retail pharmacies to use their 10-digit contact number of the patients to enrol patients who go to the pharmacy for a fresh prescription. Other than the telephone number, no recognisable data is captured.
Every pharmacy registered receives a weekly report that shows:
a. customer enrolment, feedback and Sale Enquiry results for the week and cumulative since registration
b. repeat clients, brand availability, chronic disease patients, repurchase reminders users of online medicines for the week and weekly change
c. customer satisfaction for waiting / delivery time, pharmacy staff cooperation, and hygiene, professionalism and weekly change.
With reference to the said method, the registered patient receives a 'Thank you' SMS for visiting the pharmacy and is encouraged to provide input by clicking on the link provided on the SMS text message. The feedback form asks patients to provide their feedback and about purchase experience, pharmacy infrastructure, customer services and satisfaction rating along with a few specifics about the Doctors, clinic location, purchased brands in the form of objective questions. After sending the feedback, the patient receives an SMS with a link to download the 'Patient Application' on the patient’s mobile phone. The application can be used by patients’ to call the pharmacy and ask about availability, prices and available discount for drugs and other related medical products at the pharmacy. The patient can also address his requirements for home delivery with the pharmacy and the pharmacy may agree to do home delivery or ask the patient to visit the pharmacy with a prescription depending on availability of home delivery staff or the regulatory requirements as applicable to the drug required for purchase.
The Patient Application also provides access to the ‘Terms & Conditions’, ‘Privacy Policy’ and other information of the website for the patient. The patient is periodically reminded to buy chronic drugs again. In order to remind patients about promotions / offers / activities, SMS or push notification is also sent. Each SMS or push notification bears the name of the pharmacy that has enrolled the patient and providing the services.
FIG 2 illustrates the method involved in operating the said system which comprises of the steps including registration of the pharmacy using the online customer relationship management software 201; downloading and installation of the mobile application for the pharmacy on the electronic device by the said registered pharmacy 202; adding the patient’s mobile number on the mobile application for the pharmacy by the said registered pharmacy after the purchase of medicine by the said patient 203; sending a ‘Thankyou’ message to the enrolled patient with a post-purchase feedback form by the mobile application for the pharmacy 204; Enrolled patient submits feedback using the post-purchase feedback form and receives a SMS text message with link to download the patient app 205; downloading and installing the mobile application for the patient on the electronic device by the enrolled patient 206; choosing the pharmacies for repurchase by the enrolled patient on the basis of rating, discount, delivery services and promotional offers 207; and receiving the regular repurchase reminders and promotional offer notifications by the enrolled patient from the said registered pharmacy 208.
The said application is designed for the pharmacy owner, pharmacy employee and the patients separately which offers various features for the respective users. The pharmacy owner can use the mobile application who is a Financial decision maker and critical for decisions related to registration and subscription. The mobile application for the pharmacy owner can be operated by a registered pharmacist qualified to legally operate the pharmacy or an entrepreneur who own the pharmacy a pharmacist to operate the pharmacy. The pharmacy owner may not have to be at the pharmacy at all times if a pharmacist is available to run the operations. The mobile application for the pharmacy owner helps the pharmacy owner to upload profile and complete registration, enrol patients, receive and view reports, add/remove app authorisation for pharmacy staff and edit/change promotional messages
The pharmacy employee assist the patients’ who walk into the pharmacy or who call the pharmacy about an enquiry related to names and availability of products, home delivery and many more. The mobile application for the pharmacy employee helps them to enrol patients offer discounts and services as per the promotional offers decided by the owner/pharmacist.
The mobile application developed for the patients’ offers ease of use to the said patients through which they can call the pharmacies about medicine enquiry, medicine delivery and, they can improve the access for the patients to choose the pharmacies based on ratings, discounts, home delivery and sales promotions offers.
An alternative embodiment of the present invention discloses another platform of accessing the system, which can be done through web applications from a browser. The web application is maintained by an administrator, who is the owner of the software or a person authorised to monitor and operate the software in the back end. The administrator keeps an eye on business progression and key decisions using the web application on their computer. The web application can be used by a channel partner who could be an independent stockist or distributor who has agreed to play a marketing role in the promotion of the platform to pharmacies in his territory. They use their own resources to promote the platform and their earning is based on revenue generated from subscription. The web application can be used on mobile or computer to track progress and status of pharmacy registration, patient enrolment as well as performance of his resources including employees and sub-channel partners.
According to the present invention, sub-channel partner is an associate of the channel partner who can be an independent businessman or a small distributor who covers pharmacies not covered directly by the channel partner. The said sub-channel partner is compensated by the channel partner and the web application can be used on mobile or computer to track progress and status of pharmacy registrations, patient enrolment as well as performance of his resources including employees.
The account manager in the system is the account manager who is an employee, who gets paid by the company. Their role is related to promotion, pharmacy mapping and registration, counselling/problem solving, business development. The web application can be used on mobile or computer to track progress and status of pharmacy registrations.
If the specification states a component or feature “may”, “can”, “could”, or “might” be included or have a characteristic, that particular component or feature is not required to be included or have the characteristic.
Each of the appended claims defines a separate invention, which for infringement purposes is recognized as including equivalents to the various elements or limitations specified in the claims. Depending on the context, all references below to the "invention" may in some cases refer to certain specific embodiments only. In other cases it will be recognized that references to the "invention" will refer to subject matter recited in one or more, but not necessarily all, of the claims.
Various terms as used herein are shown below. To the extent a term used in a claim is not defined below, it should be given the broadest definition persons in the pertinent art have given that term as reflected in printed publications and issued patents at the time of filing.
While the foregoing describes various embodiments of the invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. The scope of the invention is determined by the claims that follow. The invention is not limited to the described embodiments, versions or examples, which are included to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention when combined with information and knowledge available to the person having ordinary skill in the art.