Priceline Kippa-Ring Uses BD Rowa™ Technology

Congratulations on winning, what does this achievement mean to you and your colleagues?

We could not believe it when we were announced as Priceline Pharmacy Store of the Year at the conference in Singapore. This was the second time we have won the award and we are so happy that we are able to share the win with our team who put in 110% effort every day. Our grandma, Jane Wilson opened the pharmacy in 1972 and my sister and I went on to become pharmacists and worked alongside her for many years before we bought the business from her 7 years ago. We have a long history of service within the community and have a great loyal customer base that makes turning up to work easy. The award was an accumulation of all the hard work from our team, who are driven by their love of customer service.

What do you believe are the contributing factors to winning this prestigious award?

There are a number of criteria factors that are taken into consideration when they decide on the recipient of the award. Our store scores extremely high on customer satisfaction and has had solid sales growth in the last 2 years, which is no easy feat when we are such a longstanding store with two other pharmacies in the same shopping centre. We believe that investment in staff and the way we always seek improvement and efficiency in our processes is a large contributing factor to our success and our ability to deliver exceptional customer service. The BD Rowa™ Robot has helped immensely in our dispensary operations which has then driven our growth across the whole store. Particularly during COVID when our team was under immense pressure, our dispensary continued to thrive. 

How long have you had automation in your pharmacy?

Back in 2017, we wanted to transform our dispensary to a forward dispense model. We really wanted to improve our patients' access to the white coat, but we were having trouble getting our pharmacists to leave their computers to serve our customers. We looked at other brands of dispensing robots, however the BD Rowa™ Smart was the best product on the market and was a comparable price to other inferior brands. Buying the BD Rowa™ Smart was the best business decision we ever made. It has greatly improved efficiency in our dispensary and given us the ability to maximise the opportunity in professional services. It enabled us to continue our normal script numbers while also administering over 10,000 COVID vaccines during the pandemic.

This year we bought a sachet packing machine and our storage capacity needed to increase, so we decided to trade in our BD Rowa™ Smart for a larger BD Rowa™ Vmax™ with internal ProLog™, which increased our storage capacity by five thousand packets. Having already discovered the advantages of automation and being so pleased with the return on investment of our original BD Rowa™ Smart, it was an easy decision for us to upgrade to the BD Rowa™ Vmax™ and further future-proof our business.

What would you say to pharmacists out there who believe that you must have an Autoloader when investing in a BD Rowa™ Robot?

Buying the BD Rowa™ Smart was the best business decision we ever made, as it eliminates walking and the time required to pick stock, we are able to dispense a lot faster with optimal accuracy. It frees my team's time to focus on customer engagement and profit growing activity. Our customers are always amazed at how quickly we can turn their scripts around, and it has no doubt improved our patient loyalty. For example, our pharmacists are able to dispense an antibiotic script in front of the patient, whilst discussing adjunct products to assist their condition.

While the autoloader has massive advantages and we require it now, we grew our business and reaped the benefits for over 6 years by having a junior team member load the robot in between doing other tasks. In other words, with or without an autoloader will transform your dispensary and business, it simply depends on personal preference and what stage your business is at.

Another benefit of BD Rowa™ Mosaic software is instantaneous stock reporting. At the touch of a button, we can see what is out of stock, what is in stock. We can also project orders from the software and see dead stock, quickly identifying items we can offload.

What would you say to other pharmacy owners who are thinking of Automation?

Two things, BD Rowa™ Technology is the only brand I would partner with, as you can’t go wrong and the second is you will never regret this investment. I wish we had invested in automation years and years ago. We were concerned that our business was not big enough to warrant the investment, but we had it wrong, the BD Rowa™ Robot has enabled our business to get to where we want it to be. It is even more important now with 60-day dispensing, that we do all dispensary operations as efficiently as possible, so we can maximise our time exploring all other revenue opportunities.

I urge any owners out there to contact BD Rowa™ Technology and get your automation journey started today. 

Another major advantage of the BD Rowa™ Robot is stock control as keeping on top of short-dated stock and slow movers is a breeze. Stocktaking the whole dispensary takes under one hour compared to the two days when we did not have the robot. The biggest advantage of having a BD Rowa™ Robot is you gain so much time to do other tasks that you never had time to do in the past.

Can you share some benefits of your new BD Rowa™ Vmax™ with Internal ProLog™?

Having upgraded to the BD Rowa™ Vmax™ with internal ProLog™ has meant we no longer have to manually receive our dispensary orders as the BD Rowa™ Vmax™ marks your stock off against our wholesaler’s delivery manifest as it puts it away. This is one less job we have to do each day, allowing our staff to gain valuable time to complete other critical jobs.

How has BD Rowa™ Mosaic software improved your inventory and dispensing processes?

Having a BD Rowa™ Robot has revolutionised our dispensary processes. The biggest advantage is that it allows us time to maximise our forward dispense offer. All our staff have time to actually connect with our customers. When we first installed our BD Rowa™ Smart, our customers were concerned that it meant our staff's jobs could be at risk, however it’s the exact opposite - our dispensary team has grown significantly since the installation of our robot. Our team also love having the time and ability to interact with our customers, as the BD Rowa™ Robot makes dispensing so easy.

Another benefit of BD Rowa™ Mosaic software is instantaneous stock reporting. At the touch of a button, we can see what is out of stock, what is in stock. We can also project orders from the software and see dead stock, quickly identifying items we can offload.

What would you say to other pharmacy owners who are thinking of Automation?

Two things, BD Rowa™ Technology is the only brand I would partner with, as you can’t go wrong and the second is you will never regret this investment. I wish we had invested in automation years and years ago. We were concerned that our business was not big enough to warrant the investment, but we had it wrong, the BD Rowa™ Robot has enabled our business to get to where we want it to be. It is even more important now with 60-day dispensing, that we do all dispensary operations as efficiently as possible, so we can maximise our time exploring all other revenue opportunities.

I urge any owners out there to contact BD Rowa™ Technology and get your automation journey started today.

For the pop-up quote in the article, can we use this sentence from Andrew:

“The BD Rowa™ Robot has enabled our business to get to where we want to be. It is even more important now with 60-day dispensing, that we do all dispensary operations as efficiently as possible, so we can maximise our time exploring all other revenue opportunities.”

Or if it needs to be shorter =  “It is even more important now with 60-day dispensing, that we do all dispensary operations as efficiently as possible, so we can maximise our time exploring all other revenue opportunities.”