How bringing it back to basics helped one community pharmacy expand beyond their brick and mortar
Woy Woy Pharmacy’s digital journey, much like their recent re-brand, is tied to their core value and purpose of providing the best customer service for their community. We caught up with Stefanie from Woy Woy Pharmacy to dive into their journey getting here - their experience, their learnings, and their advice for other community focused pharmacies.
Introducing Woy Woy Pharmacy
Based in NSW, Woy Woy Pharmacy has been a pillar within the local community for over 15 years, and pride themselves on providing quality customer service and health advice.
Formerly known as Kuoch Chemist, Woy Woy Pharmacy rebranded in February 2022 after a change of ownership. A part of this change was going back to their roots and taking up the pharmacy’s original name from 15 years prior - Woy Woy Pharmacy.
“Some of our customers have come in saying “you’re back!”, which really makes us feel that connection and cements what we try to strive for. We want to be your local, and that’s who Woy Woy Pharmacy is. It feels like coming home and coming full circle.”
For the team at Woy Woy, bringing the community into their journey is everything. Re-introducing themselves as Woy Woy Pharmacy, which holds so much value and history, helped them to reinforce that connection with the community as their go-to local pharmacy.
Woy Woy Pharmacy’s Digital Journey
Under the previous owner they had both a website and Facebook page. On face value Woy Woy Pharmacy was online, though they had no online presence. Their online platforms were rarely used or updated and had little to no impact on the business.
When Salim, the new owner, announced they’d be trying out a new pharmacy specific website solution called Storbie, naturally there was some hesitance.
“Having already managed the previous website, I just thought Storbie was more work and wondered what we get out of it. But I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the fact that it has actually become something successful that people use.”
Woy Woy Pharmacy attributes much of their online success with the timing. We all know that the COVID-19 pandemic has put massive pressure and demand on essential service providers. Woy Woy Pharmacy leveraged this increased demand for online services not only as an opportunity to increase revenue, but also an opportunity to bolster awareness and use of their new Storbie website.
Providing the gift of choice, they dove straight in as the first local pharmacy to offer online shopping, click and collect, contactless pickups and deliveries. This shift quickly enabled them to reinforce their position as a key provider of quality health services, and pillar of customer service for the Woy Woy community.
The Storbie Experience
Luckily Woy Woy Pharmacy found achieving such feats was simple with Storbie’s easy-to-use and industry specific website solution.
“I think Storbie was a lot less intimidating than the first website we had, where I didn’t really know what I was doing. Storbie was a lot more user friendly in that respect and it clearly shows you how to do things.”
From there, they’ve only grown their website and its capabilities.
They’ve connected to their POS system through Storbie’s FRED integration, so that no matter if they’re making sales in-store or online, their stock levels update automatically and stay up to date. They’ve also leveraged Storbie’s PayPal and Afterpay integration to provide payment options that cater to the needs of different types of customers.
With 1000+ followers on their Facebook page and more than 100 online orders, Woy Woy Pharmacy is only beginning to reap the benefits of their transformation in the online space.
“Overall, the ability to trade online has been a massive win for us. We’ve captured more people than we would’ve without a website. We’ve even had a few sales that have been shipped off to Queensland and Victoria, which is a market we wouldn’t normally capture. The ability to do that has been amazing.”
Woy Woy Pharmacy has found that embracing technology and providing different avenues for people to shop has driven significant change within their pharmacy. Not only broadening market reach, but also helping them to compete against local competition- even their big box retailer neighbours.
Secret to Success
Woy Woy Pharmacy has successfully rebranded their pharmacy, relaunched their online platforms and re-engaged their community. When we asked how they managed such a coordinated accomplishment, their answer was staying true to their purpose. Your business’ purpose provides an underlying truth and direction for everything you do and ensures any decisions or actions you make serves the greater cause.
“We’ve always wanted to be your local little pharmacy with a focus on customer service. You come in, we try to know your name, we love to talk- and that’s the vibe we wanted to put into our online identity. We want our customers to know about us, what we’re up to, and to think of us as more than just a place where you buy prescriptions. We’re a part of the community, which is important to show because people resonate with that.”
In Woy Woy Pharmacy’s case, they made sure to post regularly with business updates, relevant information, and interesting content. This included social focused content like staff birthdays, special events, pictures with their customers, and giveaways. Constant content like this keeps the business front-of-mind for their customers and community, as well as enables Woy Woy Pharmacy to build stronger relationships both in-store and online.
Woy Woy Pharmacy’s Words of Wisdom
Sharing a golden nugget of knowledge, the single piece of advice Woy Woy Pharmacy would give to community focused pharmacies like themselves, would be to take the leap.
“My advice for pharmacies, is to not be scared to go for the change. I was a bit hesitant with launching a website, but I was never hesitant about the idea of shopping online- for me it makes sense. In this day and age, you have to be willing to embrace new things and not to be afraid of it.”
The world around us is changing rapidly, and it will come as no surprise that if we don’t adapt, we’ll be left behind… at least, it’s no surprise to Woy Woy Pharmacy. For Woy Woy Pharmacy the focus and the future are around pushing the limits on their online presence and being open to the latest trends and tools that appear along the way.
The needs of consumers are shifting- what tools are your pharmacy leveraging to keep up and stay relevant?
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