So far we’ve looked at our new Durable Medical Equipment counter, our new Sterile Compounding Lab and Chambers’ Wellness Center, which are all projects that we began in 2017 that will continue to be expanded upon throughout 2018. These investments all expand our services in valuable ways and allow us to continue exceeding our customers’ expectations.
However, the next innovation that we want to take a closer look at allows customers to interact with the products in our retail area in a fundamentally new way.
Robert Norris, PharmD, explains some of the capabilities of TapLive-enabled shelving within Chambers’ Apothecary.
TapLive-enabled Interactive Shelves
- What’s New?
Many of our customers may have noticed the new stickers on the shelves in the retail portion of our pharmacy. These stickers are actually interactive tags that provide an innovative way to learn more about the products in our store. By simply tapping your NFC-enabled smartphone to the tags, customers can access information and watch helpful videos to ensure they get the most out of their purchases. It’s likely that this is the largest deployment of the technology in a store setting in the U.S.
- What Should I Expect?
Expect to continue getting excellent customer service from our staff. The shelf tags are an additional way to get the information they need, not a replacement for pharmacist-patient interaction. It’s just another way for us to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations. At Chambers’ Apothecary we’ve always relied on a balance of holistic strategies and modern technologies regarding health and wellness, and now, by tapping your smartphone to a tag, it’s like Dr. Axe is in the pharmacy sharing recipes with you or discussing the benefits of Bone Broth.
- What Does the Future Hold?
This is still pretty new for us, so we’re going to be pushing its boundaries a little bit in 2018 and exploring how it can be best used to help our customers. It’s fun to use, just tap and it opens up on your phone, but its purpose is to help people get the information they need. It can also be used to easily transmit checklists such as a list of bathroom safety items that are available in our Durable Medical Equipment area. We might also incorporate discounts and other incentives, so when you tap a certain tag at the right time, you can get a discount on that product.
Robert Norris, PharmD
Chambers’ Apothecary
278 Lincoln Way East
Chambersburg, PA 17201