The vital role that retail pharmacy plays in the Australian Healthcare system has never been more visible than in 2020 – the year that COVID-19 brought the world to its knees. As fast as the pandemic was upon us, our network of over 100 community pharmacies had to respond, adapting our operating model to ensure not only the survival of our business, but also uncompromised levels of health and safety for our staff and customers.

As people panicked and began stockpiling medicines, our Blooms The Chemist stores experienced an increase of over one million customers in March 2020. With that, pharmacist responsibilities rose and we encountered diverse – and what felt like never-ending – challenges in our stores, from product shortages, to implementing physical distancing and pivoting quickly in a constantly changing COVID-19 environment.

It’s been a challenging time, but throughout, we have remained open to serve and support our customers. We have learnt some key takeaways in managing a health crisis in retail, now and in the future.

Team and customer safety are priorities

Our utmost priority, and the biggest challenge we faced in our retail stores, was providing a safe, trusted environment for our team and customers. Pharmacies are often the first contact point for customers experiencing symptoms, potentially putting others in store at risk of contracting the virus. This was compounded by the difficulty of enforcing physical distancing in what may at times be a small retail space.

Our Blooms The Chemist Support Office team were agile and fast in introducing safety equipment to protect staff and customers, including sneeze guards, regular increased cleaning of common areas, and accessible hand sanitiser in Melbourne for the customer and team use. Face masks and gloves were also used, particularly for close contact activities such as administering flu vaccines, and floor decals were put in place to mark safe distances between customers and team members.

We also encouraged contactless payments and reduced the number of customers in store by offering home medicine deliveries and implementing necessary government regulations to support the safe access of medications.

A split rostering system – dividing the team into two rosters – was implemented across our network of pharmacies to minimise the exposure of all staff to COVID-19, should any team member have tested positive.

Clear and frequent communication is essential

Panic brought on by the pandemic placed a lot of strain on customer service. Managing anxious customers and panic buying had an impact on our people’s physical and mental health. To combat this, we held weekly virtual meetings to stay on top of their wellbeing and provide advice on how to best manage new restrictions and difficult and large volumes of customers.

Two-way, consistent communication between Blooms The Chemist Support Office, Pharmacists and Retail Managers as well as daily meetings with our key suppliers helped to manage customer expectations and misinformation circulating from external sources. Furthermore, sharing daily updates to each store from the Support Office ensured everyone was aligned and clear on messaging and requirements, creating a tighter, more connected community.

People-centred contingency plans support business survival

The challenges of the pandemic have not gone away, and our industry cannot afford to be complacent. Our COVD-19 Taskforce continues to remail vigilant; navigating, devising and implementing contingency plans as needed.

The ‘new normal’ that we now live in will continue to present challenges and keep us on our toes, but what remains consistent is that our people are at the core of everything we do. Our people-first mentality has been key to our survival, because without our staff and our valued customers, we wouldn’t exist.

I am incredibly proud of how our business has come together and worked extremely hard to ensure we get through this crisis.