Frequently Asked Questions
All of my staff are trained so why should I register with 4Front Pharmacy?
- Even though you may already have highly competent and well-trained staff, new products continuously come to the market and regulations related to specific product sales have changed significantly over recent years. By registering your pharmacy team with 4Front Pharmacy, they will always be up-to-date with new products and regulatory changes
- It’s easy to forget much of what you have learned after a period of time and with 4Front Pharmacy, you have a reference source at your fingertips 24/7
- Pharmacy consultations are integrated into the courses so that you don’t just get the product knowledge, your pharmacy team will learn how to apply the knowledge during a pharmacy consultation such as
- How do I ask the question?
- When do I ask the question?
- How do I make a product recommendation?
- Which product should I recommend?
- What advice do I need to give now that I’ve made a recommendation?
How often should my pharmacy team be engaging with 4Front Pharmacy?
- We recommend 30 minutes per week per person however, it is up to you as the pharmacy owner to choose the frequency of engagement.
- If you have a new starter that you would like to get up to speed quickly, they will need more than 30 minutes per week. For another member of staff, 30 minutes per week may suffice.
- On the first three Tuesday’s of the month, 4Front Pharmacy sends a, “Featured Lesson of the Week” email to all of its’ users, suggesting a particular course to access. We introduce courses that are timely and relevant to the consultations that you and your team will most likely be experiencing at the OTC pharmacy counter. We do not send an email on the fourth Tuesday of the month to respect the “end-of-month” pharmacy work pattern.
What if a member of staff leaves? What do I do then?
You will still be able to maintain your previous staff member’s record of training and the licence for that individual staff member can be transferred to the new person who will be replacing them. The individual who leaves the pharmacy will have been emailed their Certificates of Completion. However they will no longer be able to access 4Front Pharmacy as a PREMIUM member, unless they maintain their PREMIUM membership personally or with their new employer. You only ever pay for ‘Active users’.
Why should I train everyone? Why not just the new people?
- By training everyone together, you are creating group accountability so that you have a container for every staff member to, “raise their game” and consistently implement the training that they are receiving.
- How many times have you sent an individual away on training to hear on return how “amazing” the training was and yet, you don’t really notice anything different in how they engage with customers/patients at the pharmacy counter? You might even wonder, “what did they learn?”
- Training together is especially powerful when aligned to team goals, as it empowers your team with the knowledge and skills to achieve the goal, and builds commitment and accountability to achieve results.
- The reality is, we all need to continually improve. This is the concept of CPD to ensure we all maintain professionalism. Whether your 30 years in the business or just starting, training and updating your skills is always a good idea.
Is it something you would recommend for pharmacists and technicians as well as OTC staff?
- Yes. 4Front Pharmacy Modules are designed to support WHOLE team training and development and to enable you to create a culture of Continuous And Never-ending Improvement (CANI).
- Pharmacy is constantly evolving making it essential (and obligatory through CPD) to stay sharp and up-to-date. CPD is not just for “heavier” clinical topics – keeping your consultation skills and product knowledge up-to-date is also part of CPD.
- How many times have you had a “simple” OTC consultation that turned out to be something far more complex than you expected and brought you to another level of employing your clinical skills and knowledge?
- IIOP Core Competencies
Why should I include cosmetic staff?
- Often times the cosmetic counter is the one that is furthest away from the dispensary therefore making supervising sales extremely challenging.
- When a staff member is out of earshot at the other end of the pharmacy, how do you know they are giving your customers/patients advice that is relevant, safe and correct
- How often does a cosmetic member of staff cover the OTC counter during staff breaks or days off?
- For the most part, cosmetic staff are excellent sales people and rapport builders, so why not give them the knowledge and opportunity to do more of what they do best
- They can also show your OTC staff how to integrate their sales methods into OTC sales.
What staff grade and experience is it aimed at?
- 4Front Pharmacy has been designed to cater for every individual on the pharmacy team from the Saturday girl all the way up to Superintendent Pharmacist.
- Categories include OTC Lessons and Products, Medical Conditions, Business Knowledge and Skills, Pharmacist CPD articles and more.
- We are constantly building course material, so if you have a course suggestion and/or expertise you would like to share, please contact rachel@4frontPharmacy.ie
Why don’t we just use free training that is available?
- Nothing in life is free! All free training is ‘sponsored’ or developed by commercial interests and while it can be useful, typically has the messages your supplier wants you to hear, rather than the required information. At 4Front Pharmacy Online ALL content is independently produced and reviewed with no commercial input. We pride ourselves on this fact. We produce and develop to the same standards as courses we have made for the PSI and IIOP.
- At 4Front Pharmacy online we live by our simple motto:
‘Aligning your training to your customer needs, not your suppliers marketing’ We are happy for you to adopt this motto too!
What’s the difference between GUEST and PREMIUM?
GUEST: Some of the courses on 4 Front Pharmacy can be accessed for FREE. These courses re limited an clearly marked. However, over 95% of courses required Premium Membership PREMIUM: With PREMIUM, you have access to the full range of courses so that you can build confidence and competence within your whole pharmacy team there is a reporting function that supports mandatory PSI regulatory compliance so that you can provide evidence of training, validation and assessment for every member of your pharmacy team all the way up from your Saturday girl to the Superintendent Pharmacist. you can use 4 Front’s modules to create and measure engagement with your own staff training programme, aligned with your marketing calendar. Premium members have access to full Learner Dashboard for tacking changes Owners/ managers will have access to all staff training records. MCQ’s are attached to each course. Once an 80% score is achieved, your staff member will receive a Certificate of Completion and you will receive a report of the course they have successfully completed. The average cost, per course, for premium members is only €4.70 for each course completed!
I have decided that I would like to register as a PREMIUM user, how much is it?
Premium membership costs vary depending on whether you are an individual or a larger group. Individual membership can be as low as €59 per month. Group Memberships are annual and open to pharmacies that may have many staff needing to be training. Group membership can be as low as €249 annually per person. If you would like to enquire about group discounts contact David McLean david@4FrontPharmacy.ie
What guarantee have I got that New content will continue to be produced for the subscription time?
Since its foundation, 4 Front Pharmacy has honoured the published production schedule and we are committed to continually honour that. Currently, there are over 50 accessible courses on 4 Front Pharmacy. If one was to “buy” each one of these courses at €29 each, they would be paying a lot more than the current yearly membership, even if no further courses were added! Just as we help our customers make informed decisions regarding the best products and services to meet their needs, we encourage you to weigh up the risks and benefits of investing in our products and services. Both company founders have been developing online learning and educating Pharmacists for over 15 years. We are not going anywhere!
What is the risk of investing in 4 Front Pharmacy Online Training?
Naturally, any investment comes with risk! However, the risk of investing in 4 Front Pharmacy Online is mitigated by a number of factors. Firstly, the risk of not investing in training is far higher, including regulatory, patient safety, reputation, business and livelihood risk. There is a risk that modules won’t be produced to meet your exact needs, but again we are happy to receive specific module requests and will always try and accommodate.
What are the benefits of NOT investing in 4Front Pharmacy Online Training?
You don’t spend money on training.
What are the risks of NOT investing in 4Front Pharmacy Online Training?
- Your team may NOT deliver service to consistent standards because they may NOT receive consistent, ongoing training
- You wont be able to replicate the established impact of 4 Front Pharmacy online within your own business.
- You may lose customers due to inconsistent service or poorly handled complaints. Inconsistent professionalism among staff may make it more difficult to recruit supervising pharmacists and locums.
- Under-utilisation of new recruits who may not be safe to operate at the pharmacy counter for several months.
- If a complaint occurs, you may not have evidence of training (even if it has occurred) to best defend yourself and your business.
What are the benefits of investing in 4Front Pharmacy Online Training?
When you and your team IMPLEMENT the learning from 4Front Pharmacy’s modules, your patients, customers, team members and business benefit through
- potential 7% turnover increase
- up to 23% OTC products sales increase
- >200% increase in WWHAMM implementation in every consultation
- best practice training, assessment and validation simply and effectively demonstrate a high quality professional governance
- enhanced staff product knowledge and higher quality customer interactions create consistently safer patient care
- job satisfaction and retention improves because your team have the tools to deliver better quality service and patient care
- reduce downtime, as training time is exclusively spent on training (as opposed to travel, shop cover, food and subsistence) resulting in the ability to apply the learning within minutes for the benefit of patients and customer
- patients needs are more accurately identified and solutions more confidently offered, which improves sales that support self-care
- empowers staff members to operate to their full scope of practice, freeing up pharmacists to operate to THEIR full scope, which drives innovation, creativity, service excellence and business growth
Most recently we have seen empiric evidence that there is a statistically significant correlation with Increased OTC sales following training with 4Front Pharmacy Online.