| Phil Beck, R.Ph., Sales Leader, Cerner
Etreby |
We offer a client 'business social media' site for
cleints to log in and share and collaborate on solution enhancements, as well
as current industry affairs and challenges. |
| Mark Lyle, SVP, Pharmacy Services, Emdeon |
Social media is becoming increasingly more a part of
consumers’ buying experience. It is also becoming more prevalent within
healthcare – for example, care services and discounts are promoted via social
media and it’s seen as a great way to attract new patients. It’s only natural
that pharmacy will also benefit from social media as a way to reach current
and new patients – it provides a great method of getting patients into the
pharmacy and even improving compliance. As consumers come to expect these options
from their providers, those pharmacies that employ social media will likely
see increased interaction with their patients. |
| Greg Phillips, President & CEO,
Emporos |
Social media will allow for an alternative form of
communication with pharmacies and customers. |
| Clarence Lea, R.Ph., VP, Marketing &
Industry Relations, FDS |
More avenues to interact with patients. |
| Kerry Rook, General Manager, Freedom Data
Systems |
We believe that social media will continue to grow
and will play a large roll in heath care overall as time moves forward. |
| Steven Hess, CEO, HBS |
Not too much in 2011. PBMs and chains are only just
starting to get into this space. |
| Larry Stephenson, Vice President, Sales,
HCC |
Social Media is a great marketing outreach since
customers opt-in for participation.
The challenge is that these are typically the more engaged and
technically savvy customers a pharmacy already serves. Though this target group has
tremendous value, businesses must continue to find ways to reach customers
that are not as engaged in their health-care, or those that do not elect to
use social media. |
| Randall Murphy, VP & Cofounder,
Manchac Technologies |
I think social media acceptance, which spreads viral
traditionally, in the pharmacy community will spread continuously but most
likely slowly. |
| Brenton Burns, SVP, Strategy, Product
Management, Marketing, & Business Developemnt, McKesson Pharmacy Systems |
Expect continued concerns on privacy, security, data
rights, data retention, etc.
Near term, continued interest, growth and opportunity to use social
media especially for “simple” marketing/promotion. Longer term questionable which sites/players will remain
and if/how these will be used beyond current scope. |
| Tom Rhoads, CEO, Parata Systems |
The customer owns your brand. The reality of this,
and the customer’s ability to define and affect brand value are greater than
ever, thanks to the proliferation of social media. The impact of a single
negative customer experience can now ripple throughout your market in
minutes.
For this reason, Parata believes the top focus must be on delivering an
exceptional customer experience in every interaction. We have done this by
ensuring the highest trained and most effective support team possible,
increasing channels of communication and interaction with our customers, and
setting a standard for reliability that allows our customers to ensure their
focus is on their customers.
Pharmacies must be engaged in social media to know what
their customers think, as well as to partner with them to identify and
respond to their customers’ needs, wants and desires of their pharmacy
experience. And they must be positioned as a business to be customer-focused,
and that includes the smart deployment of technology. |
| Jeff Ferris, CEO, PDX |
It is becoming more and more important to be in
whatever space your patients are in--which now significantly includes social
media. |
| Michael Ziegler, Industry Analyst Manager,
QS/1 |
Texting, medguides, electronic coupons, internet
orders. Also, increasing use of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube by businesses. |
| Brad Jones, President & CEO, Retail
Management Solutions |
Social media is another way to keep your business in
front of the customer and/or prospective customer -- especially the younger
generations. I don't think the impact will be huge in 2011, but it will
continue to grow in importance in the coming years and success will require
participation. |
| Heath Reynolds, Director, Business
Development, Speed Script |
Many pharmacies are using social media sites for
marketing purposes - reaching out to their customers with daily sales, health
information, etc. Many are also
linking social media sites to their pharmacy websites and vice-versa to aid
in marketing efforts for various services and promotions in their stores. The
stores are also effectively building their brand and expanding the customer
experience beyond the pharmacy visit.
|
| Steve Wubker, President, Transaction Data
Systems |
More of an industry 'opinion' forum function at this
point. Will be interesting
to see companies become more involved with their customer base using these
tools. |
