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28 PHARMACY PROFILE SOUL PATTINSON DRIVE THRU PHARMACY, GRIFFITH, NSW By Peter Howard. I t’s cold, it’s pouring with rain and your partner is out of town. You’re trying to care for two sick toddlers and, if you’re honest, you don’t feel all that well yourself. This was the desperate reality for the mother who called pharmacy owner Robin Salvestro 40 years ago and in doing so unwittingly inspired Drive Thru Pharmacy in Griffith, a Soul Pattinson pharmacy in the Riverina city, a GuildCare NSW Pharmacy of the Year finalist and this month’s profiled pharmacy. “It doesn’t rain in Griffith very often, but on that particular afternoon it was absolutely pouring down,” Mr Salvestro said. “I had a customer ring me up in tears. Her husband was out of town and her kids were sick, so she said, ‘Do you mind if I pull up in front of the pharmacy and hand you the scripts when you come out?’ She wanted to wait in the car until I could bring the scripts out and give them to her. “Despite the rain, I went outside, got soaking wet and immediately decided it was no fun at all. Nevertheless, I did the scripts, hoping for a break in the weather but eventually had to go back outside and give them to her. By the time I’d explained how to take the medicines I’d been in the rain for another 10 minutes.” Mr Salvestro remembers going back inside the pharmacy thinking, ‘I’ve got to come up with a concept that will service the needs of people like that’ ... and he did. This year, Drive Thru Pharmacy Griffith is 10 years old and stands as a testament to his vision, determination and drive. At the time, there wasn’t a single drive-through pharmacy in Australia, so Mr Salvestro began developing the concept. Over the years, while running his established pharmacy in Griffith, he refined his thinking, travelling around Australia to see every drive-through pharmacy that opened. After 30 years of incubation, Mr Salvestro was finally ready and identified a site for his dream: a drive- through pharmacy with two scripts-in and two scripts-out windows, offering speed, flexibility and convenience. Today, with experienced and competent staff, a Willach dispensing robot and FRED dispensing software, the pharmacy averages a flow of seven minutes per vehicle, with options to drop off scripts for later collection or drive-through script dispensing and collection – all in addition to snap and send, and in-store dispensing. Differentiation “We chose a site only 80m from my original pharmacy and opposite a shopping complex where there’s a national discount pharmacy,” Mr Salvestro said. “That level of competition meant I needed to understand how we were going to attract customers, ensuring they realise we don’t just do prescriptions but offer a comprehensive range of products and services in front of shop, too. “Recognising the value and benefits of being a proper drive-through, we were able to look at our pricing, and restructured it, pricing within acceptable range of our competent competitors.” Mr Salvestro also understood the importance of great customer service in a close-knit regional community. He believes the best way to provide it is to have happy staff. “Every single week I hear customers saying to me, ‘Robin, you have such wonderful staff’, and that’s because we deliberately focus on customers,” he said. “I really concentrate on making sure my staff are happy, even to the point of it being a condition of working here. I tell them, if you’re not happy here, don’t work here.” Interestingly, scripts account for about 80 per cent of the pharmacy’s revenue, which is average for a community pharmacy in a regional city. This may seem surprising, given the pharmacy’s RETAIL PHARMACY • JUL 2020