PhilRx Customer Service — Professional Guide for Pharmacy Customer Support

Contents

1 PhilRx Customer Service — Professional Guide for Pharmacy Customer Support

Executive summary

This document provides a professional, operational blueprint for PhilRx customer service — designed for a retail or online pharmacy brand operating in the Philippines or similar markets. It covers channel strategy, staffing and training, measurable KPIs, regulatory and privacy controls, pricing/returns workflows, escalation paths, and a practical implementation roadmap. The guidance is written from the perspective of a customer service director with 8+ years’ experience implementing pharmacy contact centers and omnichannel support platforms.

All numeric examples and contact formats below are illustrative. Where concrete data is suggested (targets, hours, sample pricing), treat those as industry-informed recommendations to be tuned to actual volume, margin and compliance requirements. If you already have call logs or CRM exports, calibrate targets in months 1–3 and refine quarter-to-quarter.

Channels, contact points, and operational hours

Modern pharmacy customers expect omnichannel access. Core channels to support are: phone (inbound/outbound), email, SMS/OTP for order confirmations, live chat on the website, and one or two social channels (Facebook Messenger or Viber). Recommended operational hours for a market like Metro Manila: 07:00–22:00 local time (Mon–Sun) for core order and medication inquiries, with 24/7 automated triage for urgent medication issues via IVR or chatbot. Example contact formats (EXAMPLE ONLY): phone +63-2-1234-5678, email [email protected], website https://www.example-philrx.com.

For rural or provincial customers, add a callback scheduling option and extended SMS support. Typical routing setup: 70% inbound phone and chat for order issues, 20% email for documentation and prescriptions, 10% social for quick promos and status checks. Track and publish clear SLA expectations on your website and IVR: e.g., “Average phone answer time under 60 seconds; chat response under 90 seconds; email reply within 24 hours.”

Staffing, training, and scripts

Staffing should be phased with volume: start with a minimum of 3 agents per shift for a single-city operation and scale by one agent per additional 100–150 average daily orders. Staffing model example: for 600 daily orders, target 8–10 agents per peak shift plus 1 supervisor and 1 quality analyst. Cross-train agents on basic clinical boundaries: how to escalate medication-safety questions to pharmacists, and how to document any clinical advice with timestamps and pharmacist IDs.

Training should include a 5-day onboarding program: product catalog deep-dive, pharmacy compliance (Philippine FDA basics and data privacy), CRM use, role-playing for difficult conversations, and a 2-hour module on digital payments and fraud indicators. Maintain living scripts with branching logic (e.g., refund request → verify receipt → check prescription → authorize refund). Update scripts quarterly and require certification refresh every 6 months. Keep a one-page escalation matrix visible in the CRM for every agent.

KPIs, SLAs, and quality assurance

Establish clear KPIs and measure them weekly with monthly reviews. Typical, realistic KPI targets for a mature service (year 2+): First Contact Resolution (FCR) 75%–85%, Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) 88%+, Net Promoter Score (NPS) +30 or better, Average Handle Time (AHT) 6–10 minutes for phone, 8–12 minutes for chat. Service Level (phones): answer 80% of calls within 60 seconds. Email SLAs: 90% of emails responded to within 24 hours.

Key metrics to collect: AHT, FCR, CSAT, NPS, abandonment rate, SLA compliance, repeat contact rate, escalation percentage, medication error reports per 1000 orders.

Quality assurance: sample 5–10% of interactions for QA scoring using a 10-point rubric covering accuracy, compliance, empathy, and process adherence. Scorecards should be tied to coaching plans and individual KPIs.

Use dashboards that refresh hourly for real-time channels and nightly for asynchronous channels. Target a monthly operational review with finance and pharmacy leadership to align resolution costs, return rates, and fraud losses against customer experience metrics.

Compliance, privacy, and documentation

Pharmacy customer service must strictly separate clinical advice from administrative support. Agents can confirm orders, shipping, pricing, and documentation but must escalate any medication-safety, dose, contraindication, or symptom-based question to a licensed pharmacist. Implement mandatory logging for every escalation: time, patient initials, pharmacist ID, and outcome.

Data privacy controls must comply with local law (e.g., the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act) and global best practices: encrypted storage for prescription images, access logging, role-based access control, and retention policies (e.g., retain transaction records for 7 years; retain prescriptions for 2–5 years per counsel of legal). Include periodic (annual) third-party security assessments and mandatory privacy training for all agents.

Billing, returns, and escalation workflow

Create a clear, customer-facing policy for billing disputes, refunds, and returns: specify timeframes (e.g., return window 7 days for non-prescription items, refund processing within 7–14 business days), required documentation (receipt + original packaging + photo), and exceptions for prescription and controlled substances. Use a standardized return authorization (RA) number for tracking and reconciliation with finance.

Escalation workflow example: Tier 1 agent → Supervisor (within 2 hours) → Pharmacist for clinical issues (immediate escalation) → Legal/Compliance (for adverse events or complaints likely to escalate beyond 72 hours). Maintain a case-management system with SLA timers and an executive alert when any case breaches 72 hours unresolved. Chargebacks and payment disputes should be routed to a dedicated reconciliations specialist within finance for resolution within 14 days.

Implementation roadmap and practical tips

Sample 90-day rollout: Days 0–15 set up phone numbers and IVR, CRM templates and scripts; Days 16–45 hire and train core team, configure analytics and QA; Days 46–75 run soft launch with limited SKUs and monitor metrics; Days 76–90 scale to full catalog and implement continuous improvement sprints. Budgetary guidance for small-scale operations: initial setup (CRM, telephony, basic chatbot) PHP 150,000–450,000; monthly operating cost per agent (salary + benefits + tools) PHP 28,000–45,000 depending on experience level and location.

Final operational tips: keep an “FAQ first” publishing cadence (update every 30 days), maintain a public SLA page to set expectations and reduce inbound volume, and invest in a single source of truth (a live product/stock feed) to avoid oversells. Regularly solicit agent feedback — front-line staff often identify process bottlenecks faster than leadership.