Abstract
Walgreens is a highly successful U.S.-based company. But it does not mean that there is no room for improvement. Using principles of external and internal marketing one can see that there are strengths and weaknesses within the organization. It is important to find a way to strengthen not only external marketing strategies but also internal marketing strategies. This can be achieved by reviewing the most lucrative aspect of the business and determine how to increase the efficiency and level of satisfaction of the workforce because their performance can surely impact the profitability of the said enterprise.
The Problem
There are two forces that can derail the highly successful growth and expansion of Walgreens. These are the impact of the health care reform laws being championed by the Obama administration and the second one is the continuous debilitating effect of the economic woes experienced by the American people. But even with the existence of economic forces that makes it difficult for Walgreens to increase its value, it can still be said that the company is in a better position than compared to many businesses in America.
Those who are familiar with this company are well-aware that Walgreens started as a neighborhood drugstore but has now become a chain of drugstores with branches all over the United States. There is a Walgreen drugstore in every State including the District of Columbia. And more importantly there are Walgreen stores in Puerto Rico. The total number of stores is impressive, more than 8000 stores and counting.
It is hard to critique Walgreens except when it comes to the decision to incorporate a clinic into their traditional pharmacy format. It is a brilliant idea because the customers are given the option to deal with their health problems without having to be inconvenienced with the need to visit a clinic or hospital. Take Care Clinics can be found inside a Walgreens store. Customers have the choice to go to a private clinic that does not cost an arm-and-a-leg to get treatment or assistance. On top of that the clinic is inside a Walgreen store. There are plenty of things to do to occupy the customer and therefore a more pleasurable experience as compared to public hospitals.
This paper will focus on how Walgreens can improve its clinics using the principles of external and internal marketing. As a result the proponent of this study discovered some weaknesses that must be addressed in order to sustain the profitability of the company and ensure that Walgreens continue to dominate not only in providing quality service in terms of their main business but also in their attempt to provide excellent service when it comes to health care. The company must emerge as the industry leader after fully embracing the need to provide quality health care to its customers. The patients must realize that in Take Care Clinics they would experience the convenience of private clinic and the low-cost healthcare that can only be had in public hospitals.
But there are hurdles along the way. The first one is the need to provide excellent service. This is the main problem that the company has to deal with. They are now faced with a different problem because delving into the healthcare business and straying farther into territories unknown and away from their core competencies would reveal that there are things certain aspects of the “private clinic” business that they have not mastered yet. In order to simplify the discussion of the problem it would be best to view it from the perspective of internal marketing.
Internal marketing applied to Take Care Clinics can be used to asses the well-being of the employees. The employees can help determine the success of the company because poor performance can result in customer dissatisfaction. It is imperative that organizations must maintain a certain level of employee’s satisfaction towards their work. This can be achieved by providing them the necessary tools to perform their job the best way possible. Moreover, by providing a competitive compensation package, the company can be assured of boosting the morale of the employees. The Take Care Clinic can easily become a permanent fixture of the Walgreens experience.
The Proof
The Walgreens organization has ventured into uncharted territory when it decided to go into the private clinic business. The decision to expand the pharmacy or drugstore business by incorporating products that are not found in the medicine cabinet was a bold move that yielded substantial dividends. Nevertheless, selling fodod products and items related to wellness is not a major leap from selling prescription medication. Store managers and workers simply had to deal with the proper use of merchandizing strategies such as how to display products, pricing of goods, and how to manage a larger store with different product offerings as opposed to a simple drugstore format. But a clinic is very much different from a drugstore.
One of the most obvious challenges to private clinics is the fact that the company is now responsible for the lives of the patients that comes in for treatment. In the past the responsibility of the company is limited only to the quality of the medicine and other products that it sells to the general public. This time around, the company is responsible for the well-being of the customers that decided to try the health care system offered by Take Care Clinic.
It is possible that some of the patients are first time visitors to the clinic and that they are simply trying out the new service being offered. Nevertheless, the gravity of the situation is never lessened. There is no going around the fact that Walgreens is now responsible for the lives of these patients. The company may argue that the procedures it offers does not require the presence of a brain surgeon, nevertheless, these clinics issue prescription medication, inject vaccines, and deal with minor illnesses. There is no need to elaborate that a simple medical procedure can easily become a catastrophe in the hands of an incompetent worker.
It is therefore imperative for the company to develop this business with an eye towards human resource management. This requires a major shift in the way they think about training the workforce a few days before store opening. These are no ordinary workers that require only a basic understanding of how Walgreens operate. Nurses and doctors who came to work at Take Care Clinics require specialized training. The quality of the medical staff can only be attained through a rigorous selection process (Horton, 2007, p.716). But that is only half the battle. The most critical challenge is to ensure that the health workers are happy and satisfied and willing to give their best every day that they are at work.
The first signs of trouble came as early as 1990 when pharmacists at Walgreens went on strike. But this was not the last time when disgruntled workers had to use more drastic steps to get the attention of corporate leaders. In 2005 at least 1,200 pharmacists went on strike for 20 days (CBS News, 2011, p.1). In the case of Take Care Clinics, the Illinois Nurses Association made the announcement that 180 nurses working in Chicago would be unionized. The top officials from the company tried to downplay the significance of the event. Even the nurses who opted to be unionized tried not to make a big fuss about the whole thing but it is clear that they are doing something to protect their interests.
These actions can be attributed to a feeling of insecurity with regards to their employment. There are reports that explain the motive behind the need to unionize and it says that the nurses were greatly concerned by pay reduction issues as well the heavy workload that has become unmanageable (CBS News, 2011, p.1). This is surely the time for the company to act on the expression of dissatisfaction from their work force.
Additional Problems
These recent developments must be addressed soon. There is no need to wait until issues become more complicated and more difficult to deal with. Furthermore, the company must be made aware that these things can create a chain-reaction of events that can negatively affect the organization. Consider for instance the result of increasing workload. It is apparent that the general public has seen the difference between the cost of health care offered at Walgreens as opposed to getting the same service in a hospital. The cost and the quality is something that has attracted new clients. This means that nurses are overworked and could no longer function in the most efficient manner.
Basic Solution
The solution for this problem requires an active participation from corporate leaders with regards to need to find out how to improve the working conditions in Take Care Clinics. A team must be formed to study the weakness of the organization when it comes to internal and external marketing. Other business tools can be used to figure out the specific threats and opportunities that Walgreens is faced with and then act decisively on the findings of the said committee. The focus must on the nurses because they are expected to do multiple tasks and this means that fatigue and burnout is a common occurrence.
My Solution
There is a need to determine the type of workload faced by nurses on a daily basis. This information is needed to devise a new staffing strategy. There are times when additional nurses are needed to work in a particular location in a particular time of the year. This requires the ability to work on shifts and to manage human resources in such a way that they can be called to work in a moment’s notice. This assures that no nurse succumbs to the negative effects of burnout. This will reduce employee turnover. At the same time this ensures reduction in waiting time.
Marketing Plan
The Walgreens Company is not only in the drugstore business, the company is venturing into the “private clinic” business. This is an entirely new set of challenge for the century-old enterprise because this move brought them into a type of business that they have no track record to speak of. This means that they have to solve problems as they go along. It is critical therefore to figure out the significance of an event and analyze if it is heading towards disaster, a mixture of problems that can overwhelm the company. In recent years there are signs that the company needs more than just the occasional tweaking.
The strikes initiated by pharmacists and the recent announcement of their nurses to be under the protection of a union are clear evidence of internal problems. As a consequence it is time to focus on internal marketing and not external marketing. It can be argued that Walgreens did an excellent job when it comes to innovation and responding to customers needs. The success of the company as well as the creation of business model unique to a drugstore chain is proof that the company always strived to improve their product. But the proponent of this marketing plan strongly suggests that their workforce must be the focal point and that by strengthening their workforce the company could hit two birds with one stone so to speak because they can increase their share of the market when the customers create word-of-mouth advertisement concerning the superior service received at Take Care Clinics.
Goals
The main goal of this internal marketing plan is to increase the level of satisfaction when it comes to the nurses working under Walgreens. These nurses must not feel overworked. They must not feel that mistakes on the job are the result of fatigue and the lack of support from management. The nurses must not be anxious about work-related issues such as pay reduction and the sudden influx of patients because the company decided to lower the cost of service in all of Walgreen’s Take Care Clinics.
Overall Strategy
It is imperative to establish a culture of respect and mutual trust. The nurses must not feel that they are simply hired workers. They must feel that they are partners in the business of providing healthcare. They must come to the realization that by working at Walgreens they have the opportunity to fulfill their desire to help others. There is a good reason why they decided to become a nurse and a major part of that is their compassion towards those who are in need. The program that must be developed to train and empower the nurses must have this idea in mind – the nurses wanted to serve (Vanlaere & Gastmans, 2007, p.758). It is therefore important to provide the facility that enables them to do so.
Target Audience
The marketing plan must be written with the nurses in mind. They are the employees that are the main recipients of the plan to improve working conditions at the various Take Care Clinics all over the nation. This means that the nurses must be trained to perform not in accordance to industry standards but by the standards set by Walgreens. But they must understand that since they are part of the Walgreens Company then they are entitled to benefits unique to the workers under this organization. The nurses must realize that they get more than money when it comes to working at Walgreens.
Time Span
This marketing plan must cover a six-month period. There is a need to totally transform the way the nurses see themselves when they work at Walgreens. The source of some of the frustration can be attributed to unmet expectations as well as miscommunication when it comes to the vision and mission of the company. Six months is enough to learn the culture that exists at Walgreens. At the same time the six-month period is enough to test new procedures and a new mechanism that would reward the most dedicated and most conscientious nurse under the Walgreens Company.
Month-by-month Activities
The first month must be dedicated to gathering pertinent information. The team-leader of the marketing plan must take great pains to study the various profile of the nurses working under Walgreens. The team leader must determine pattern of the complaints and the reason why there are nurses that are unhappy with regards to their employment in the company.
The second month must be spent on observing the on-the-job performance of the nurses. There must be continuous performance assessment. It is time to separate those who have the dedication to do real work and not just pretending to work in order to collect a paycheck.
Once attitude problems had been rooted out, it is time to begin the analysis of the root cause of employee’s negative feedback. The third month is spent in analyzing the work environment and why there is an inefficient work force. If the nurses are complaining about pay-cuts then it must be acknowledged that this issue is causing grave problems. If the nurses are complaining about being overworked then the company must take serious steps to address these problems.
The fourth month must be used to develop the strategies that must be used to address the various issues that led to employee turnover and an increase in customer complaints. In this period, the training program must be in place. There is a need for nurses to see their work from another perspective. The company must inspire and make them believe that this company is the best when it comes to providing fast and efficient healthcare.
The fifth month must be used to gauge improvement in behavior of the nurses. If there is none then the training program must be evaluated and changed into something that is easily understood by the majority. The nurses must see the benefits of working within Walgreens. During this month the nurses must be reminded of the kind of the benefits and other advantages that they can expect to enjoy if they continue to work under Walgreens.
The sixth month must be used to continually evaluate the performance of the nurses. Afterwards those that exhibited exemplary behavior and work ethic must be rewarded. In the final month the company announces an incentive program that could motivate nurses to give their best. It is also during the final phase of the program that the company makes the announcement of some sort of a profit-sharing scheme. This would make the nurses feel that their existence has been appreciated by other people.
Conclusion
Walgreens is a successful company that is attempting to expand towards a field that is related to their core competency but in the long run is something that the organization cannot consider as part of their comfort zone. Selling drugs in a drugstore format is very much different from treating patients regardless if the medical procedure is as simple as giving vaccines. The same level of responsibility
is needed. In other words the company is now responsible for every patient that goes through the doors of the Take Care Clinic (Rutsohn & Sikula, 2007, p.169). This has created a host of problems and as a consequence there are many health workers that had opted to resign and seek better opportunities. It is therefore important to focus not only the external market conditions. It is also imperative to study internal marketing.
Internal marketing is crucial because it automatically provides a clear overview of the business. At the same time, internal marketing exposes the flaws of any give organization. Internal marketing principles reveal that employees should be treated fairly and well because a poor working condition can easily reduce their efficiency. When it comes to Take Care Clinics the first thing that has to be done is to train the nurses as well as provide the necessary support needed in order to continually provide quality service.
References
CBS News. (2011). Walgreens clinic nurse vote to unionize. CBS News. Web.
Horton, K. (2007). The value of nursing: a literature review. Nursing Ethics, 14(6): 716-740.
Rutsohn, P., & Sikula, A. (2007). Medical malpractice reform: a societal crisis or fear marketing? Journal of Medical Marketing. 7(2): 169-175.
Vanlaere, L., & Gastmans, C. (2007). Ethics in nursing education: learning to reflect on care practices. Nursing Ethics, 14(6): 758-766.