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In fact, according to a recent online poll of pharmacists conducted by Drug Store News, when asked what tools or resources would help them deliver better customer service, nearly two-thirds (64.4 percent) said, adding more pharmacy technicians; far and away the No. 1 item on the list.

"A lot of stores would like to have good techs, but they don't take the time to actually train and develop good techs," one pharmacist told Drug Store News. "I've seen pharmacies where the techs just stand around looking for things to do while the pharmacist is running around in circles, and it's all because that pharmacist didn't take the time to develop that tech and then figure out the workflow—who does what—every step of it."

A lot of that direction needs to be driven by the pharmacist, the pharmacists said.

"I think it all comes down to workflow," another pharmacist said. "I can work in a store and do 300 scripts a day standing on my head and think it's the easiest thing in the world. And I can go out to another store where they do 100 scripts a day and it's just awful. It's all about the workflow and the tech training, and their level of involvement in what's going on."

"You're only as good as your help is," agreed another.

While it isn't always possible, pharmacists preferred to have at least some shifts where they overlapped with another pharmacist in the store so that they can address things like workflow and tech training. "That gives me the time to take the techs aside and make sure they are trained correctly," one panelist explained.

"On the job—it has to happen on the job," agreed another panelist. "You have to do it in real life. That's why it's got to be in a real store that's not too busy, but just busy enough. In a store like mine where we are doing … 1,300 scripts a week, it's better to do it on the weekend, when you're only doing … 150 a day. So you're doing enough, but not so many that I can't take the time to teach new techs."

In general, pharmacists are looking for their techs to do everything up to the final quality assurance check and the patient consult. "The best teams I have worked for are the teams where that is the dynamic," one pharmacist explained. "Where all I am doing is the quality check and the patient counseling; where I know that I have a good tech at the window that is representing the company with a smile on their face, giving good customer service, getting the prescription out and over to me in a timely manner so that I can be available for the patient when they need me or to make doctors calls."

In the end, it is about giving something up because, clearly, there is too much on the plate. One burden pharmacists are definitely looking for their techs to shoulder is dealing with insurance and adjudicating claims. Of all things that have impacted their ability to deliver better compliance counseling, 47.3 percent said it was because insurance issues took up too much of their time—far and away the biggest obstacle for pharmacists, according to the online panel.

"They do technician tasks; I do pharmacist tasks," one panelist noted. "I try not to deal with any of that; [insurance], inputting prescriptions … my techs do all of that."

Another talked about putting her best tech in charge of handling questions about Medicare. "I totally abdicate my responsibility for [Part D]. My technician does it; she is very effective at being able to guide people to the right resources."

Whatever task pharmacists choose to delegate, it's clear that pharmacists need the assurance that their technicians are up to the task—and that all comes back to training. More than some 62 percent of pharmacists said they wanted better training for their technicians.

In the end you get what you pay for—that was the basic message panelists had for Drug Store News.

"Is $7.50 an hour really adequate pay for somebody that is such an important part of your team? In order to give [techs] more responsibility, we are going to have to do something to even the playing field as far as education, certification, pay scale [and] retention," one pharmacist noted. "It's unfortunate because we have some great technicians out there that don't have a career path. Not everybody wants to or can devote six years of their life to pharmacy school. And you don't want to lose someone who's really good because they know they can go get a job up the road at some factory and make $4 or $5 more an hour."