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A Special Report:
Find Out What Pharmacists And Customers Are Telling You.

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The challenge is not just finding a warm body to stick behind the counter; it’s about making the commitment to developing good people to work as technicians and making the commitment to rewarding the good ones so they stay.

“We are expecting more and more out of our techs, which is good,” said one pharmacist
who worked at one of the big three drug chains. “But I think they should be compensated a lot better...There seems to be some top-out [salary] level,” he said, adding that he recently “had to jump through hoops” to get his best technician, a nationally certified tech, a 6 percent raise. “It wasn’t even a lot of money,” he said. But if it wasn’t for the fact that he was able to make the argument to his regional manager that this tech played an integral role in the store’s ability to score 100 percent in several recent customer service performance reports, he’s sure that corporate wouldn’t have budged on the raise.

“When a customer comes to the pharmacy counter, they don’t know if they are talking to a tech, a certified tech, a cashier or the pharmacist,” explained another pharmacist. “They just expect that person to be able to answer their questions.”

For many panelists, state-approved certification programs were not enough.
Retail pharmacies—big chains and independents alike—need to train all new technicians, certified or otherwise, on their own systems, procedures and processes. “We require all new hires to be tech-certified, and we don’t accept certificates from other companies,” said a pharmacist for one of the big three traditional drug chains. "We’ll hire them as cashiers while we put them through our own training, but they have to be tech-certified within six months."