Large companies spend large amounts of money on regular programmes to understand their customers, using focus groups and customer surveys. A smaller retailer could follow this strategy but costs will undoubtedly be prohibitive. There is a requirement for pharmacies in England and Wales to undertake patient surveys.

This gives useful feedback and, if the process you are using is flexible, it may also provide you with an opportunity to add other questions that will improve the quality of this feedback. The patient survey is a useful tool but is limited by its frequency. There are other simple and inexpensive ways in which you can obtain customer feedback on a more regular basis:

• Comments box forms for customers to complete can be produced cheaply and this simple tool costs little to install and maintain. While you may have a proportion of spoilt forms; there will be some genuine feedback
• Till point questionnaires are simple and brief questionnaires that are distributed at the till. They are easily produced using a dispensary computer and printer and should be kept to a size no greater than A6 (a quarter of an A4 sheet). Use multiple choice questions. Asking customers to complete a focused questionnaire during one week in eight will not be intrusive to customers, but will provide good quality feedback
• Pharmacy team feedback is a useful resource. Many pharmacies record lost sales: items that are requested, but are not stocked or out of stock. The same can be done for comments made to members of staff. Raising and discussing feedback given to staff members by customers should also be a regular agenda item at team meetings.