A good place to start a customer service improvement programme is with a review of how you are currently performing. There are some basic principles, which underpin good customer service. We will call these the seven golden rules of great customer service and you may wish to use these as the basis of an audit or review of how you feel you are currently performing.

Work through the seven points described in the table. Where are the gaps? What opportunities do you have to make improvements? How can your team of staff help and be involved? It is these questions that will help you understand how you might begin to make improvements in a structured and co-ordinated manner.

If you were to look critically at your pharmacy, how do you think you would measure up against these criteria? Are there areas in which you could do better? Could you develop a short- or medium-term improvement plan and check again in six months?