Make spoiled medicines a thing of the past
Pharmaceutical medicines make up some of the costliest packages we deliver, and with good reason.
Some of our deliveries consist of the most expensive drugs on the market used to treat a plethora of different conditions, illnesses and diseases.
The money spent during research that goes into the development of these drugs, not to mention the cost of actually producing them and getting them approved, is in many cases costing the pharmaceutical companies billions.
Which is why a ruined batch of medicine can rightly impact tremendously upon both your reputation and your costs. That’s why you should invest wisely in your logistic strategies to ensure that products arrive where they should and when they should. Find out how it works, how you’re going to get products from A to B with ease. If you ignore logistics, that’s when mistakes get made.
Read on to find out the ways in which spoiled medicine can damage your reputation and what to do in the event of this unfortunate incident.
The costs
As covered, the cost of producing medicines can be huge.
If a batch of your medicines are spoiled due to late deliveries or inadequate refrigeration whilst transporting them they’re often rendered useless.
This means they will end up in the bin rather than with your client. Of course, this is better than the alternative of potentially harmful medicine being ingested which will make you vulnerable to being sued by a personal injury attorney.
If these medicines can’t be saved it means you’re essentially writing off what could be thousands of pounds in spoiled medicines, and either you or the supplier will have to foot the bill in order to have new medicines are despatched.
Why take the chance?
The importance of client relations
Another huge downside of spoiled medicine is that it can badly impact upon your relationship with your clients.
Many of your customers rely on you to provide them with critically important medicines to ensure they stay in good health.
Why would they trust you with supplying packages of such a crucial nature if you can’t even keep them safe during the journey to them?
Counting the costs
Nobody’s perfect, and one spoilt batch amongst hundreds of on-time deliveries might be looked over due to human error or a technical fault; accidents happen.
However, if you’re repeatedly losing batches due to technological failure or late deliveries your clients may rightfully choose to take their business elsewhere.
Coupled with rising costs of spoiled medicines it’s not only your customers who suffer.
Delivering medicines is a crucially important business and people rely on their medicines to aid them with everything from rehabilitation processes to life-saving treatments.
Lost contracts and a lost reputation
If the delivery doesn’t get to the patient then the blame is often directed towards you as the medicines or home care provider just as much as it is the delivery driver.
What’s more, this damage to your reputation could dissuade other clients from choosing you as their supplier in the future as well as causing your existing customers to leave you in search of a more reliable partner.
Imagine the cost of one, two or three lost contracts in such a regulated and patient focussed industry, the damage could be irrecoverable for your business.
What to do to correct a spoiled medicines situation
The first thing to do is be upfront and honest about spoiled medicines mistakes; never try to be dishonest about failures or blame others as this paints a hugely negative picture of your business, further it looks as if you’re trying to pass the buck to escape trouble.
Endeavour to determine the source of your failure as soon as possible and act appropriately. Your logistics provider should have a full audit trail of all routes they make for you.
Proactive planning
By working with your logistics partner, you can avoid the negative costs and the reputation damage.
Professional pharmaceutical refrigerated transport companies like LF&E have the systems, the Standard Operating Procedures and years of experience to ensure spoiled medicines are kept to isolated and rare occurrences.
So moving forward, it’s vital that you pick a specialist refrigerated pharmaceutical logistics company that understands the importance of their craft; patients and their medicines need to be treated with the utmost respect and care due to the sensitive nature of their deliveries.
Dealing with a non specialist logistics company who doesn’t understand these principles is a sure-fire route to a damaged reputation.
Why specialist is the most cost effective solution
Even if specialist refrigerated logistics companies are more expensive, this is for a reason. However the cost of one saved spoiled medicines delivery will save you in most cases any uplift in the rates specialist companies charge. It’s likely that you’re going to save more in the long run due to a lack of waste and perfectly-timed deliveries, as well as a much happier base of patients and retained contracts that also improves your bottom line.
To set up a call with one of LF&Es medicines logistics specialists, simply click here.
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Whatever we do and whatever we deliver, it’s the patients who are our highest priority. They’re the ones the medicines are for, so it’s imperative they receive quality every step of the way.
