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Monday, October 20, 2014

Plan Ahead

It helps to plan ahead.
It helps to prepare.
While sometimes it is okay to just wing it, this is not always the case.
Be prepared.
Save yourself some time.
Save me some time.
More importantly, save everyone else some time.

Sunday, 11am, a man approaches the counter.

Strange Little Man: I need to have this filled.
CP: Hooray! One more and I get a cookie! Do you wish to wait?
SLM: No. I am going to go home and try to find a discount card for this.
CP: Okay. Sounds like time well spent.
SLM: It is. I get this every month and always find a card to save me money off my copay.
CP: Great. May I pester you for a moment over this whole scenario?
SLM: Sure.
CP: I notice here that this prescription was written 10 days ago.
SLM: That is correct.
CP: You say you get this every month.
SLM: Yes.
CP: You say you bring me a new discount card every month.
SLM: Correct.
CP: May I ask why it is then that you would hold onto this for 10 days, grab it off your kitchen table, drive it down here, leave it for me to fill, THEN drive back home to do some research online to find a coupon which you will bring back to me later which I will have to spend twice as long trying rebill as I needed to initially fill it, all the while backing up my pick up process and making everyone behind wait even longer for their prescriptions than is necessary?
SLM: I wanted you to get started on it.
CP: And at no point in the last 10 days, or this morning, did you think to research this coupon you bring me every month? Shouldn't you have it bookmarked or favorited somewhere?

Fast forward to 4:15 pm, after the football game and just as pickup time is peaking because we close at 5pm and SLM enters...

SLM: Here is the coupon I found.
CP: It took 5 hours to research this?
SLM: And watch the game.
CP: Okay. You do realise that I have to put all this information in the computer, reprocess it, and call them because what you gave me isn't working, right?
SLM: No. I know this happens every time though.
CP: Then perhaps you should print this BEFORE you bring me the prescription so I have plenty of time to fix it. There are now 11 people behind you in line, all of whom also watched the game and now wish to pick up their prescriptions before I close. You should apologise to them, and buy each of them a soda with the huge savings you are expecting with this coupon card.
SLM: Golly, that sounds swell!
CP: I know. Makes me pine for the days when we had soda fountains...

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