Analysis of Organizational Culture and Customer Service of CVS Pharmacy - Term Paper Example

Service CVS Pharmacy Inserts his/her Introduction CVS is incorporated in Delaware, and is based in Woonsocket,Rhode Island. However, it was first founded in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1963 by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and partner Ralph Hoagland. CVS stood for “Consumer Value Stores,” and its first establishment sold health and beauty products. I chose this company because I wanted to do my course project on a pharmacy company/chain, and seeing as I’m in school headed towards eventually becoming a pharmacist, I thought it was a suitable idea that might soon prove useful. As far as pharmacies go, I’m a Walgreens customer myself; I have accumulated enough knowledge about this company, and wanted to explore its competitors Organizational Culture of CVS As an organization, CVS is well aware of the fact that a company’s culture has got great impact on its customers and performance. They are very much successful of building up their identity as one of the biggest pharmacy innovation company. To be precise, the organizational culture of CVS could be highlighted in three ways. Purpose The purpose of CVS is to provide the people with the best possible services in order to lead a healthy and prosperous life. Staff Recognition The CVS has a tradition to honor their best employees with appreciation by means of awards and incentives. This creates a motivational boom within the employees and they tend to work harder. At the end of each calendar year two Award functions are held at CVS. Paragon Awards to honor the best employees in different departments. Chairman’s Awards are held to appreciate the members of the corporate management. This not only motivates the employees but by following this tradition CVS is able to produce remarkable results as an organization. Diversity Management One of the best parts of CVS’s culture is their diverse management. This enables CVS to satisfy the needs of the customer and provide them with best of their services (Berlinski, 2006). Diversity helps them to attract and maintain the talented people to work for them. The management always welcomes new innovations and ideas for improvement from their colleagues and everyone has equal right to contribute to the success. Interactive Visit / Personal Observation It was completely an honor and pleasure to use the CVS Care Mark a couple of weeks before. One of the best customer services that I have ever witnessed till date. As I entered into the store I was greeted with immense respect as if I was a celebrity. The name of the lady who guided me through was Lorna. It was so nice to see such a helpful clerk working in the store who makes its customers feel so comfortable. The most unique part of the CVS Caremark is its instant response to the customers need. I can say this because the moment I placed my order, it took hardly five to ten minutes for the clerk to hand me over the desired items. The team work in the store was so remarkable that the customers were not asked to wait for a long time for the completion of their orders. It clearly showed that the management has worked really hard in building up such an impressive team. This is something that is not found in many stores as the most usual complaints that the customers come across is the time factor for the completion of the orders. This is not the case with CVS as I myself, experienced their customer service which was outstanding. All in all, one thing that I would advise my fellow mates that if they require any kind of pharmaceutical items, CVS is the right choice to be made. They value their customers, respect and are always ready to help them through. Some might have different opinions regarding the CVS Customer Service, but at the same time it is also very true that nothing is 100% efficient in this world. As far as I am concerned, it was an honor to become a customer of CVS. The way they treat their customers is exceptional. I am quite sure that in future, whenever I’ll need any pharmaceutical help I would go for no other place except CVS and suggest others to do the same. Website Analysis (CVS Website) CVS has also maintained their website just in case if their customers are not able to visit the store, they could simply sign in to the website and place their orders online. CVS is well aware of the fact that the E-commerce has created a revolution all over the financial sectors. Therefore CVS made a step through and was able to develop a website of their own. The official website of CVS has got many components that make it a very user friendly website. Some of the components are mentioned below: Easy to navigate: The website has been created in a very simple manner. People of all age groups could easily manage to use the website. The customers need not to work hard to find what they want by using desired categories and placing their orders or inquiring. No irrelevant content: It has been noticed in many official websites that the developer also includes content that is not actually necessary to paste in the website. This is not the case with the CVS website. Only relevant information has been posted, there is no way that the customer could get confused. It only represents their products and their prices. Contact Information: There is a separate section given in the website which provides each and every necessary detail to the customer in order to communicate with the CVS. It has mentioned clearly the mailing address as well as the postal address, and all information that a customer needs to contact the company. Customer Service Training Program In order to provide the customers the quality service, CVS has also managed to build a Customer Service Training Program. This ensures that the employees will be given proper training about the way they should treat the customers and guide them through, making sure that all this happens within their comfort zone. Such programs are very essential for an organization as it helps to produce outstanding results for the organization. Training sessions are conducted for the managerial positions to enhance their knowledge regarding diversity within the department (Mestel, 2011). The sessions shall focus on the rights and responsibilities of the employees towards their customers which will in turn help in creating a diverse environment in the workplace. This will also allow a platform of building healthy relationships within the office environment and bringing the customer closer. New staff will be given enhanced priority in the training sessions as it would allow them to understand the environment of the workplace and settle down more easily without feeling any discomfort in a very short span of time. The confidence level of newly hired employees will boost and drive them to give their maximum potential in their work. The employees that are selected to attend such programs, the management of the CVS makes sure that no one is absent from it. It is made quite clear that whoever misses the training program for whatsoever reason, will be obliged with a penalty accordingly. This shows how strictly these training programs are conducted in CVS. No matter what the utmost priority of CVS is to maintain the diversity with the organization and give no chance for the customers to complain against them. Additional Company research In order to check the versatility of CVS, I have done some additional research about CVS and found that there are two services that they provide which enables them to improve the retention and create loyal customers. They are as follows: Quality of Products: One thing that CVS does not compromise in is the quality of products. This is the reason why CVS is able to attract many customers towards it. They make sure that the products they are providing would not be rotten. The products are tested in huge laboratories before being set for sale (Levick, 2008). And if by any means, the customers finds any product to be rotten it could be returned immediately and take all his money back. Minute Clinic CVS consist of very talented staff. They have many board-certified practitioners throughout. These practitioners offer immediate, convenient customers health care in more than 500 locations. It is not at all necessary for the customers to take an appointment and then visit. They can visit at any time which suits them according to their schedule. Another outstanding service that CVS is able to produce is that they are open for all seven days a week (Rowland, 2006). They know the fact that it is not easy for the customers to spare time from their busy schedule and then visit the store. This is the reason why they are providing their services for all seven days. It is something that we do not find so often elsewhere. These services actually reflect the versatility of CVS. This is the reason why CVS holds a unique position in the market and are able to improve retention create loyal customers. References Berlinski, P. (2006). Ryan Preaches PL to CVS Team. Private Label Magazine. Retrieved from http://privatelabelmag.com/pdf/jan_2006/Ryan-Preaches-PL-to-CVS-Team.cfm Levick, D (2008). Caremark Settles States Probe. Hartford Courant. Retrieved from http://articles.courant.com/2008-02-15/business/0802140569_1_caremark-rx-llc-cvs-caremark-corp-cholesterol-lowering Mestel, R. (2011). Dr. Oz, Andrew Wakefield and others, um, honored by James Randi. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/01/news/la-heb-dr-oz-andrew-wakefield-james-randi-awards-20110401 Rowland, C. (2006). CVS faces pharmacy reviews. Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2006/02/10/cvs_faces_pharmacy_reviews/ Read More