CRM Strategy

Can You Trust Walgreens Basic CRM Tactics?

Trusted since 1901 – but are they following the seven commandments for CRM in a post-corona world?

Dafna Sheinberg

In this week’s CRM analysis, we’ll review Walgreens’ responses to the new reality according to our seven parameters for CRM in a post-corona world.

Here it goes:

1. Be Transparent 8/10

Just over a week ago, Walgreens announced that they have rolled out a new kind of store that shrinks down its square footage and focuses on the pharmacy.

The company wanted to move away from a “one-size-fits-all approach,” Walgreens’ group vice president of pharmacy operations, Rina Shah said. The idea is to tailor store offerings more to the community and nearby customers.

Although limiting products on display and reducing store size has its minuses, the brand is still making sure to communicate the change and its motives.

“Inside of stores, customers won’t find the typical vast selection. Instead, they’ll notice a sharper focus on health and wellness products like vitamins, over-the-counter medications, thermometers, and Band-Aids,” Shah said.

“These stores are really intended to provide a high-touch experience, and even a convenient experience, to our patients in a different capacity than potentially a very busy 24-hour location where people are coming in and out.”

Therefore, Walgreens acknowledges the fact that sales may fall but is communicating it in a way that makes it feel helpful and relevant (see below more one these parameters).

2. Give Discounts 10/10

Walgreens is indeed handing out discounts to customers. In fact, they are even personalizing and segmenting the offers according to demographics:

There’s also a general 30% off discount on these brands:

In addition, the brand has a remarkable loyalty program that’s open to all customers – the “Prescriptions Savings Club:”

All in all, various discounts were offered to us on numerous occasions throughout the user journey. The most of any brand we examined thus far.

This popup appeared, for instance, when entering the Medicines and Treatments category:

And lastly, this timely seasonal banner:

Cheers, Walgreens! Way to be helpful, especially at times like this.

3. Be Relevant 8/10

The “Coronavirus Questions?” banner at the bottom of Walgreens homepage provides users with handy, valuable, and sensible information. When clicking on the banner, you’ll find drive-thru COVID-19 testing locations, store hours updates, and the latest information on how to protect yourself from the virus.

Walgreens also dedicated a web page to Shopping Essentials to stock up on health and safety essentials “while supplies last”:

Walgreens also joined the Facebook ad boycott. It’s said to be one of the latest brands to cut advertising amid criticism over Facebook’s handling of hate speech and misinformation.

“During this pause, we will examine our marketing strategy to ensure that our advertising spend goes toward platforms with a commitment to address misinformation and hate speech. It’s important to us to truly live our (Walgreens Boots Alliance) values—doing business with integrity and caring about our customers,” a company representative said in an emailed statement.

Still, the only message regarding shipping and pickup options was this one, for canvas prints. A bit tone-deaf.

4. Be Helpful 10/10

We appreciated the following content on the company’s dedicated coronavirus updates page:

The infographic below is a neat way to draw it out for users and is particularly helpful for those who might still be unaware of appropriate measures to take amid the pandemic:

Walgreens has been helping to provide COVID-19 tests in their communities:

They also offer drive-thru options so customers can order online and safely zip through the store to pick up what they need.

Finally, as mentioned on CNBC news, the company sees the smaller stores approach as a place “where more people can have one-on-one conversations with pharmacists, particularly those taking multiple medications or with complex and chronic conditions.”

5. Personalize 0/10

As far as our online experience with the brand goes, we were not retargeted (immediately) after adding COVID-19 face masks to our shopping cart. When going back to the company’s homepage, no such products were displayed or recommended to us. Not on social media either.

6. Master UX 8/10

We had a good user experience with the brand, overall.

This helpful toolbar on the homepage was easy to access and navigate through:

The Appointment Scheduler on offer is convenient and definitely a time-saver – great for social distancing.

The Pharmacy Chat is there to provide answers for general health and medication questions – super useful as well! And you can choose your preferred method of communication to message them:

7. Leverage Social Media 5/10

We checked the brand’s social media activity and whether they have strong and healthy relationships with their communities on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Facebook

The following content types were posted:

Pride (LGBT+), health awareness, public holidays and events (Father’s day), social justice support (BLM), and COVID-19 frontline worker acknowledgment. For instance:

Could the second-largest pharmaceutical chain in the United States be doing more on social media, though? Running contests, giveaways, hosting shows, and so much more would be appreciated, especially since many of us are still social distancing at home.

Instagram

Although the content posted is timely, we felt that their posting frequency isn’t high enough (sometimes every couple of weeks.) When analyzing the brand, they didn’t use the “Story” feature, which sucks as many Instagrammers solely use the platform for this.

Twitter

Out of the three social media accounts that we checked, it seems as if Walgreens is most active on Twitter. Though they mostly post the same content on all three channels, they do “Retweet” many more relevant posts here, and the activity seems to be more engaging.

We particularly appreciated their health awareness and education content, like the following:

Overall, Walgreens is getting a 49/70 here (70%).

Which puts them in the bottom half of the eight brands we examined to date. The 0 points on personalization really hurt their rankings.

  1. Petco 90%
  2. Uniqlo 86%
  3. Best Buy 78%
  4. Etsy 76%
  5. Tommy Hilfiger 70%
  6. Walgreens 70%
  7. Fiverr 67%
  8. Patagonia 61%

Watch this space for more brand analyses coming your way.

Meanwhile, check out some previous ones: