1. Problem Statement
-This case study is about the management of the Consumer Value Store (CVS) and its current problems it’s facing. The study also touches on the options and alternatives opened for CVS management.
2. Background Facts
The history of this company began in 1963 where it was established in Lowell, Massachusetts by two brothers, namely Sidney and Stanley Goldstein and a business partner by the name Ralph Hoagland. The company began its first operation with the pharmacy operation department in 1967 where, in Cumberland and Warwick in Rhode Island. As the company grew, it got interested with start-up and web based company and the acquiring; it raised its stock to $30 million and become a major online pharmacy company and later rebranded it to CVS.com. CVS became America’s largest drugstores with an estimation of 4,000 stores distributed within the country and revenue of $24.2 Billion in revenue, which accounts for over two-thirds of the revenue generated by all the available pharmacies in the US.
The company leadership realm is made up of 12 most senior personnel chaired by Larry J. Merlo, who is the President and Chief Executive Officer of CVS. The company has nine senior decision makers, and they are the board of directors chaired by C. David Brown II who is also a Cassel in a Florida law firm. The company’s current competitors are, Express Scripts, Inc and Health Information Designs, Inc.
3. Relevant Issues
Lately, the company has received a number of complaints from its customers. Most of the complaints revolve on how the orders and prescription scripts are being handled. The issues makes other customers to join shop at other companies offering a better service, hence becomes a competition problem. It’s evident that some prescription ends up getting lost or not misplaced or untraceable and delay of orders. Technology wise, there a problem with the drop-off end where no one is available and the tech department fails to retrieve the required and proper customer information which can be largely attributed by the fact of no prioritizing scripts. On the production end, pharmacist fell behind at the QA; prescriptions were not filled accordingly, stock shortage and the incompetence in answering questions. Another technological issue occurs in the data entry section where much of incompetence issue occurred. The customers sometimes went without being notified of issues with third party and not allowing refills.
4. Alternative.
The issue at Drop-Off can be handled in such a way that the first time customers will have their information onto a provide CVS card and a kiosk created for older customers. This option gives the customer the ability to countercheck the data with their own personal information and can pick up in their desired time and also selecting the desired mode of contact. This is a competitive move as it offers what the other companies do not.
Adapting new software that keeps track of the inventories and connected to all pharmacies is also a viable option. When the threshold is reached, the pharmacists are notified and they call the customers for the details that maybe not featured in the inventory. The option above is a market share option as a follow up is adhered to. Adapting of an automated QA process that allows the pharmacists to conduct more is a viable option. This alternative will help the pick-up tech perform efficiently as they display all of the pending prescriptions and flags the unresolved issues to the pharmacist.
