Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
This is always a challenge, but each do often complement each other. It helps that Paul and I can synchronise or alternate as needed, and we are accustomed to putting in long hours from when we started out! There is definitely a lot of paperwork and emailing to be achieved after hours. Our joy for pharmacy does mean we are always attentive to it. But we absolutely love being parents and family does come first. We are thankful to be operating in the age of technology – being able to check social messages from patients once the children are asleep at night. We rely greatly on the online service ‘logmein’ which allows us to function from any location as if we were in front of the pharmacy computers.
We are fortunate to be part of a team who all believe strongly in our motto “Care + Advice” and so have managed to create a culture of quality at all times.
Our team amazes us with their dedication and support. This allows us precious days together.
Early on, a wise colleague gave the advice to always book the ‘next holiday’ as soon as we returned from the last and Paul took this to heart. He always has a break planned, albeit months away, so that we can all rejuvenate as a family. We also get out for walks in the surrounding beautiful bush as much as we can.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
The biggest challenge would have to be that of the year 2020 – the Covid-19 pandemic! The impact and need to respond in New Zealand came swiftly, just as we were celebrating our daughter’s first birthday. That immense speed, along with a lot of then-unknown factors was, we admit, very daunting. Stepping up with determination to continue service, to keep our team safe and to care for the vulnerable meant we had to dig deeper than ever before. I can’t say we have overcome it just yet. But we know what we are capable of and strategies we can implement. I am so thankful that we had each other through the emergency, as well as incredible guidance and encouragement from our Regional Unichem colleagues.
It was through our response to the challenge of a pandemic that we created our website. Set-up and maintenance is a lot more labour intensive than we had expected, but having the website was part of a solution to be able to assist others contactlessly with what they needed, at times that they required. It helped us diminish unsafe and pressurised queues, and reach those isolating. The feedback we received really spurred us on and gave us strength. We were, and still are, committed to maintaining the standard of our online customer experience to that with our customers and community standing before us each day.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
Running our own business has the benefit that ‘work’ can become an enjoyable labour of love. The great effort of time and energy we put in has the reward of being an asset for our family. This is the life we know and we don’t really know it any other way. That has had the downside that there can be immense responsibility and sacrifice. Years have passed but Paul still feels the sting of having to cancel flights and miss attending his best friends’ wedding when staffing cover fell through. In time, we protectively built our own infrastructure to avoid repetition of such occurrences. But we always have to be prepared and responsive, never switching off.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
We hope to continue listening to our customers and community. To have the courage to lead, especially in sustainability and new deliveries of advice and products.
We dream of finding further ways to connect with and assist New Zealanders.
Even before the pandemic, customers have used many methods to communicate with us. Now more than ever though, we have people using our messenger service on our website or Facebook to seek advice. Being able to correspond without any perceived time pressures on both sides, it is rewarding how a conversation can progress and can cover many issues or concerns someone may be suffering with. When we respond with a holistic approach, a greater picture of someone’s health and current experience is uncovered. It seems our visitors are really encouraged by this. Our pharmacy-geek happy dances come out when we assist someone linking their issues together for the first time and discovering their path to wellness.
That joy in enlightening people via what we have studied and experienced – things like the link between essential fatty acids and eczema break-outs during breastfeeding or skin health and immunity needs after antibiotic use – should drive our sharing of information in the forms that it is requested. One idea is to create more helpful sections online on our website such as a “Maternity Hospital Bag” – where all recommended items can helpfully be seen together. On the list, Hypercal is certainly a favourite. And we packed our copy of The Natural Parent Magazine too!
Visit the Unichem Stokes Valley website to find out more and to shop their range of products. You can also join their supportive community on Facebook.
