90k reasons the customer experience starts with the associate experience at Rite Aid

If you ask Rite Aid EVP of store operations Bob Thompson, he’ll tell you there are 90,000 excellent reasons why the company is primed for growth.

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Thompson is referring to the company’s approximately 90,000 associates, who share a deep-rooted commitment to delivering an outstanding customer experience at Rite Aid stores. Further empowering this spirited team to deliver world-class service — and creating what he calls a “cohesive community” that’s reflected at every location — is the ultimate mission of the operations team currently led by Thompson, who recently announced after seven years with Rite Aid that he would be retiring in January 2016. Former Target executive Bryan Everett will join Rite Aid as EVP of store operations effective Aug. 3.



“Our whole company including our senior leadership team knows that even the best strategy can only succeed if we execute it at the store level,” Thompson told DSN in an exclusive interview. “We are deeply committed to delivering a consistently outstanding customer experience. It’s a key part of our strategy. And we also believe that, to deliver this kind of customer experience and execute against our strategy, we must also deliver a consistently outstanding experience for our associates.”



Rite Aid leaders will tell you that the enthusiasm and passion expressed by Rite Aid’s associates blazed the trail for its successful turnaround and ongoing journey to grow as a retail healthcare company.



That passion permeates throughout every layer of the organization, Thompson said. “Associates at every level tell me that they enjoy working at Rite Aid because they’re passionate about health and wellness,” he said. “They’re passionate about their own health; they’re passionate about the health of their families; and they’re passionate about the wellness of their communities. That’s really the foundation for building a strong community, both within and outside of our stores.”



A key to fully harnessing this passion has been the creation of “a compelling vision and strategy for the team,” Thompson said. “Our vision to create a retail healthcare company has united our team as much as anything else we’re doing. Our associates are responding to the challenge of growing and expanding our service offerings and understanding how it all fits together. They understand why it’s important for them to go beyond knowing how to simply fill a prescription, ring up a transaction or set a planogram. They want to understand the strategy behind our immunization program and how our Wellness Ambassadors bridge the front-end and pharmacy to bring a sense of community to each store. They want to understand how RediClinic fits into our overall healthcare offering and how Rite Aid Health Alliance works in those markets.”



And to make sure that associates’ passion and belief in the company’s vision add up to an outstanding customer experience, efforts to facilitate strong teamwork are more important than ever, Thompson said.



The store operations teams partner with pharmacy, human resources, merchandising, corporate communications and many others to ensure that Rite Aid’s service-focused retail healthcare strategy comes to life for its customers.



“For example, Robert Thompson’s team is developing the strategy around all of the new pharmacy services that we offer, like Redi-Clinic,” he said. “But these services are being implemented and executed by our associates in the field. So from the start, our pharmacy operations, store operations and human resources teams all have to work together to execute these initiatives in a way that helps develop that cohesive community we want at every store.”



Passion for health and wellness, a commitment to teamwork and a common belief in the right vision — these are the ingredients that can potentially build an unparalleled service experience for any healthcare company. And Thompson has 90,000 reasons to believe that these ingredients will come together as the ultimate recipe for growth.