Dobbins IDIC Model

INTRODUCTION
Dobbins Drugs Inc., is home town pharmacy and gift shop located in the small town of Lyons, New York since 1942. This business has been handed down through several generations of the Dobbins family, all of them graduating from Albany school of Pharmacy. The current owner, operator and pharmacist is Sean Dobbins. In this small town of 3,500 residents, word of mouth is a very common marketing structure. Although this is “old-fashioned,” many of the current customers grew up receiving medication and shopping at Dobbins Drugs. This is quite contrary from chain drug stores, as there are no drive through windows, no parking lots and most of all no “customers.” Dobbins is located uptown, where sometimes it is a struggle for parking, but
The strengths of Dobbins in the IDIC model would have to be identifying and customizing. It is easy to know what type of customer is walking through the door because it is such a small town. This allows everyone to be able to provide a genuine effort to help the fellow neighbor or classmate. Dobbins has also always provided customizable services, any request that was unable to be filled, the owner would find somewhere it could be, or place a special order (Peppers, 2014).
The weaknesses include differentiating and interacting with the customers. It can be hard for Dobbins to evaluate the customer’s value for the younger customers because their “loyalty” is not as strong as the older generation. In order to increase the amount of younger customers, and create their “loyalty,” social media marketing would be a lucrative avenue. Although Dobbins do a sufficient job during business hours, they lack in after sale follow up communication. After communication is obsolete because of the lack of collection of data such as email addresses, and phone numbers (Peppers,
As previously mentioned, Dobbins will change the organizations structure to include a customer rewards card, collect emails and acquire a CRM software to collect and analyze data. More than this, because the company has a history and great stake in Lyons, they should also incorporate programs to give back to the community. The rewards card will be available to everyone, and the more purchases that are made will directly correlate with how beneficial the card will be to the customer. The card will be linked to the new CRM software, which will collect and analyze the data from the purchases. After this information is available Dobbins can promote the most popular item on sale for rewards card owner. The rewards card will also be a 1 to .10 ratio for points, and if the points achieve 100 or greater then you will receive a $25 gift certificate. Even if customers do not accumulate that much on the rewards card, customers will receive 5% off each time the card is presented. This will encourage people to use their cards, which are beneficial to the customer and the business (Clark,