Industry · Pharmacies

Door closed? Then your customer walks on to the next pharmacy.

Someone who wants to redeem a prescription and finds the door locked simply walks on – and redeems it somewhere else. A poster in the window is enough to change that: photograph the prescription, send it over WhatsApp, get a collection time. HeroChat takes orders around the clock, answers routine questions and asks for a review after the purchase. GDPR-compliant, hosted in Germany.

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EU GDPR compliant

100 % GDPR-compliant

Data processing agreement included — for data that deserves more care than most.

Servers in Germany

Hosted in Germany

Client data never leaves the EU. AI processing runs in the Azure data centre in Frankfurt.

Made in Germany

A real contact in Berlin

Personal onboarding and a phone number to call, instead of a ticket queue.

Where it starts

The question arrives. Just not with you.

Prescriptions, availability and a compliment nobody wrote down: three things that get stuck at a locked door and an engaged phone line.

After closing time you lose the sale

Anyone standing at the door in the evening, over lunch or on a Sunday looks for the next pharmacy – and often stays there afterwards.

The phone blocks the counter

Availability, opening hours, out-of-hours service, delivery: questions that are not advice, yet pull someone away from a customer every time.

Mostly the unhappy ones write reviews

People who were served well rarely tell the internet. So your Google profile rarely shows what actually happens in your pharmacy.

Use cases

What HeroChat takes on.

None of this replaces your team. All of it removes the groundwork before it – structured, documented and at any hour.

Take prescriptions by photo

A QR code in the window, a photo over WhatsApp – the order is running before the customer walks on.

Send collection times automatically

The acknowledgement arrives within a minute or two, the collection message the next morning. Neither one is typed by hand.

Answer routine questions

Opening hours, out-of-hours service, delivery, vaccination slots, availability – around the clock, in your pharmacy’s voice.

Ask for a review after the purchase

A card with a QR code in the bag: one short question, then the route to a public review or straight to the pharmacy manager.

Run several branches together

Every branch gets its own inbox, administration stays central – holiday cover included.

Hand over to the team

Advice, interactions, compounding, insurance questions: no automation answers those – your pharmacists do.

You draw the line: which topics the AI closes on its own and which it only prepares is something we set together during onboarding.

Prescriptions over WhatsApp

From the shop window into your inbox.

A poster on the door, a QR code, one message. The rest happens while your pharmacy is closed.

Your pharmacyreplies instantly
Hi, can I order this from you?
📄 prescription.jpg18:42
Thank you, Mr Bergmann. We have ordered Nitrofurantoin retard 100 mg for you – ready for collection from 2 pm tomorrow. If it arrives sooner, we will let you know.18:43
Good morning, Mr Bergmann. Your medication is ready for collection from now on.08:12
Great, thank you! I will come by around 5 pm.08:15
Write a message …

A poster in the window

"Prescription to redeem? Simply send it over WhatsApp." Anyone standing at a locked door scans the QR code instead of walking on.

A photo or a product name

The customer sends the prescription as a photo or simply names the medication. Nothing more is needed.

An answer within a minute or two

An automatic acknowledgement with a realistic collection time – at ten in the evening and on Sundays too.

In your inbox by morning

At eight you see every order from the night. In stock or reordered: the collection message goes out with one click.

The photo triggers procurement; it does not replace a prescription. Dispensing still happens in the pharmacy, against the original prescription or the German e-prescription.

What it is worth

Let us actually do the maths.

Rather than advertise a percentage, we show the assumptions. Swap in your own numbers – the structure stays the same.

Worked example: a single-site community pharmacy

  • per monthper year
  • client contacts (all channels)approx. 900approx. 10,800
  • of those, routine matters needing no advice70 % → 6307,560
  • of those, fully handled by the AI60 % → 3784,536
  • average handling time per matter4 minutes4 minutes
  • working time savedapprox. 25 hrsapprox. 300 hrs
  • fully loaded staff cost assumed34 €34/hour34 €34/hour
  • less HeroChat Pro− €129− €1,548
  • calculated effectapprox. €720approx. €8,700
Saved working time is only the first lever. What is left lying beside it can be quantified too – across a year that comes to three lines:

Prescriptions redeemed elsewhere

€3,564/year

Nobody standing at a locked door decides to come back later. They walk down the street – and often stay there afterwards.

Worked example: 30 enquiries outside opening hours/month × 12 = 360/year × 55 % redeemed elsewhere = 198 transactions × €18 assumed gross profit each = €3,564

Orders nobody followed up

€6,480/year

An out-of-stock item is not a problem – as long as the customer knows when it arrives. Without that message it becomes one.

Worked example: 250 orders/month × 12 = 3,000/year × 12 % never collected for want of a message = 360 × €18 assumed gross profit = €6,480

Passing trade the profile fails to convince

€9,720/year

Anyone new to the area searches for a pharmacy nearby and reads what is written there. Those seconds decide the visit.

Worked example: 1,800 Google profile views/month × 12 = 21,600/year × 2.5 % additional visits with a stronger profile = 540 × €18 assumed gross profit = €9,720
€19,700/year

Calculated annual loss for a single-site community pharmacy – from prescriptions redeemed elsewhere after closing time, orders nobody followed up on, and passing trade the Google profile failed to convince.

A simplified worked example for illustration, not a promise of results. Every percentage and amount is a deliberately disclosed assumption, not a measured or externally sourced value. Actual figures depend on your size, your enquiry volume and your staff costs. We are happy to run the model with your own numbers on a first call.

Channels

One inbox for everything that arrives.

Your clients decide where they write. All you decide is who answers.

FAQ

Common questions.

Can we accept prescriptions over WhatsApp?
For ordering and reservation, yes. Dispensing is unaffected: it still happens in the pharmacy against the original prescription or the German e-prescription. The photo does not replace a prescription, it triggers procurement. Because a photo of a prescription is health data under Art. 9 GDPR it requires explicit consent – HeroChat collects that in the first step and logs it. Data is stored in Germany, AI requests run in the Azure data centre in Frankfurt, and you get the Art. 28 GDPR data processing agreement ready to sign.
Can the AI give advice about medication?
No – and that is how we configure it. The duty to advise sits with your pharmacists and no chatbot changes that. HeroChat handles the organisation around it: availability, collection time, opening hours, out-of-hours service. Anything that looks like advice goes to your team.
Can we keep our existing phone number?
Yes. The WhatsApp Business API can be verified with your familiar landline number. Nothing changes for your customers – but messages land centrally in HeroChat instead of on a private phone, where customer data leaves the business at the next change of staff.
How do we collect more reviews without exposing ourselves?
With a card or flyer in every bag that asks every customer for feedback – not only the ones you expect praise from. The route to a public review and the direct line to the pharmacy manager are both open. Sending only the happy ones to Google and catching the rest internally breaches Google’s policies and is risky under German competition law. The honest route works better anyway: most people leave a good review – they just have to be asked.
What does it cost for a pharmacy?
Basic is €89 per month and Pro €149, or €79 and €129 paid annually. For pharmacies with several branches we would suggest Pro: one inbox per site, every channel bundled and personal onboarding. There is also a permanently free tier with 100 messages a month. See all pricing

The prescription arrives. Even when the door is locked.

Try HeroChat free – prescription orders, collection messages and reviews from one inbox.

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