Lloydspharmacy's Online Doctor scoops awards

08 March 2010

Lloydspharmacy has plenty of reason to celebrate after winning two coveted prizes at the Oracle Retail Week Awards 2010.  

First, the UK-wide chain picked up the award for ‘BT Customer Service Initiative of the Year’ in recognition of its Online Doctor service, which began to be offered in pharmacies last year.

It then went on to win the ‘Best OTC PR Campaign for a Non-Medicine’ category because of the success of its Sex Degrees of Separation PR Campaign, which helped to publicise the Online Doctor service.  

Speaking about the awards, Lloydspharmacy’s Managing Director Richard Smith said, “We are delighted that our Online Doctor service and associated PR campaign have been recognised with these coveted awards, and I congratulate everyone who has played a part in this success.

“The BT Customer Service Initiative of the Year is a real accomplishment for Lloydspharmacy especially in the face of such strong competition from other major retailers including Boots, Tesco and Morrisons. Our Online Doctor service has created another channel for consumers to access healthcare and will continue to play an important part in our vision to become more customer and service-focused.

“We are also thrilled to have won the OTC Marketing award for the second year in a row and to be recognised for an innovative campaign which used PR and social media to increase sexual health awareness and our associated Online Doctor services.”

Lloydspharmacy’s Online Doctor allows customers to consult with a doctor via a computer terminal either at home or within a private consultation room in a pharmacy. They can then receive a prescription when this is appropriate.

The service is offered in conjunction with Dr Thom, the only internet doctor to be accredited by the Care Quality Commission, and provides advice and guidance in a number of potentially sensitive areas such as erectile dysfunction, as well as offering travel vaccinations and anti-malarial medication.  

The Sex Degrees of Separation campaign promoted an online tool which calculates the number of indirect sexual partners people have had.  The campaign generated 1,226,000 Page Views on the Lloydsharmacy website where visitors could then access information about the Online Doctor sexual health services.