The team of 10 technicians and three pharmacists at the Walgreens in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was named the 2021 Best Pharmacy Team because of their outstanding customer service and area outreach. They try to always greet their customers with a smile, whether it’s behind the counter or out in the community. 

With an average of 500 customers a day, this Walgreens needs a large staff. There are three pharmacists—David Martinez, Pharm.D., Marisa Ochoa, Pharm.D., and Juanita Resta, R.Ph.—and 10 pharmacy technicians: Maya Castillo, Robin Epstein, Nick Olivas, Mikayah Ortiz, Erica Sedillo, Favdiola Marin, Melissa Vigil, Ymelda Sandoval, Nathan Jordan, and Daniel Petre.

Technicians Epstein and Marin spoke with us about what an average day at their Walgreens looks like and how the team gives back to the community.

What does an average day look like at your pharmacy?

Robin Epstein (pharmacy technician): On an average day, it’s pretty busy. We do a lot of customer service: answering phones, helping patients, talking to doctors, doing flu shots, doing COVID vaccines, doing testing for COVID, and ringing people up. Just a very, very busy day.

We offer about 20 different vaccines in addition to the COVID-19 vaccine: shingles, flu, pneumonia, Gardasil, and chickenpox. We do vaccines for people anywhere from age 3 up to age 80.

Faviola Marin (pharmacy technician): We help hundreds of people a day, and it’s a very fast pace, but it’s enjoyable. It’s always nice helping people with whatever insurance problems they have, especially if it’s been something that’s been going on for a while, getting them their prescriptions, and dealing with dosing problems, where the doctor might have typed something wrong and we have to contact the office to make sure it’s accurate. 

What do you think your team does to go above and beyond for customers?

Epstein: Well, we try to know each customer by name. Whenever I see a customer in the store that I recognize, I always call them by their name. Whenever you ring them up, you say thank you and then call them by their name, and they really appreciate that—they’re surprised that you recognize them, considering we have over 10,000 customers in our location. You just do that extra step to make sure that you recognize the patients.

I’m a staple here. I’ve been here for so many years that I know most of my customers and they keep coming back because they like stability. A lot of people appreciate that. When you go to a place where you get new staff all the time, people don’t feel comfortable. It’s better for the customer as well as for us.

We try to know each customer by name.

Marin: We listen to our patients and do everything we can to help them at that moment. We do it right then and there so they know that we’re 100% committed to helping them with whatever problems they have with the pharmacy. We take the time to help each patient as much as we can, while getting it done quickly, and making sure that they get everything that they need so they can go on with their day and not have to worry about their prescription or the cost or anything like that.

What’s your team dynamic like?

Epstein: We try to pick up each other’s slack. If someone is extremely overwhelmed, we do what we can do to help them out so no one gets stressed out. If someone is really busy, we’ll go over and say, “Hey, let me help you while you do this.” 

You’re only as good as your team is. We’re very personable with each other. Our pharmacists rely on us, and a big part of our job is to try to relieve the stress of the pharmacist.

You’re only as good as your team is.

Marin: It’s a great team dynamic. I think we have a really solid community here in our pharmacy. Just the other day we were having trouble getting a prescription in, so we all worked together trying to find where we could get it. It takes a lot of communication trying to get ahold of a wholesaler or any other Walgreens or pharmacy that might have a medication in stock. We all worked together and were able to actually fill the prescription here at our location by making calls to find it for the patient. 

Many of your team has worked there for a long time; how does that impact your pharmacy?

Epstein: I’ve been at Walgreens for 33 years now. I’ve watched children grow up; now they have families of their own and they’re bringing their kids in. That’s one thing that I really enjoy about being here: I see so many people that I’ve known since they were babies. 

Marin: I think we’re all very friendly, we all communicate very well with each other, and our patients do come first. We’re all really active listeners. We listen before we try to act, make sure we get the full picture first, and then we all come together and collaborate to try to see what we can do. Everyone gets along great. 

What community initiatives does your pharmacy participate in?

Epstein: We’re very community oriented. We’re trying to do our best to get everyone vaccinated. This location is one of the Walgreens that was doing the giant clinics; my store was sponsoring it. We would go out to the community, renting the Rio Rancho Events Center or the Hispanic Cultural Center, and we’d give 5,000 or 6,000 shots a day.

The Walgreens company also does Red Nose Day for charity. We also help any kind of children’s organization; the last few years, at the end of the year, we take all our leftover school supplies to the local elementary schools to donate to the teachers. A lot of teachers buy their own supplies for their students because a lot of students can’t afford it, so our store donates a lot of the supplies at the end of the season to local elementary schools.