As dispensaries find ways to maintain a retail connection with their patients and customers during the COVID-19 pandemic, multistate cannabis operator Columbia Care is rolling out a virtual dispensary experience to allow customers to shop digitally.
The Virtual.Care program pairs customers with personal shoppers to tour the dispensary and “sample” products. Patients can even enroll in their state’s medical program and apply for Columbia Care’s credit card through the virtual experience.
“We launched Virtual.Care as a way to try to keep our patients and customers connected to our dispensaries, and more specifically, to keep them connected with our staff on site,” Jesse Channon, Columbia Care’s chief growth officer, told Cannabis Dispensary. “We understand that even with people staying at home, there are still lots of questions to be answered. … So, being able to create a seamless experience to allow people to still have that personalized experience and that direct engagement with our sales associates [and] our operations team members was super important for us.”
As states initially implemented their stay-at-home orders, Columbia Care began considering ways to virtually connect the dispensary’s staff with its customer base. While some dispensaries turned to FaceTime and Skype to maintain a virtual connection with their customers, Columbia Care wanted to implement a more secure, scalable solution.
Channon and his team wanted a one-on-one connection between the dispensary staff and customers for a more personalized experience, where customers could ask questions and explore Columbia Care’s product offerings.
With Virtual.Care, the company launched what Channon calls a powerful, approachable and easy-to-use experience that allows the company to service the largest possible percentage of its customer base.
“The technology was designed … to be incredibly simple and incredibly approachable,” he says. “One of the largest communities that we serve in many of the states in which we operate are senior communities. We know that for this to be something that was going to be leveraged at scale by that community, it had to be something that was easy to use [and] that didn’t require the downloading of any additional applications or the creation of any additional profiles.”
To launch its solution, Columbia Care has developed a standard SOP that can be implemented in many of its individual dispensaries to ensure regulatory compliance in each market.
The company first launched Virtual.Care in its San Diego dispensary to test the concept, and upon simply spreading the word through an email campaign to its customer list, the dispensary staff was booked solid with back-to-back virtual appointments on 4/20.
“People really are using it the same way that they would shop if they were there personally,” Channon said. “They’re looking at things and asking the same kinds of questions that they would ask in person, so we’ve seen the distribution of product fall in line with what performs well at that dispensary.”
The program has been so well received that Columbia Care plans to offer it even after the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us.
“I think this platform is definitely something that will have staying power, and we’re going to continue to add and expand the services and experiences that you’ll be able to get through this,” Channon said. “I think the more connected, more consumer-friendly experience … is something that is going to have staying power."
