Why. fucking. drugs?
I hate drugs. I really do, and I hate them even more because I understand their necessity. That I have to take them when needed to get healthy makes me have a one kain relationship with them. I don’t hate them as much as I do injections though, so it’s pills over injections for me. A necessary evil, I must admit.
I usually pride myself on having an above-average sense of reasoning, but my usage of that sense is almost nothing to write home about. In essence, even though I understand the necessity of medications and proper medication usage, I still just way and manner my way around them. Terrible habits. I know. Will I stop? I don’t know. Something I do know for sure is that there are a lot of people with similar habits and except if we aren’t telling the truth, I think we can all agree that if you take medications, then you should have an almost perfect relationship with your meds or you shouldn’t even take them at all to avoid drug resistance.
I remember hearing about Famasi for the first time and thinking, wow, this will be useful for a lot of people, myself included. The Founders of Famasi have a more compelling speech about how the idea of Famasi came to be. But, with constant iterations, all of us at Famasi have come to see various use cases or real-life scenarios of how Famasi can help different people relate better with their medications and in different ways. For me, adherence to medications is what Famasi solves; for some, it could be access to medications, and for others, it could be the convenience of getting their medications sorted and delivered to their doorstep wherever they are.
Famasi’s backbone idea was and still is, how do we get people to actually interact better with their drugs if we go through the stress of getting it for them, sorting it for them, and taking it to them.
Hol’up hol’up!! It doesn’t end there; our over sabi won’t let us. We try to follow up to monitor you’re using your medications, get feedback and begin processing for a refill so you don’t have to run out of your meds. The idea is to get your medications before you need them. Faruq would always say, if it’s at the point of need, then it’s too late.
Our approach to making healthcare not as boring as it used to be is personalization. We try to make every engagement with a customer as personal or unique as possible. This has meant that we needed to do more in terms of making a customer that customer. This package, just for that customer, and that any package is almost always useful only to the intended recipient.
The Thank you cards/postcards turned out to be a vital touchpoint. The hand-written personalized notes are how we show customers our human side, and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about this gesture. It creates a human-human feel between our customers and us, so we’re proud of the cards because Famasi is also about healthy relationships.
For customers with prescription-based drugs, we can easily attach a dosage plan somewhere on the Famasi box because we work with your doctors and the prescription they provide you. With this, you’re reminded of what to take, at what time, and how to go about the dosage. Customers on Essential Plans also get a dosage plan given by the in-house Pharmacist.
The Famasi Box!!! I was on a call with a customer a while back, and I asked for her advice on what we could do next or better. While she was giving her feedback, one that stood out for me was when she spoke about the Famasi box. She advised that we go for lighter boxes — “aren’t these current ones too thick?”. Such a lovely woman! We concluded that making the box lighter would save us money, which could be used for other things, but what I got from that conversation was that we weren’t compromising on quality — the more solid the boxes, the more protected the contents inside them are.
The idea behind our boxes was to be visible, something neat enough to be kept within sight. So, if it were up to us at Famasi, we would probably put our boxes in your favorite places at home, just so you can always see it, and let the box serve its purpose of relieving you. Your friends and families seeing the box may even get us more people who need help managing their medications. It’s free marketing for us, but we still have to put our best foot forward. Yktv!
My work with Famasi has taught me nothing short of a lot; a wide range of learnings, familiarity with new tools, an endless list of new skills, and at the top of the list is patience. I’ve always been a patient person, but Famasi unlocked another level in me free of charge. In the beginning, we decided that the safest route wasn’t necessarily the fastest, so we chose the slowest route possible. It means the team has taken time to grow by experience. We all took turns being laid back, made errors, learned and unlearned, and still managed to keep it moving. As we grew, the margin for errors naturally reduced, and it is nice to see a team of fewer than 15 people keep friendship aside and change it for each other just to make sure that the ship keeps sailing.
There are days when I wake up to messages from my Ogas, and the messages are usually those 10–15 liners, with proper formatting, bullet points, well-paragraphed, and documented para. Usually, I’m like, shey these ones even sabi who them they follow talk so?. But like I said earlier, I pride myself on being reasonable, which means having a good value judgment system in place, making it easy to see my guilt. It’s interesting because I’ve also had to hold other people accountable; I’ve had to make some work late, and I once suggested that the graphic designer in the team, who was writing exams and had been exempted from work, should sharperly run one or two for me, just to see if she’d fall for it. While she didn’t, she and others who had exams came back when they were done, and we immediately felt their impact.
Teamwork is something I’ve enjoyed with Famasi. We’ve always tried to make it work together, and even though we’re not perfect yet, I can’t wait to see where we’re in the coming months and onwards. It’s a journey, and though we aren’t sufficient individually, I’m sure we’re fully packed together like lions, and that’s something to take pride in.
We started 2022 with a mantra — #Beingbold — because we made many baby steps in 2021, which has brought us this far. Through learning and unlearning, we can attempt to do more daring stuff now. Part of that decision led to adding 3 new people to the team, and we had a 5-day retreat where we all got to bond as a team. I like the new team members because they are a little bit less agreeable than some of us on the team already — especially me. Hence, they are willing to criticize something and share fresh opinions, giving the team a lirru bit more perspective and range in building and tearing down ideas. This is just from about a month together, so I can only imagine what the future holds. I really can’t wait.
The details behind creating a niche for Famasi are also interesting. I remember discussing with the co-founders, and one of them was going on about how defined the niche was. Somewhere in the speech goes thus:
“…Miracle, I hope you know Famasi is not just an online pharmacy.”
I pondered about this for a bit, and rightly so because Famasi isn’t just about selling you drugs; it’s about selling you a lifestyle.
It meant that as important as having customers was, we needed to know those that weren’t our customers. If you prefer to medicate only when you’ve fallen ill? Then, we may not be the one for your medications, or at least not perfect for you, as it means waiting another 2–5 days before getting your medications delivered. We are about people willing to take the initial step to a better and healthier life or lifestyle. If you don’t believe in taking drugs, that’s fine — we aren’t the ones for you. Izz agbo you like? Great! And if it’s the blood of Jesus you prefer? All well and good too. Famasi is intentional about being one step ahead when it comes to your health, using medications, and preaching about healthy lifestyle choices.
I could go on and on, but my pen is almost out. If you’ve got time, you can see why everyone loves Famasi. Till next time, never run out of your medications ✌🏾️💙
