How Vanessa deals with frustrated patients [03:02]
More about Vanessa’s role as a Wellness Associate [05:11]
The product selection at Dragonfly Wellness [07:04]
Dragonfly’s new payment system [10:07]
Dragonfly’s drive-thru sales [13:28]
How Vanessa helps letter holders get their Medical Cannabis card [15:11]
Patients dealing with law enforcement [20:53]
Spending habits at Dragonfly Wellness [21:41]
Vanessa’s thoughts on adult-use [23:29]
More on Vanessa’s background [28:15]
Vanessa’s future in the cannabis industry [30:21]
Vanessa is a Wellness Associate at Dragonfly Wellness. She has been in this role since February 2020 and was there for the grand opening of Dragonfly Wellness.
Vanessa has a background in customer service, so she has experience dealing with frustrated customers. She also understands that even though patients may be frustrated, they will be “leaving with a bag of sunshine.”
Vanessa considers her work at Dragonfly Wellness more than a job. She has firsthand experience with Medical Cannabis improving her own issues with joint inflammation and sensitivities and has found it to be more helpful compared to other pharmaceuticals. She loves that she is now able to help others on their own journey.
In Utah, Wellness Associates are not to provide recommendations. However, as a patient herself, she can share from firsthand experience how the medicine works for her. For example, she can say that an indica strain helps keep her alert, relaxed, creative, and in a good mood. Or, she can refer a patient to another co-worker who may have an experience different from hers. However, legally she cannot recommend a product to treat a patient’s condition.
Although there are struggles with maintaining inventory, Vanessa has seen more consistency in the past month. The team at Dragonfly Wellness is for the ability to be a vertically integrated company, where they can grow their own product. This has allowed them to supply other pharmacies in the area with much-needed products.
The system is called Hypur and it provides an ACH transfer for pharmacies across the country.
When you enter the pharmacy, you will log in on your phone with a secure access code. Once the system has authenticated your phone and verified your location, your customer info is sent to Dragonfly’s POS system. At checkout, you can easily pay with Hypur. Or, you can split a payment between Hypur and cash.
This information can also be used for online ordering, which will make the online checkout process easier.
Dragonfly Wellness has not seen significant sales from their drive-thru option. The majority of sales are still from walk-ins.
When Vanessa sees patients who have medical letters, she reminds them that their letter is only valid through the end of the year. She will encourage them to talk to their medical provider about getting their letter switched to a card (check out this article for more info).
Vanessa has heard stories from patients about getting stopped by law enforcement and having their medicine confiscated, despite having all the necessary documentation with them. Vanessa believes that the solution is more education to remove the stigma from Medical Cannabis.
Vanessa believes that spending habits vary by person. But, typically she sees patients spending at least a couple hundred dollars a month. For patients looking for more variety, their costs can be higher than someone who buys similar products each visit.
Whether it’s for a severe life-changing condition, depression, anxiety, or sleep, because of the many benefits cannabis has, Vanessa believes that it should be available to everyone.
Her personal experience with cannabis involved in treating psoriatic arthritis. Instead of getting injections with bad side effects, she used cannabis to control her condition.
Vanessa always wanted to be involved in the cannabis industry. She started her career in customer service, which provided the insurance and benefits she needed to treat her medical conditions.
After Medical Cannabis became legal in Utah, she began to talk more about the benefits of it to friends and family. This led her to create an Instagram account (@loch.ness.toker) to get more involved in the community.
After her third FMLA leave of absence last year, she decided to leave her customer service position and go all-in with the cannabis industry.
Vanessa will be starting a community program that provides education to help remove the stigma of cannabis use. She will also advocate for adult-use legalization in Utah.
