Phone agentprimary
Availability, e-prescription pickup, on-call information and delivery around the clock; advisory questions are put through to the counter.
Explore phone agentFor Pharmacies
Your pharmacy stays reachable.
Even when the counter is busy.
While the team advises at the counter and dispenses prescriptions, the phone keeps ringing: is a medication in stock, is my e-prescription ready, when is the on-call pharmacy, do you deliver. The pharmacy agent takes exactly these logistics calls, notes and reserves, books the delivery, and hands every question about effect, dosage or health straight to the pharmacist.
In short
The rinqo pharmacy agent answers calls around the clock and handles the logistics around the counter: availability and reservation requests, e-prescription pickup, opening hours, on-call information and delivery booking. Every question about effect, interaction or dosage it routes to the pharmaceutical staff; advice stays with the pharmacist under German pharmacy law (Apothekenbetriebsordnung).
The situation
At the end of 2025, Germany still had 16,601 pharmacies, 440 fewer than a year earlier and the lowest count in almost 50 years. 502 closures in 2025 faced only 62 new openings. The remaining pharmacies serve the same population with fewer people; qualified pharmacy staff are scarce. At the same time the phone keeps ringing: is a medication in stock, has the e-prescription been redeemed, when is the on-call pharmacy, do you deliver. These logistics calls land exactly when the team is advising at the counter, and an advisory conversation cannot be interrupted. Unlike pure appointment industries, the pharmacy has a legal dividing line: pharmaceutical advice is the pharmacist's job under German pharmacy law (Apothekenbetriebsordnung) and must not be delegated to a machine. A pharmacy agent must therefore take the logistics off reliably and hand every substantive question back to the counter cleanly.
16,601
pharmacies in Germany at the end of 2025, the lowest count in almost 50 years
Source: ABDA – Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Apothekerverbände 2026502
closures in 2025, against only 62 new openings
Source: ABDA – Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Apothekerverbände 202620
pharmacies per 100,000 inhabitants, the lower third in Europe
Source: ABDA – Bundesvereinigung Deutscher Apothekerverbände 2026Where it hurts
- Advising at the counter and answering the phone at the same time constantly pulls the team out of the customer conversation.
- Since the e-prescription, calls about pickup and redemption status have multiplied.
- On-call information (which pharmacy, open until when) ties up the line at off-peak hours.
- Delivery requests have to be captured, addressed and scheduled.
- Availability questions about individual medications cost time even though the answer is usually routine.
- Questions about effect, dosage and interaction must never be answered by a machine.
How rinqo solves this
Every call answered, the team stays at the counter
The phone agent picks up within one ring, around the clock. It handles availability, opening hours, on-call and delivery requests itself. That way pharmaceutical staff stay with the customer and the prescription, instead of shuttling between the counter and the phone.
It knows your pharmacy
Opening hours, on-call days, delivery area and terms, the process around e-prescriptions and reservations, your services (blood pressure checks, blister packaging, vaccinations where offered). The agent quotes from your knowledge base but never gives a recommendation on medications, effect or dosage.
Logistics yes, advice to the pharmacist
For availability requests the agent takes down medication, quantity and callback preference and reserves; inventory integrations with ADG, Awinta and Pharmatechnik for live stock checks are in preparation. It books e-prescription pickup and delivery with address and preferred time. As soon as a question touches effect, interaction, side effect or dosage, it puts the caller through to pharmaceutical staff or logs a callback, without advising itself.
What the agent handles
- Availability request with medication, quantity and reservation
- Coordinate e-prescription pickup and log a preferred time
- On-call information (own on-call days, opening hours on off days)
- Delivery booking with address, time window and terms
- Opening hours, directions and standard questions about services
- Route every question about effect, dosage or health to the pharmacist
Our recommendation
Most pharmacy calls are logistics: availability, opening hours, on-call duty, delivery. The phone agent takes them so the scarce pharmaceutical time goes into the advice that, by law, only the pharmacist may give anyway.
All channels for this industry
What rinqo offers for Pharmacies
Chat agent
On the pharmacy website: opening hours, on-call duty, delivery area and services, without anyone having to call.
Explore chat agentEmail agent
Standard requests on availability and delivery, reservation confirmations, refill reminders for long-term medication after approval.
Explore email solutionPersonal agent
Internal pharmacy knowledge for the team: delivery terms, on-call schedule, compounding and blister-packaging workflows, available in everyday language.
Open personal agentGDPR and the Pharmacy Operating Ordinance
Health data arises around prescriptions and medications under GDPR Article 9. rinqo hosts all calls and transcripts exclusively in EU data centers (Hetzner Falkenstein and Nuremberg), uses AI models with contractually guaranteed EU data processing and provides the DPA per Article 28 GDPR automated. Pharmaceutical advice stays with the pharmacist under German pharmacy law (Apothekenbetriebsordnung); the agent is explicitly not an advisory tool.
- Hosting exclusively on EU servers (Hetzner Germany)
- DPA including all disclosed subprocessors
- Consent announcement before recording (§9 TTDSG + GDPR Article 13)
- Configurable delete TTL on transcripts (default 30 days)
- AI Act Article 50: identification as AI voice mandatory from 2026-08-02, default with rinqo
- No recommendation on effect, dosage or medication; every advisory question goes to the pharmacist
Frequently asked questions
Written by
Sven Pflüger
Founder & CEO, rinqo
Sven builds rinqo from a simple observation: most AI tools are designed in San Francisco and sold in Berlin. The workshop in the Black Forest, the veterinary practice in Salzburg, the family hotel in Tyrol get software that doesn't speak their language. rinqo flips that. On European servers, set up in ten minutes, in twenty languages. With templates built by the industries themselves.
Last updated: 2026-07-31
Sources
Logistics calls handled, the team stays in the advice.
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