Every business wants to delight its customers and deliver excellent service. That can be challenging, especially in healthcare. Pharmacy customer satisfaction involves many layers, something further complicated by the pandemic. There have also been major shifts into the industry where retail pharmacies do much more than just dispense prescriptions.
However, pharmacies do have insights into if their customers are satisfied. The J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Pharmacy StudySM released its rankings of the pharmacies with the highest customer satisfaction. The study surveyed 13,378 customers that filled a prescription within the last 90 days. We’re breaking down the insights from the survey and offering some tips to boost pharmacy customer satisfaction.
About the Study
The study includes several categories, rating both brick-and-mortar and mail order pharmacies. For brick-and-mortar, they further divided the category into three segments: chain pharmacy, mass merchandisers (i.e., Walmart, Costco), and grocery stores. The top chain pharmacy was Good Neighbor Pharmacy. Leading mass merchandisers was Sam’s Club and Wegmans for grocery. Humana had the highest score for mail order.
Key Insights: What Drives Pharmacy Customer Satisfaction?
The survey looks at various metrics around customer satisfaction, including those related to costs, billing, and service. Additionally, the survey sought to define what drives satisfaction, and these are some of the findings.
Health and wellness services correlate to higher satisfaction and higher spend.
- 48% of retail pharmacy customers used at least one of these services, a 5% growth from 2019.
- Those who take advantage of services spend at least $11 more. This number rises to $34 more when they engage in two or more services.
- Users of services are also more satisfied than those that are not.
- Takeaway: Your customers will stay loyal and spend more the more they engage with your pharmacy. Awareness is key to increase participation in services. Retail pharmacies that offer services need to ensure their patients know about them! These awareness strategies need to cross channels, including digital, mail, and in-store signage.
Digital ordering leads to satisfaction, but adoption is low.
- Only 9% of brick-and-mortar customers order prescriptions online.
- 32% of mail order customers order through digital channels.
- Customers that do use these channels report higher satisfaction.
- Takeaways: First, it will be interesting to see if adoption levels rose in 2020 because of the pandemic. It’s possible they did for convenience. Second, the low adoption again probably is due to the lack of knowledge of options. Pharmacies can step up communication efforts around this, but health plans should, especially Medicare Advantage, should also make sure their members know about the options.
Patients welcome physician recommendations, but few make them.
- 8% of respondents said they received a recommendation from their physician for pharmacy or wellness services. Of those that did, 80% went with the recommendation.
- Takeaways: Providers are a critical part of the prescription ecosystem and can influence patient actions. Pharmacies can seek to build relationships with providers, not only to gain new customers but manage the continuum of care. For example, working with providers on medication adherence could be a great way to avoid adverse situations and reduce healthcare costs.
How We Support Pharmacies with Customer Engagement
As pharmacy data management experts, we do more than convert and archive behind the scenes. We also have turnkey solutions for pharmacy print and mail services through our Printwerks brand. If you want to engage your customers, then we can help. From in-store signage to promote wellness services to direct mail letters to reengage patients, we’ve got solutions!
