Pharmacy customers share attitudes and behaviors in new survey

Despite the looming threat of disruption at the hands of e-commerce, the U.S. pharmacy industry continues to enjoy superior levels of customer satisfaction in both the brick-and-mortar and mail order segments, according to the new J.D. Power 2019 U.S. Pharmacy Study.

“As technology companies promise to change the way Americans address their pharmacy needs, our data suggests that changing such entrenched behavior will be an uphill battle,” said Greg Truex, Managing Director of Health Intelligence at J.D. Power in a press statement. “Customers enjoy visiting their brick-and-mortar pharmacy and they get a great deal of satisfaction from speaking directly with pharmacists. However, the potential for technology disruption is there. Although, the frequency of use of digital solutions is low, early adopters are showing high levels of satisfaction.”

The 2019 study is based on responses from 12,059 pharmacy customers who filled a prescription during the three months prior to the survey period of May-June 2019. Following are some of the key findings:

Face-to-face interaction still most prevalent: Most pharmacy customers that communicate with the pharmacist and staff do so in-person (89%), even though customers that use email or online live chat to interact with the pharmacist or staff are equally or more satisfied.

Thorough pharmacist discussions yield higher customer satisfaction: Satisfaction with the pharmacist is above 940 (on a 1,000-point scale) when pharmacists cover four or more topics with the customer during their interaction, compared with just one (884) or two (917) topics.

Health and wellness customers spend more at the pharmacy: About two-fifths (42%) of customers who are aware of their pharmacy’s health and wellness services have used one of the services in the past year. While those who have taken advantage of health and wellness services spent 12.5% more on their most recent prescription order, significantly less health and wellness customers received a prescription as a result of their participation in 2019 as compared with 2018.

Mobile app users more satisfied, but usage is stagnant: Only 20% of customers use a pharmacy’s mobile app, but those who did have satisfaction scores as much as 23 points higher than those who do not.

Highest overall among brick-and-mortar chain drug store