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NEW YORK — Retail pharmacy continues to burnish its reputation with the American public, through both the personalized care provided by pharmacists and pharmacy staff and through the convenience of digital engagement channels. These are among the key findings of the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Pharmacy Study, which also found that pharmacy customers are increasingly interested in receiving health and wellness services at their pharmacy.
Brick-and-mortar pharmacies achieved a 6-point increase in overall customer satisfaction (on a 1,000-point scale). However, the importance of the personal connection between pharmacist and patient is underscored by the fact that overall satisfaction was 102 points higher among customers who said they know their pharmacist by name, and 93 points higher among those who said they know the pharmacy staff or technicians by name.
Mail order pharmacies also gained ground, rising to a score of 684 versus 675 in 2022. However, customer loyalty is on the wane, with 18% of mail order customers saying they “definitely will” or “probably will” switch pharmacies in the next 12 months, up from 14% last year. The leading reasons for switching include employer insurance requiring a change (31%), the cost of medications (24%), and a desire for flexible pick-up options (21%).
“As pharmacies continue to take on a more significant role in health care delivery and ongoing care management, the pharmacist has become a critical link in the health care continuum,” says Christopher Lis, managing director of global health care intelligence at J.D. Power. “Customers are rewarding pharmacies that deliver personalized service, including interactions where communications occur on a first-name basis and when the pharmacist is available to answer questions. These elements of personalized service are moments of truth to help brick-and-mortar pharmacies forge meaningful connections with customers. Mail order pharmacies, by contrast, are less likely to have these personal connections and, in turn, are seeing declines in customer loyalty.”
The survey results also provided support for the pharmacy industry’s efforts to win approval of expanded scope of practice. Overall, 83% of brick-and-mortar pharmacy customers indicated an interest in receiving health and wellness services at their pharmacy, an increase of three percentage points over 2022. The top services desired include vaccinations or flu shots (50%), health screenings (46%) and COVID-19 testing (42%).
Also of note is the fact that retail pharmacies’ investments in digital technologies appear to be paying off: 81% of customers said they rely on digital technologies to interact with their pharmacy, up from 76% in 2022. Among mail order customers, 89% now rely on digital technology, up from 84% last year. In their choice of digital channels, mail order customers favored using the pharmacy website (59%), followed by mobile apps (34%) and text messaging (29%).
Turning to the rankings, Good Neighbor Pharmacy came away with top honors among brick and mortar chain drug store pharmacies for the seventh straight year, with a score of 793. Health Mart came in second at 7 70 followed by Rite Aid with 680. Rite Aid moved up from fourth place last year, displacing Walgreens (643), which fell to fifth place behind CVS Pharmacy (651).
For the eighth consecutive year, Sam’s Club took the No. 1 spot among brick-and-mortar mass merchandiser pharmacies, with a score of 788. Costco once again came in second at 755, followed by CVS Pharmacy within Target stores. However, the CVS-Target pharmacies’ score fell 15 points to 698, below the segment average of 702. Last year those pharmacies scored 713, well above the average of 700. Walmart came in fourth at 675, up from its 2022 score of 667.
Among supermarket pharmacies, the top three rankings were unchanged, with H-E-B (760) in first place, followed by Wegmans Food Markets (753) and Publix Super Markets (744). Below the top three, however, there was considerable change year over year, as Stop & Shop tumbled from fourth place to seventh, replaced by Walmart Neighborhood Market. In fifth place, Winn-Dixie displaced Albertsons, which fell to sixth.
The U.S. Pharmacy Study is now in its 15th year. This year the survey was based on responses from 12,396 pharmacy customers who had filled a prescription within the past 12 months. The survey was conducted from August 2022 through May 2023.
For more information about the U.S. Pharmacy Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/healthcare/pharmacy-study.
