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NEW YORK — Consumers agree that pharmacies are more than up to the task of providing superior customer service.
A recent Gallup poll found that pharmacies and banks are rated the highest for customer service, while clothing and retail stores and fast-food restaurants have a smaller percentage of excellent service scores.
Survey participants were asked to rate banks, pharmacies, post offices, grocery stores, convenience stores, clothing and retail stores, and fast-food restaurants. Of those surveyed, 34% rated pharmacy service as excellent and 53% rated it as good, while only 10% rated it as fair and 2% as poor.
Pharmacies shared the lowest percentage of poor scores with clothing and retail stores and grocery stores at 2%.
Less than 20% said service at clothing or retail stores was excellent, 61% said it was good, 18% said it was fair, and 2% said it was poor.
“One encouraging sign is that even for the types of stores with lower ratings, a majority say they have had a ‘good’ — if not an ‘excellent’ — experience, suggesting that most customer transactions are viewed positively,” the Gallup report read.
Factors that may have contributed to these scores were the physical environment of the store, wait times, value of products and direct contact with the employees, Gallup noted.
Another finding from the poll was that those born between 1900 and 1945 typically give the best ratings to pharmacies; 95% of this patient population said they had excellent or good service experiences.
Around 89% of baby boomers and 85% of Generation X individuals gave excellent or good scores to pharmacies. Millennials were slightly less likely to give pharmacies good scores. Around 83% of those born from 1980 and later gave excellent or good scores.
One reason for this could be that the younger generation has fewer face-to-face interactions with pharmacists than the older age groups. Gallup said that adults born before 1946 are more likely to visit pharmacies in person, and these personal interactions can lead to increased customer loyalty.
Because poor customer service often causes consumers to stop buying a product or using the service, brick-and-mortar pharmacies should be set up well to maintain and grow their customer base. Pharmacists have been considered some of the most honest and ethical professionals, based on a previous Gallup poll.
