Community Pharmacy Services Keep Customer Satisfaction High

Customer satisfaction with drugstore chain, mass-merchandiser, supermarket, and mail-order pharmacies has improved across the board in the last year, according to the J.D. Power 2016 US Pharmacy Study released today.

Chain drugstores’ overall customer satisfaction scores improved from 842 points out of a possible 1000 in last year’s study to 863 on the same 1000-point scale in this year’s. Health Mart (898 points) scored slightly higher than Good Neighbor Pharmacy (896 points) to rank highest overall among brick-and-mortar chain drugstores, performing particularly well on the store, nonpharmacist staff, cost competitiveness, and pharmacist factors.

In the mass-merchandiser pharmacies category, Sam’s Club (883 points) nabbed the top spot, performing particularly well on nonpharmacist staff, pharmacist, and prescription ordering/pick-up process, though it was closely followed by Costco (880 points). After dropping in ratings from 830 points in 2014 to 822 in 2015, overall customer satisfaction scores for this category increased to 851 points in 2016.

Meanwhile, supermarket pharmacies’ overall scores improved from 851 points last year to 874 this year. Publix (912) earned the highest score overall, as well as in its category, where it was followed by Wegmans (891).

The higher scores for all brick-and-mortar pharmacy categories reflects an increased focus on customers and the growing trend of pharmacy-based convenient care clinics, as those choosing to visit a pharmacy are often finding more wellness services being provided today.

“Increasingly, customers are turning 2 errands into one when, for example, they need to pick up a prescription and get a flu shot,” said Rick Johnson, director of the health care practice at J.D. Power. “Pharmacies that are cognizant of their customers’ needs—and their time—will likely continue to achieve high satisfaction.”

At the same time, more customers are turning to mail-order pharmacies because of convenience and cost effectiveness. In this category, Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy ranked highest (906 points), followed by Humana RightSourceRx (890 points). Average overall satisfaction in the mail-order segment was 869.

All results are based on responses from 14,789 pharmacy customers who filled a new prescription or refilled a prescription during the 3 months prior to the survey period of June 2016. Customer satisfaction with brick-and-mortar pharmacies was measured across 5 factors: 1) prescription ordering/pick-up process, 2) store, 3) cost competitiveness, 4) nonpharmacist staff, and 5) pharmacist. Satisfaction with mail-order pharmacies was measured across prescription ordering process, prescription delivery, nonpharmacist staff, cost competitiveness, and pharmacist.