• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, July 27, 2023

Until a few years ago, we had what you’d call a “corner drugstore” right down the block from us in Brooklyn. Indeed, its name was even “Wyckoff’s Corner Pharmacy.” Pharmacists John or Sam would provide true personalized service that went beyond filling prescriptions quickly -- say, advancing one or two pills when a prescription ran out and we couldn’t get the doc right then (all kosher according to the emergency refill laws). They were also an empathetic source of info on possible medication side effects, and helped my wife and I navigate the sometimes-insane issues that came up dealing with health insurance companies.

I’ve since switched to CVS, where I don’t deal with the same pharmacist –- or clerk, it’s hard to tell who does what -- more than perhaps once in every 10 visits. And I certainly don’t know anybody's name.

It’s definitely not the same. I miss John and Sam!

And I’m not alone in preferring a friendly pharmacist. J.D. Power’s annual U.S. Pharmacy Study, released this morning, reports that personal interactions with staff are the key to enduring customer satisfaction with pharmacies. Christopher Lis, the researcher’s managing director of global healthcare intelligence, points out in a statement that consumers are rewarding pharmacies “where communications occur on a first-name basis.”

So, I was hardly surprised to learn that CVS ranks below average among brick-and-mortar chain drug stores, and also below average among brick-and-mortar mass merchandisers  for its pharmacies located inside Target stores.

Overall satisfaction for all kinds of pharmacies, in fact, was found to be 102 points higher (on a 1,000 point scale) among customers who said they knew their pharmacist by name, and 93 points higher among those who said they knew other pharmacy staff or technicians by name.

Of course, many people would prefer not discussing private medical matters in a public store, and possibly in front of neighbors.

For them, online pharmacies might be the solution.

Indeed, what J.D. Powers still labels as “mail order” pharmacies were up nine points in satisfaction this year. But their customers, lacking a personal connection, are more likely to switch providers, Lis says.

According to the research, 18% of mail-order customers said they “definitely” or “probably” will switch pharmacies in the next 12 months, up from 14% in 2022. One of the top reasons for switching: the desire for “flexible pick-up options.”

That brings us back to brick-and-mortar locations, which may have found the perfect combination: personalized in-person service combined with convenient, if impersonal, digital engagement.

This year, 81% of brick-and-mortar customers reported using digital technology to interact with their pharmacies, up from 76% a year earlier.

You also can’t get many health and wellness services virtually. And brick-and-mortar pharmacy customers are increasingly interested in such services, which include vaccinations or flu shots (desired by 50% in the study), health screenings (46%), and COVID-19 testing (42%).

Overall, 83% of brick-and-mortar customers said they are now interested in receiving health and wellness services at pharmacies, up from 80% in 2022.

That jibes nicely with brick-and-mortar pharmacies’ continued expansion, propelled by COVID, into those services traditionally offered by primary care physicians -- even as brick-and-mortar pharmacies themselves continue to evolve past drugstores into a given presence at mass merchandisers and supermarkets.

Among the different pharmacy types, the leaders in customer satisfaction are pretty much constant from year to year: Good Neighbor tops in chain drugstores for the seventh straight year, Sam’s Club in mass merchandiser chain stores for the eighth straight year, H-E-B in supermarkets for the third straight year, and Kaiser Permanente in mail order for the second straight year.

But Amazon Pharmacy’s PillPack seems to be taking advantage of the pharmacy-switching trend in the mail order segment. It didn’t even make the J.D. Power list last year, but has now shot up to second place in customer satisfaction.

Then again, Amazon is pretty good at communications on a first-name basis. Hello, Alexa?