These chains topped J.D. Power’s 2021 rankings as 51% of shoppers used pharmacy health services
Retail health-and-wellness services shined in the past year, driving an increase in consumer satisfaction with pharmacies, according to J.D. Power’s 2021 U.S. Pharmacy Study, released Wednesday. The study also ranked retail pharmacy operators based on consumer satisfaction scores using a 1,000-point scale.
For the fifth year running, Good Neighbor Pharmacy ranked highest in customer satisfaction among brick-and-mortar chain drug store pharmacies with a score of 912. Second this year was Health Mart with a score of 891, followed by Rite Aid, which scored 866. Walgreens scored an 860 and CVS Pharmacy had a score of 847. The national drug chain segment’s average score was 856.
Sam’s Club was tops among mass retailers at 891, while CVS Pharmacy inside Target ranked second at 879 and Costco was third with a score of 877.
Among grocers, H-E-B, Wegmans and Stop & Shop were the highest ranked chains, with scores of 896, 892 and 885, respectively. Publix, Albertsons, Winn-Dixie and ShopRite pharmacies all ranked higher than the supermarket average ranking of 862.
Beyond ranking their favorite pharmacies, customers in this year’s study showed themselves to be widely adopting retail health services. Fifty-one percent of surveyed retail pharmacy customers said they had used a health-and-wellness service in the past year — an increase over the 48% who said they’d used such services in 2020 and the 43% reported in 2019.
“It was not long ago that the major pharmacy chains, healthcare providers, health plans and consumers were all asking themselves whether or not people would ever feel comfortable receiving treatment in a retail setting,” said James Beem, managing director of healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “While we have been seeing consumer satisfaction with retail health services grow steadily, this year marks a significant turning point in which most customers are now using these services. The fact that this happened during a pandemic should send a clear signal that retail pharmacies are transforming health and wellness services in America.”
Beyond highlighting pharmacy’s role in the healthcare ecosystem, increased use of health-and-wellness services are associated with higher customer satisfaction and higher consumer spend. The survey found that those who use a pharmacy’s retail health services spend an average of $5 more than those who don’t, and average satisfaction scores were 24 points higher on a 1,000-point scale among users of health-and-wellness services.
The J.D. Power survey also underscored the importance of omnichannel offerings, with 26% of brick-and-mortar pharmacy customers and 27% of mail-order customers saying they used their pharmacy’s mobile app. Overall scores for brick-and-mortar apps was 848, with mail-order apps ranking at 868.