The New Theme Song For Mail-Order Pharmacy Customers? 'I Can't Get No Satisfaction'

For all the chatter about the increasing reliance on mail-order pharmacies for delivering prescription drugs, old-fashioned brick-and-mortar retailers are apparently gaining ground with consumers. A new survey finds that customer satisfaction with mail-order pharmacies was essentially flat compared with last year, while satisfaction with a traditional pharmacy rose nearly 3 percent. Why? Mail-order pharmacies are having trouble competing on cost. Last year, they had a seven-point advantage on a 1,000-point scale, but now find themselves trailing brick-and-mortar pharmacies by 20 points, according to JD Power and Associates, the market research firm, which queried more than 13,500 consumers who filled a prescription during the three months prior to the recent survey. “For the most part, the widening gap in satisfaction has more to do with improved satisfaction in the brick-and-mortar segment than declining satisfaction in mail order,” says Scott Hawkins, who heads the JD Power healthcare practice. Of course, mail-order pharmacies have been plagued with complaints for years. But the survey suggests customer satisfaction is a glaring weak spot. [UPDATE: The results, however, should not come as a surprise. As Adam Fein at Pembroke Consulting noted recently, prescription growth at mail-order pharmacies remained depressed with a five-year total growth rate of just 0.4 percent. A couple of reasons: Last year, more employers allow community pharmacies to fill 90-day prescriptions...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs