Saturday, October 11, 2008

Customer Service Counts in Pharmacies

Wilson Health Information, LLC will present its 1st Independent Pharmacy Satisfaction Report at the National Community Pharmacists Association meeting this week in Tampa Florida. They have written an 8 page report based on a sample of 34,454 repondents from a total mailing of 70,000 households. The sample was balanced by geographic region, market size, age, household type, income, size and state. Based on this sample the margin for error is +/- 0.5 percent at a 95% confidence level. They required at least 40 responses within a market in order to draw comparative and quantitative conclusions.

The primary conclusion they drew from the survey was that independent pharmacies rank higher in customer satisfaction than the chains. The American consumer rated independent pharmacies the most highly satisfied and most trusted healthcare advisors and customer-service providers in the retail pharmacy industry.

The independent pharmacies seem to outperform the chains as well as scoring high in customer satisfaction. Some of the statistics from the survey are:
1. Independent pharmacies received 7.8 new scripts compared to the chains that received 6.8.
2. Independent pharmacies received 27.7 refills in the past year compared with the chains that received 23.8.

"Information from their research indicates that independent pharmacists succeed because they stick to the basics and provide superior one-on-one customer service as they have for most of this nation's history" according to Jim Wilson, president. "They take the time to build personal relationships with their patients, counsel them on their medication needs and go the extra mile to make sure those needs are served."

The bottom line is that aiming at the individual customer has financial rewards as demonstrated by higher new scripts and refills.

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