Patients want health and wellness services from brick and mortar pharmacies, survey finds
“Customers are beginning to embrace their retail pharmacy as a hub for a broad range of routine health and wellness services,” says Christopher Lis, J.D. Power’s managing director of global health care intelligence.
The past two years have seen a range of developments in how patients obtain medical care, with pandemic pressures inciting an explosion in telehealth and home delivery services. Now, new research from J.D. Power suggests that what patients look for in pharmacies is evolving, too. Their 2022 “US Pharmacy Study” of over 12,000 people showed that customers increasingly want health and wellness services to be offered at their pharmacies.
The survey found that customers who obtain health and wellness services from their pharmacies were more likely to be loyal to their pharmacy than those who looked elsewhere for these services. For those who hoped their pharmacy expanded into the health and wellness sector, the study suggests the most in-demand services include vision and hearing tests as well as physical exams and routine blood testing.
Christopher Lis, J.D. Power’s managing director of global health care intelligence, says, “Customers are beginning to embrace their retail pharmacy as a hub for a broad range of routine health and wellness services,” adding, “This is an opportunity for more retail pharmacies to innovate as a one-stop shop for routine care and to leverage data and technology to create an increasingly personalized customer experience.”
The data is particularly important as it suggests a way for brick and mortar pharmacies to retain and expand their clientele at a time when Amazon and other online retailers are growing their pharmaceutical capabilities. Around half of customers to physical pharmacies were aware of Amazon’s pharmacy services, and around 1 in 7 of those customers had already tried them out.
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In addition to health and wellness services, the survey suggests that apps can also promote customer loyalty: frequent app users were more satisfied with their experience and more likely to stick with their pharmacy than those who didn’t use the app often, the research finds.