Tools & Tips

Sin 1 - The Pharmacist du Jour a.k.a The People Trap

"It's about having that trust that you are going to see a familiar face. That has been a major key in terms of me building my business."

That is what one pharmacist had to say about what it takes to drive customer loyalty, during a June panel discussion to explore the elements of patient satisfaction and how it can be improved. Continuity counts. Customers expect to see a familiar face behind the pharmacy counter. All too often, however, they do not.

Given the challenges of maintaining appropriate staffing levels among an ongoing and everpresent pharmacist shortage—there haven't been enough pharmacists to staff America's drug stores for decades—competition among pharmacy retailers to lock up the best available people remains fierce, to say the least. As pharmacy volumes rise year over year, the problem only becomes more pronounced.

This has led to one of the most common customer satisfaction traps: the Pharmacist du Jour effect.

"That happens a lot of times; customers come in and see a different face all the time," acknowledged one pharmacist who works in a store in Florida. "It's like the 'pharmacist du jour,' I call it." She added, "[Customers] just don't have any trust in who they are speaking to. If the doctor is the No. 1 person that people trust [for information about their health], it's because when you go to the doctor, you see the same person every time." She continued, "But if every time that they go to the pharmacy and they see a different pharmacist, how can they get that same level of trust going?"

According to an online survey of more than 300 pharmacists conducted by Drug Store News earlier this year, almost half had been with their current company for less than five years; more than 12 percent had been there less than one year.

With those kinds of numbers, it is not surprising that customers by and large are saying that they don't really know their pharmacists. Overall, 59 percent of pharmacy patients say they do not have a personal relationship with their pharmacist—a significant leap over 2006 (48 percent), according to results from the 2007 Pharmacy Satisfaction Digest. As might be expected, highest marks went to customers who primarily shop independents for pharmacy, with 39 percent reporting a close relationship with their pharmacists, versus only 10 percent of chain drug store shoppers, which finished just ahead of mail order (7 percent).

This is significant to note, as patients who have a close relationship with their pharmacists are twice as likely to talk to the pharmacist about the medications they are taking.

The revolving door at the backbench is an age-old problem. But as drug utilization continues to rise, therapies become more complex and payers look to pharmacy to play a larger role in patient care, the pharmacist shortage is becoming seemingly more acute. There just aren't enough pharmacists to go around and it is leading to serious staffing issues and impacting customer service and patient compliance.

According to the 2007 Pharmacy Satisfaction Digest, just 53 percent of pharmacy customers say they are highly satisfied with the advice and counseling they receive from their chain pharmacist. Meanwhile, more than 35 percent of the pharmacists surveyed for a Drug Store News online poll earlier this year were personally unsatisfied with the counseling they are able to provide their patients, and blamed understaffing as the prime reason for it. Another 52 percent indicated a shortage of manpower was at least partially to blame.

In the end, a major component of pharmacy patient satisfaction is the trust and relationship that the pharmacist is able to build with that customer. It means a familiar person behind the counter when they arrive in the store, someone who appears to care enough about their health to take a few moments to talk to them about their drug therapy. But it means an investment in people, and those that are able to make the commitment are reaping the benefits.