Patient satisfaction rises with mail-order pharmacies, lags for chains – Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News

Mail-order pharmacies are becoming increasingly attractive to customers as satisfaction with chain drug stores continues to fall behind, according to J.D. Power’s 17th annual U.S. Pharmacy Study, released July 29. 

To conduct the study, J.D. Power surveyed 14,700 pharmacy customers who fulfilled prescriptions between May 2024 and May 2025. 

Customer satisfaction with mail-order pharmacies rose by seven points to 697 this year on a 1,000-point scale, while chain drugstores had a score of 643, more than 50 points below the average for mail order, supermarkets and mass merchandisers. 

Supermarkets and mass merchandisers also outperformed chains on key services, including staff availability, trust in pharmacists and prescription fulfillment speed. 

“Chain drug store customers are significantly more likely than supermarket or mass market merchandiser pharmacy customers to say they ‘definitely will’ or ‘probably will’ switch pharmacies in the next 12 months,” said Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power. “That openness to switching, combined with steadily increasing satisfaction scores at mail order pharmacies, helps set the stage for a tipping point in the pharmacy space.”