Survey: Medication flavoring impacts pharmacy satisfaction, loyalty

COLUMBIA, Md. – Customer satisfaction and pharmacy loyalty among parents increase significantly when the pharmacist can add custom flavoring to a child's medications, according to a new study.



The study, conducted by researchers at Temple University's School of Pharmacy and healthcare consumer research company WilsonRx, found that parents were more likely to recommend a pharmacy that actively informed them about custom-flavoring services over one that did not and preferred filling their children's medications at pharmacies where the services were available and promoted.



The study consisted of two parts: a survey by pharmacy students of 200 mothers waiting for their children's prescriptions at 10 chain and independent drug stores in Philadelphia and New Jersey; and a review of WilsonRx's Pharmacy Customer Satisfaction Survey data, an eight-page paper survey of 34,454 pharmacy customers that included questions on a variety of topics.



“The research and analysis was surprising in that we found that while a fairly high percentage of pharmacy customers were aware that their pharmacy offered prescription flavoring, many were not getting the full value or benefits of the service, either because they didn't understand how it would help their kids take the medicine or they were simply not asked about it,” Jim Wilson, one of the researchers, said. “I was surprised that there were so many positive benefits for the pharmacy, yet many don't seem to be making the effort to deliver a totally satisfying flavoring experience. Clearly, the research shows that pharmacy retailers and chains can improve customer satisfaction with a very select family audience.”



According to FlavoRx, a company that makes prescription drug flavoring, only 3% of prescriptions that could be custom flavored actually are. According to the WilsonRx research,  nearly 40% of parents would get a medication flavored for their child, regardless of cost. In addition, 97% of parents said if the pharmacist recommended medication flavoring, they would be highly likely to accept.