Putting a Value on a Highly Satisfied Customer

If you were told that a highly satisfied customer will spend $30 more per visit to your store, no matter what business you were in, wouldn’t you go the extra mile to make sure that customer had a great experience? It is hard to quantify the exact value of a satisfied customer, but a recent story in Progressive Grocer reported on a study that does just that. The J.D. Power and Associates 2009 National Pharmacy Study, which gauges customer satisfaction with brick-and-mortar and mail-order pharmacies, ranked Wegman’s best in the supermarket segment and Target tops in the Mass segment.

The study used seven factors that contribute to customer satisfaction at retail: non-pharmacist staff, store convenience, medication availability and information, store layout and design, cost competitiveness, remote ordering convenience, and pharmacist.

Beyond the retailer rankings, perhaps the additional findings of the study are more interesting. The study found that high satisfaction scores are financially beneficial to pharmacies in three ways:

1. Higher rates of loyalty. A highly satisfied customer is three times more likely to return to the store/pharmacy.

2. Higher rates of advocacy. That same customer is seven times more likely to recommend their pharmacy to others. With the power of social media, that positive review can be increased exponentially.

3. Increased revenue per visit. On average, a highly satisfied customer generates $30 more in pharmacy revenue per visit than those who are less satisfied. To extrapolate, a pharmacy with 1,000 customers each month can gain an additional $360,000 in revenue annually.

It is probably true that you can’t please everybody, but most of the factors that lead to deep customer satisfaction are well within grasp. This study shows proof that measuring and managing those factors produces great returns.