Different reactions to my criticisms of CVS.
First, the one that took me to task:
KC, shame on you!
You have “one” customer who has raged, “outrage” with a CVS experience. Hello! There are about 10,000 CVS locations in the US, and you site one disgruntled customer. You, if ANYONE, should know that one customer does not make a COMPANY… ALL Customer experiences over time do!! I have my local CVS in Fort Worth Texas where my Pharmacist knows me, my family, as does all other employees in CVS. They are tops in customer service, understanding, etc. From what I recall, your piece did not show any statistics, graphs, etc. on customer complaints over 203 years with dissatisfaction at CVS, correct? Hmmm, maybe KC needs to do a little mor homework, before commenting! just sayin.. I love my local CVS, and employees!
I didn’t just cite one disgruntled customer. I actually am a disgruntled customer, who has largely switched my Rx business to a local pharmacist. (Grieb’s is the best!) I only keep a CVS account for when I am on the road. (While I have not been in every CVS, I’ve been in my share.). Plus, the Globe story was making a larger point, with which I agreed.
But I’m glad you like your CVS. Good for you, and good for them.
But an other MNB reader wrote:
I’m responding to your article on CVS and shopper despair.
Unfortunately, there’s plenty of despair all around.
In addition to shoppers’ despair, we also know about the despair within CVS. A lack of front-line support and broad layoffs are legitimate causes for feeling down, and more.
There’s another group that’s also despairing, and that’s their suppliers. CVS was once seen as a strategic partner and major volume driver for many non-pharma vendors. But in recent years, CVS seems to have lost the attitude or aptitude – or both – to work proactively and collaboratively with suppliers. While suppliers won’t “take their business somewhere else,” they may downgrade CVS and reduce non-essential support, pull top talent off the account, etc. That won’t help any recovery CVS may hope to make in the CPG/HABA space, and it won’t help their shoppers, either.
And from another reader:
Very well said and “spot on” however, likely falling on deaf ears. As a former retail competitor (now retired), I’ve witnessed the complacency that has set in at CVS over the years. Seems the more they’ve grow, the further away that senior management has allowed the company to stray from their customer. Disgraceful and (should be) embarrassing to the entire leadership team.
BTW – My former company, Stop & Shop, suffers from the exact same malady (as you have also previously pointed out). I feel obligated and try to shop there almost every week, but find the customer experience that Stop & Shop currently provides “painful” (to put it politely).
I can only surmise that Management’s mindset is completely different when a company is handed Market Share through acquisition and consolidation than when it’s earned the good old fashioned way (by providing a superior customer experience to your marketplace competitors).
There’s a lot to be said about the benefits of maintaining a strong & diversified competitive market…
Agreed.
On another subject, one MNB reader wrote:
Not surprised to read about the taxi revival at Logan. O’Hare is my home airport and for years I relied on a local cab company to get me there and back. When their service started getting unreliable, I made the leap to Uber. But when surge pricing got ridiculous, I switched back to taxis and haven’t looked back. My new cab company (not the one I used to use) has an app that allows me to book rides and save my favored payment method to make fares a snap. I can also pre-book my return ride; they’ll text me when I land, and when I reply with bag in hand, they’ll send my ride posthaste. Plus, taxis pick you up right outside baggage claim at O’Hare, while ride shares are confined to a single upper-level pickup spot that’s always a madhouse, not to mention a trek from my arrival terminal. I still use ride shares for short hops at my destination city, but I doubt I’ll ever use them again for airport service as long as taxis remain convenient, reliable and consistently priced.
And from another reader:
This article had unexpected relevance for me recently. I went on a guys trip to Phoenix for the much-publicized PGA event there a few weekends ago. I’ve grown accustomed to using Uber for trips both from airports and around town. This was a high volume weekend, as you can imagine. When 3 of us exited the airport and attempted to get a rideshare reserved on the app there was a long wait to get a driver confirmed. We were standing there on the curbside and low and behold a taxi stand with two waiting vehicles was right there in front of us. We got in one and were on our way.
It almost felt odd being in a cab after all this time but will say it was on par or better of an experience than most rideshares. We used a lot of Uber/Lyft’s that weekend and for the most part the cars that arrived were a crapshoot. When a product is better (faster, cheaper, and/or higher quality) it tends to stand out. Our airport experience led me to believe that, for at least that trip, the taxi was a fair equivalent.
For other around town trips I wouldn’t have hesitated to jump in a cab if one had been circling the area. We ended up using Uber for most of our travel around town and it’s been disappointing where the “Uber XL” has gone. In the beginning it would always be a large SUV or minivan – enough to hold 4+ adults comfortably. Somehow drivers are getting away with small-ish crossovers with an afterthought third row. Many cars are not particularly clean and drivers can be a mixed bag themselves in terms of professionalism.
Truly the differentiation for Uber isn’t there anymore, other than the app convenience. The one experience I did have that was interesting was trying out the Waymo self-driving cab. They had them all over Scottsdale. Our car arrived promptly, was relatively clean, and the autonomous driving was as smooth or better than any human driver we had experienced that weekend. Realizing it is still in pilot stage and likely difficult to turn a profit on today, it’s telling where the industry is going and how quickly Uber and Lyft could become irrelevant in their current forms.
There is no such thing as an unassailable business model.
Can I get an Amen?
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