If you’ve ever been frustrated while shopping at your local pharmacy, you’re hardly alone — but now CVS has devised a plan to change that with it’s new iPhone app.
Pharmacies often get disparaged as one of the most tedious places the average person has to put up with. Long lines, hidden prescription costs, and the highly inconvenient locked cabinets are hated by nearly everyone.
And, that probably includes your local pharmacy, too. That’s why CVS is trying to change how you make your pharmacy run with its revamped CVS Health app.
Tilak Mandadi, CVS’ executive vice president wants customers to have a better experience by eliminating the worst parts of going to the pharmacy. He’s no stranger to addressing customer concerns: he’s held roles at both MGM Resorts and Disney.
“Experience has been a consistent theme for me all along,” Mandadi told The Wall Street Journal. “How do we optimize customer convenience and take out the stress and guesswork?”
The move isn’t entirely altruistic. Research shows that companies that focus on improving customer experience see improved share prices and higher revenue growth.
This is important, as pharmacy chains nationwide haven’t been keeping up with overall market growth. These changes could help CVS see growth where it previously stagnated.
The revamped experience includes cutting down on the time spent waiting in line. One way this has been addressed is by providing personalized barcodes for both prescription lookup and payment.
Customers will also be able to track their prescriptions for their whole family and see the cost upfront. This should save time and prevent sticker shock when you reach the register.
The CVS app
Currently, only users who are eligible members of Aetna and Caremark can utilize this feature, as CVS owns both companies. CVS hopes to provide the service to other insurers in the future.
Customers will also be able to schedule immunizations, including multi-shot scheduling and easy-to-find appointments.
Another feature being tested is the ability for CVS loyalty program members to open the much-maligned locked cabinets without tracking down a staff member. Ideally, this should also reduce the extra work placed on CVS staff members, as the chain faces staffing shortages nationwide.
Currently, the ability to unlock cabinets is being tested in three stores. Mandadi says that the test is going well, and hopes to expand to as many as 15 stores for the next phase of testing. The end goal, should the tests continue to go well, would be full-scale deployment.
CVS hopes to incentivize users to use the new app by providing other specialized features. Right now, it gives users the ability to read articles from Everyday Health or partake in guided meditations from Headspace.
There’s also an AI-powered search that helps consumers locate products, services, and information from across CVS Health and select third-party content providers. This expands upon the AI-powered chat experience that CVS rolled out in 2024, allowing patients to check medication refills, the status of their orders, and more.
CVS Health app is compatible with any iPhone running iOS 16 or later, as well as the Apple Vision Pro running visionOS 1.0 or later.
