Field Research: Competitive Beauty and Pre-Paid Rx Pickup

Overview

Summary

Two field research studies focusing on shopping for beauty products and pre-paying for prescriptions ahead of pick up.

My Role

Lead Researcher

Responsibilities

Study setup | Participant interviews | Observation | Analysis | Report writing | Present findings

Worked with

Marketing | Retail SMEs | Pharmacy SMEs

Company

CVS Health

Artifacts created

Research plan | Final report | In-situ interview guide

Tools

Figma | Word | PowerPoint

While working at CVS I had two opportunities to conduct some field research. One was competitive research, observing the experience of a beauty store shopper. The other was in-store research at a CVS, observing customers pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy.

Competitive Beauty Store Research

For the competitive beauty research, I had the opportunity to visit a competitor beauty store to conduct observations and experience first hand on how store associates interact with customers.

Goals

The goal of this research was primarily to observe how a core beauty store brand operates with customers in their store. The research was partly motivated because the beauty store was opening up a new, modern store in the city I lived in featuring digital support tools, classes, and other personalized services to offer a unique user experience.

The In-Store Experience

As I was not the intended target user for beauty I had decided early on to bring along a participant to be the primary recipient of any interactions in the store. The idea was for this participant to be a real shopper with the sole goal of buying a new lipstick.

From the time we arrived in store until we left, I tried to remain invisible, after all, my participant had a real shopping goal. I was able to observe how the associate interacted with my participant and how my participant was able to interact with all the devices and tools available to them as part of their shopping experience. The two key insights learned were the personalized attention my participant received as well as the amount of fun my participant had playing around with the digital tools and devices given to them as part of their shopping experience.

Later on I wrote a report detailing the experience that my shopper had, what devices and digital experiences they interacted with, as well as what I observed outside of my participant’s experience, which included the availability of classes and other daily services.

Pre-Paid Rx Mobile Pickup

While at CVS, we had designed a pre-paid Rx pickup experience, essentially a "fast lane" for customers with a pre-paid or a $0 copay that would allow them to skip the traditional wait of standing in line to pick up their Rx.

Goals

The motivation for this research was to actually observe any consequences a "fast lane" would have for other customers waiting in the traditional pharmacy line. Specific questions we hoped this research would answer were:

  • Is a pre-paid "fast lane" disruptive for other customers standing in the traditional line?
  • Would customers be bothered by pre-paid customers “cutting-ahead”?
  • Do customers understand why pre-paid customers are able to “move to the front of the line”?
  • What other questions or concerns do non pre-paid customers have?

Methodology

Observing customers as they picked up their prescriptions was a core component of this research. In addition, I conducted short, in-situ interviews with customers, who waited in the traditional pharmacy line, after they picked up their prescriptions.

The Process

Normally, when you fill a prescription you’re arriving at the pharmacy to either pick it up because it’s ready or you’re dropping off a new prescription slip to be filled immediately (which might take 20 minutes) or later that same day.

This new offering allowed customers to prepay ahead of time before arriving at the pharmacy. Once they arrive they would be able to “skip the line” by following signage for the pre-paid line. Using their phone to identify themselves, the store associate would be able to quickly greet them, identify them, and hand over their prescription, at which point the Rx pick up interaction would be complete. All of this would happen in a matter of minutes resulting in a very small, quick interaction.

However a primary concern was - would this result in a negative experience for other customers who aren’t able to take advantage of being able to pre-pay? That is what this field research set out to investigate.

Besides observing customers, I prepared a short interview, hoping to intercept customers who stood in the traditional line to ask about their experience and discuss the adjacent pre-paid line.

Although there was no incentive offered for this quick interview, customers were eager to answer questions. Over the course of two days we were able to interview 30+ customers after they picked up their prescriptions.

Sample questions that would have been asked were:

  • What was the purpose of your visit today?
  • And while you waited in line for your Rx did you notice the second line marked pre-paid?
  • Did you have any thoughts as to why there was a pre-paid line? What were they?
  • Did you notice anyone use the pre-paid line?

Insights

Through our short interviews and observations we were able to learn about how customers viewed, understood, and felt about the pre-paid pick up line. Customers were minimally impacted negatively by the introduction of this experience. Besides validating any consequences of introducing a pre-paid line we also gained some useful learnings to improve the overall pre-paid pickup experience.