Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.24141/1/6/2/4
Customer Satisfaction with the Provision of Pharmacy Services During the COVID-19 Epidemic
Dora Rašan
; Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Suzana Marković
orcid.org/0000-0001-7035-1293
; Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Jelena Dorčić
; Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Lovro Rašan
; Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Introduction: With the outbreak of the epidemic COVID-19, pharmacies encountered unprecedented demand for disinfectants, antiseptics and protective masks. More and more people went to pharmacies, which had to strictly adhere to safety measures since the beginning of the epidemic. The role of the pharmacist became even more important under the circumstances mentioned above.
Objectives and methods: The aim of this study was to investigate and analyze the attitudes of pharmacy customers towards service quality, to analyze their overall satisfaction and to investigate the level of fear of the COVID-19 virus. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared on the basis of the relevant scientific literature and distributed online. A modified SERVQUAL model was used to measure the quality of the pharmacist’sservice. The survey was conducted on a sample of 203 pharmacy customers.
Results: The results of the empirical research indicates that the respondents have high expectations of the service quality provided by pharmacists (3.93). The respondents’ overall perception of the service provided by the pharmacist is 3.54, which indicates that there is a negative SERVQUAL gap between the perception and the expectation of the respondents (-0.39). The negative gap was largest in the evaluation of the variable “Pharmacist should tell me what to do if I miss a dose of the drug” (-1.60), and the largest positive gap in the evaluation of the variable “Pharmacist has solved all the health problems I expected” (+0.82). Respondents were satisfied with the overall service provided by the pharmacist (4.53) and felt a medium level of anxiety about the COVID-19 virus when visiting the pharmacy (3.03).
Conclusion: The investigation of customer satisfaction with the pharmacy service is decisive for improving and increasing the existing quality of the pharmacy service. Research has shown that SERVQUAL is a suitable instrument for measuring differences in customer’s expectations and perceptions of the pharmacy service quality.
Keywords
pharmacy service quality; customer satisfaction; SERVQUAL; statistical analysis; fear of the COVID-19 virus
Hrčak ID:
244589
URI
Publication date:
7.10.2020.
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