| Background. The role of service quality in the Taiwanese economy has become more important due to rapid economic development and higher consumer expectations of service quality. Thus, the business advantage that enterprises seek today is not purely price advantage, nor is it simply a variety of products. Rather it is overall service quality.;Objective. This research begins with two critical issues. The first is that customers are the sole judges of service quality. The second issue is how managers can achieve the expectations of customers.;Methods. The questionnaires using the SERVQUAL scale were administered to understand pharmacy customer perceptions of service quality. The survey was taken from March 13th to March 20 th, 2004 at the "An-Add" community pharmacy in Taipei City. Statistical analyses and Importance-Satisfaction analysis were included in the research to assist the pharmacy manager in understanding opportunities for improvement.;Conclusion. A significant and positive correlation was found between the quality of-pharmaceutical care service and overall service quality. The major recommendation to pharmacy managers is that tangible service attributes should be improved at once, since these attributes are in the category of "Concentrate here" based on the analysis of Importance-Satisfaction. Finally, the attitude of customers concerning pharmacists' reliability is worthy of attention and should be improved as resources permit. Companies are usually too satisfied with run-of-the-mill performance and are complacent in the assumption that their service quality is superior to their competition. However, without aspirations, there will not be extraordinary results. The SWOT results will assist managers in developing future strategies that will maintain customer's present satisfaction level and produce even more service excellence.;Key words. Community Pharmacy, Satisfaction, Pharmaceutical Care Service. |
