1. Introduction Community pharmacies are businesses tha

1. Introduction
Community pharmacies are businesses that supply medicines in accordance with a prescription, or, when legally
permitted, sell them without a prescription to the general public (World Health Organization, 1994). In addition to
ensuring an accurate supply of appropriate products, their professional activities also cover counselling of patients
at the time of dispensing prescription and non-prescription drugs, providing drug information to health
professionals, patients and the general public, and participating in health-promotion programmes (World Health
Organization, 1994). Over the past 30 years, the evolution of the community pharmacy environment has placed
pharmacists in an ideal position to engage with consumers (Mirzaei et al, 2018). This has encouraged the practice of
patient-centred care provision, and this has now become a widespread health provision and marketing strategy
(Mirzaei et al, 2018).
Under the Medicines Act of 1968, a pharmacy can be registered by a pharmacist sole trader, a limited partnership
(where all partners are pharmacists), or bodies corporate (where a superintendent pharmacist must be appointed).
These are collectively known as pharmacy contractors. Community pharmacy contractors who own six or more
pharmacies are known as multiple contractors or pharmacy chains. Contractors owning more than 100 pharmacies
are known as “large multiples”; between six and 100 pharmacies are known as “small multiples”; and owning five
or less pharmacies are known as “independents” (Prescribing and Medicines Team, 2017).
Every day, about 1.6 million people visit a community pharmacy in England, and the net value of this market is now
estimated at around £3 billion annually, with a further £1.9 billion expected to accrue over the next 20 years
(Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, 2018). There are 11,699 community pharmacies in England (as at
31 March 2017), 1854 of which are located in London (in London, the density of community pharmacies is
increasing and stands at 1 pharmacy per 4762 inhabitants as at 31 March 2017 (calculated by author, based on data
available from Prescribing and Medicines Team (2017)). Of these, 37% are chain pharmacies owned by large
multiples (i.e. 686 large multiples chain pharmacies) (Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, 2018),
accounting for 61.6% of the market share within this geographical area (Sukkar, 2016).
Service quality has been considered as a critical success factor in the competitive market of service organizations
(Zeithaml et al., 1988). Various instruments have been developed to measure service quality in community
pharmacies, and extensive insight into customer perceptions of service quality has been drawn (Mirzaei et al,
2018). However, these instruments do not provide an understanding of what factors influence service quality from
the employees’ perspective (White & Klinner, 2012). This aspect is extremely important considering that what
determines the quality of the service provided in community pharmacies is the employees’ understanding of
customer expectations and their preparedness and ability to meet them and that if service quality is solely focused
on the customers’ perspective, it is likely that management will overlook the factors influencing service quality
from the employees’ perspective (White & Klinner, 2012). White & Klinner (2012) conducted a qualitative, inductive
study in Australia that shed light on this issue by use of Zeithaml et al. (1988) SERVQUAL to understand the factors
affecting community pharmacy staff that might affect the levels of service quality provided by staff. They found that
“from the pharmacy staff perspective, service quality is significantly limited by insufficient organisation-internal
communication and control processes which impede role clarity and the resolution of conflicting role expectations
among customer service staff” (White & Klinner, 2012). However, this study focused only on the pharmacy staff’s
perspective of service quality determinants and did not measure pharmacy customers’ perceptions of service
quality in the pharmacies where the data collection was conducted. To the best knowledge of the authors of this
document, no other study tried to replicate the methodology reported by White & Klinner (2012), or combined
data collection and analysis from both the employees and customers’ by use of the SERVQUAL scale proposed by
Parasuraman et al (1988) to measure pharmacies’ staff and management perception of the quality of the service
provided, and relate the two. This evidences an academic knowledge gap that justifies the project presented in this
document.
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On practical level, the importance of this project mainly lies in the fact that, as early as in 1988, service quality has
been considered as a critical success factor in various service industries (Zeithaml et al., 1988) such as community
pharmacies. This has become increasingly significant over the years, as competition intensifies and customers’
expect higher levels of service quality. In the particular case of community pharmacies, it has been shown that
service quality is inherently related with customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Adoyo et al, 2012) and has
been claimed as one of the most important determinant of long-term financial performance, along with customer
loyalty which is highly dependent on service quality (Holdford, 2003; Nikolova et al, 2017; Castaldo et al, 2016). It is
invaluable to gain an understanding of the customer expectations of service quality in order to improve the service
accordingly (Nikolova et al, 2017) as improvement of service quality has been correlated with stronger relationships
with customers and creation of patron loyalty over time (Rabbanee et al, 2015; Singleton, 2013). However, in the
community pharmacy industry, what actually determines service quality is the difference between consumer
expectations of what constitutes good service quality and the pharmacy employees’ understanding of these
expectations and their preparedness and ability to meet those (White & Klinner, 2012). Therefore, one should not
focus solely on customers’ expectations and perception of service quality in order to improve service and achieve
competitive advantage, but also to correlate these expectations with the factors identified by employees’ which
may affect the provision of a service with quality at the level expected by customers.
This study was proposed in order to address the academic knowledge gap in light of the practical importance
identified in the paragraphs above. Its aim is to assess the relationship between the factors affecting service quality
from the employees’ perspective and the customers’ perception of service quality, in the context of the community
pharmacies of London.
In order to achieve the aim, the following research objectives have to be followed: to critically analyse different
conceptual models and theories of service quality (literature review); to measure the factors influencing service
quality from the employees’ perspective in selected pharmacies in London based on the SERVQUAL scale of service
quality, by applying a self-administered survey; to measure customers’ expectations and perceptions of service
quality in selected pharmacies of London by use of the SERVQUAL scale of service quality, by applying a self-
administered survey; to critically assess whether or not there is a relationship between customers’ perception of
service quality and the factors affecting service quality from the employees’ perspective; to propose
recommendations that assist London’s community pharmacies’ management teams in determining what main
factors affect the service quality from the employees’ and customers’ perspective and in reducing the existence and
the impact of factors negatively affecting the quality of the service provided.
From the aim and objectives of the study, there are one primary and three secondary research questions that have
to be answered based on the data collected. The primary research question is: Is there a relationship between the
factors affecting service quality from the employees’ perspective and the customers’ perception of service quality,
in the context of the community pharmacies of London?
The secondary questions are: What are the main factors impeding the provision of high quality service, from the
employee’s perspective, in the context of the community pharmacies of London?; From the customers’
perspective, what are the factors affecting the quality of the service provided, in the context of the community
pharmacies of London?; What action can be taken by management teams of the independent community
pharmacies of London, in order to minimize or eliminate existing factors negatively affecting staff’s understanding
and ability to meet customer expectations of service quality?.
For the primary research question, the research will confirm or reject the following hypotheses:
H0: There is no relationship between the factors affecting service quality from the employees’ perspective
and the customers’ perception of service quality, in the context of the community pharmacies of London.
H1: There is a relationship between the factors affecting service quality from the employees’ perspective
and the customers’ perception of service quality, in the context of the community pharmacies of London.
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In confirming or rejecting the hypothesis identified above, this study will provide insight into aspects which are
likely to assist London’s community pharmacies management teams in achieving competitive advantage, by
identification of the main factors affecting the provision of high quality service from the employee’s perspective;
identification of the main factors influencing customers perception of the pharmacies’ service quality; assessing
whether or not there is a relationship between customers’ perception of service quality and the factors affecting
service quality from the employees’ perspective, in the context of the community pharmacies of London ; and
understanding what action, if any, can be taken by management in order to eliminate factors negatively affecting
employees’ understanding and ability to meet customer expectations of service quality.
This document follows a standard dissertation structure. Following this introductory chapter, the literature review
on key concepts relating to service quality is presented along with a description of key models and a justification for
the chosen conceptual model for this study. In chapter three, the research methodology is presented in line with
the research onion proposed by Saunders et al (2016). In chapter four the results of the data collection is presented
and in chapter five the research discussion presents relevant findings upon data analysis, recommendations for key
stakeholders and identifies the limitations of this study. Chapter six closes the document with a conclusion
reconciling the main aspects of the study.
2. Literature review
2.1. Introduction
Community pharmacies are an integral part of the healthcare industry in England. The service quality of the
community pharmacies is an important feature that controls the overall outcome in the health industry as the
owners and the employees of the community pharmacies perform many responsibilities out of their expertise.
Along with selling drugs and medications without prescriptions they are also involved in counselling the customers
and the patients coming to the pharmacy store, maintaining proper supply of products to the patients with or
without prescription, participating in the health related promotions and delivering information about the drugs
they are selling (WHO, 1994). The service they are providing sometimes meet the expectation of the customers but
sometimes does not. The information and research regarding service quality of the employees of community
pharmacies is not adequate. Service quality depends on the customer expectation and the understanding of service
of the service providers like the employees and the store management. Perspective of the customer and the
employees may differ affecting the service quality. Understanding the customer perspective and meeting their
expectation can be beneficial for the service quality. The management needs to communicate with the employees
running the store to bridge the gap between the customer expectation and understanding of service of the
employee. The internal communication is sometimes not adequate and that poses a challenge to the employees.
Added to that patients and the customers are more health conscious and informed about medicines nowadays that
changes their level of expectation. They demand best service from the pharmacy stores from where not only they
can acquire drugs but also get advice and counselling from the employees. This has created a tough competition in
the market where all the community pharmacies are trying to satisfy the customers to the best of their abilities.
With this growing market which values £3 billion annually the numbers of these community pharmacy stores are
also increasing though the customer base is not increasing at the same rate. The pharmacy stores are applying the
strategy where they can function in a duel role to maximise their business profit. This strategy involves providing all
the essential medicine to the customers as a retailer and pleasing the customers at the same time with added
healthcare service (Mehralian and Babapour 2016). This is where measuring the service quality of the community
pharmacy stores become quite important. Service features like official hours, communication and information in
the store and with the customers, shorter processing time for prescription, precise medicine availability in the
store, reasonable pricing and payment convenience add to the quality of service. The gulf between customer
expectation and understanding of the pharmacy employee decides the actual service quality in the community
pharmacy stores. As the preparedness and competency of the employee to meet the consumer expectation is
evaluated by different models the internal communication is a crucial prospect along with determining the service
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quality with different models. Measuring the service quality with different models and finding the suitable model
for evaluating is the main objective of this study.
2.2. Definitions and discussions about the key terms in service quality:
Every industry requires to focus on their customer service quality to sustain and grow their business
profitability. Community pharmacies of England have grown exponentially in number in the last decade (Robinson
2019). Most of them are concentrated in London. Service quality has different features and aspects which are
required to meet the consumer expectation. Community pharmacy service can be divided into two aspects. One is
their technical service related to proper drug availability, counselling and drug advising facility. Other is the
functional aspect related to time convenience, processing speed, warm behaviour and reasonable pricing (Bradley
et al. 2013). Combination of both should be measured to evaluate service quality of a pharmacy store especially in
England. Some of the customers prefer precise information about drugs and they prefer the technical aspect of
servicing while some prefer to visit a pharmacy store with smooth functional service availability. In England patients
prefer community pharmacy stores over larger pharmaceutical chains as they feel more comfortable
communicating with the employees because of the familiarity aspects. This is especially applicable to the older
people in the society. Although during large consumption of drugs some customers prefer larger pharmaceutical
stores because of better insurance assurance. Community pharmacies in London have their specific set of customer
base and sometimes their expectations are difficult to fulfil for a community pharmacy as they have lack of internal
communication. They do not have a management team to guide the employees and set a specific goal about their
servicing. Even if they have a management the managers do not communicate with the employees. So it becomes
herculean for the employees to meet the customer expectations. Some of the crucial features of the service quality
are discussed in the following:
 Internal communication
Communication in the organization is a very important feature to the service quality in the community
pharmacies. The management needs to focus on the customer feedback and communicate it to the employees to
guide the employees on their roles. This helps the employees to understand the consumer expectation better and
act accordingly (Hann et al. 2017). At the same time motivating employees by sharing about any great experience
related to customer service can be a tool for communication which can make them more emphatic which is a key
aspect n community pharmacies.
 Clarity of roles
Clarity is important in the community pharmacy services as they sometimes deal with patients with critical
illness. Besides that the retailer need to be very specific about their drug storage. Recommending drugs without
prescriptions is a common practice in these stores where clarity plays a huge role. The employees should be very
cautious about their roles and for that management needs to be precise about the job role specifications of the
hired employees. If they set a blueprint for consumer service and allocate specific roles and responsibilities the
employees will have greater clarity about their servicing roles.
 Education of the employees
Employees in the community pharmacies need to have basic information of the drugs they are dealing with as
they deal with lot of non-prescribed drug selling. Any fault in drug counselling can have serious patient related
outcomes which can be life threatening. This will be detrimental to the business in short term basis. Educating
employees about the market and customer dealings will be beneficial to the business as they can decide about the
pricing of the drugs based on the market situation at that point of time.
 Accountability of responsibility
Employees in the community pharmacies need to be responsible about their job responsibilities. As they have
dual responsibilities in retailing and counselling they have to be precise about their job. Even if they commit a
mistake they should be honest and be accountable for that so that they do not repeat the mistake in future.
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Following the “3 R” rule can be beneficial where an employee takes responsibility, respects the consumer and their
requirements and resolves an issue as soon as possible.
 Caring about the needs of the consumer
The employees working in the community pharmacies should not take any customer for granted. They should
be thoroughly professional in their technical and functional approach. Proper counselling, quick billing and serving
of the drugs and being available in the store during the official hours is crucial for service quality (Goad et al. 2013).
Understanding the consumer expectation and perspective about quality service should be the priority of the
employees rather than their own understanding. The management should study the customer feedback and act
accordingly to inform the employees about the customer needs more precisely to ensure customer satisfaction.
 Empathy of the employee
Personal touch from the employees spreads a comforting vibe to the customers. The customers feel at home
when they communicate with the employees and get a warm reply in turn. This helps to form a loyal employee
base for the community pharmacies. The mutual relationship between the customers and the employees gets
improved in this process which results in better communication, better understanding of each other and a better
outcome for the patients.
These are some of the important factors related to the service quality in the community pharmacies that can
ensure greater customer satisfaction and help the industry to grow further in near future.
2.3. SERVQUAL model
Community pharmacies focus on the service quality and customer satisfaction to maintain their customer
base. Service quality is evaluated by SERVQUAL model. It is one of the most commonly used techniques to measure
service quality. Academic researchers named A. Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml and Leonard L. Berry proposed the
SERVQUAL technique in 1985. They worked and developed the model in the next few years. This model is based on
the practical mechanism of the service management and the parameters are measured based on that practical
context. This model is a five-dimensional instrument used for research purpose in the service industry. The
consumer expectations and assumptions of service can overlap with the understanding of service of the employee
and the management but sometimes that does not occur and there is a service gap which reduces the service
quality score (Chan and Tan 2016). This is calculated by the SERVQUAL model and the components of this
technique. It is consisted of 22 items and five dimensions (Yarimoglu 2014). These five dimensions are:
1) Tangible: It has 4 items. The physical features which can be measured are part of it like work force and staffing,
equipment, materials used for communication and facility provided to the consumer.
2) Reliability: It is consisted of 5 items. The capability to execute the promised service with accuracy is called the
reliability in this model.
3) Assurance: It has 4 items. Courtesy and information of the employees and the knowledge that they possess is
called assurance in the service management. They can perform their job roles by obtaining faith and
confidence of the consumers and the management.
4) Empathy: It is comprised of 5 items. Personal touch of the employees, providing individual care and
understanding the expectations of the consumers with patience is called the Empathy factor.
5) Responsiveness: It is consisted of 4 items. The quick service and response to the customers form the
employees and the preparedness to provide help and support to the customers is measured by
responsiveness.
Each and every item in the SERVQUAL instrument has two types. One measures the expectation of all the firms
in a specific industry and the other one calculates the expectation regarding a specific firm or a company. The gap
of service quality is calculated by the SQ value. SQ stands for service quality gap and calculated as SQ=P-E, where P
is the perception value and E is the expectation value. The gap in service quality (SQ) is measured for all the items
and their summation is considered to evaluate the overall quality of service (Grew et al., 2018). Importance of all
the dimensions and items are significant to understand the expectation and perception of the consumer about the
quality of service.
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SERVQUAL model is used to measure the trends of service and the quality of service of the employees over a
period of time. It can be used to compare different community based pharmacies in a specific community. The
community based pharmacies can be compared with all the competitors in the market. Customers can also be
segregated into different segments based on quality of service provided based on the score in the SERVQUAL scale.
The SERVQUAL questionnaire is based on one to one interview (Mirzaei et al. 2018). A significant sample size is
essential for dependable quantitative result. Though the model is based on 22 items at the time of face to face
interview additional items are also taken into consideration like demography of the participant, past experience
with a particular pharmacy, future plans to revisit the store, repurchase items from the store, loyalty with the store
and inclination to refer the store to other friends and relatives making it 44 in total. Competence, courtesy,
credibility, security and access were also part of the ten preliminary dimensions of the SERVQUAL model added to
the five already discussed above. Those ten dimensions are now merged into five dimensions making the model
five-dimensional.
Fig 1: SERVQUAL model of service quality
The SERVQUAL gap model is consisted of the gaps in the following which are relevant got the community pharmacy
stores.
Gap 1: Customer expectation of service is different from the managerial perspective of quality service.
Gap 2: The specifications of service quality do not meet with the idea of quality service of the management.
Gap 3: Difference of the service provided with the service specifications assured before delivering service.
Gap 4: Service delivery and external communication to customers
Gap 5: Difference between the expectation of service quality from the community pharmacies and the perspective
of the pharmacies about service quality delivered to the consumers.
2.4. SERVPERF model
SERVPERF model was proposed by by J.J. Cronin and S.A. Taylor in the year of 1994 which was modified
version of SERVQUAL. They were critiques of the SERVQUAL model and proposed their own model to measure
service quality based on performance only. So their model was called as SERVPERF (service performance).
According to them measuring the difference between expected and actual service quality is not the correct way to
evaluate service quality but performance of the employees should be the only criteria to measure service quality
(de Barros Jerônimo and Medeiros 2014). The researchers evaluated the concepts of service quality and the
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connection among quality of service (SQ), customer satisfaction and purchasing intent of the customers (Carter et
al. 2018). They did not believe in the service quality perception minus expectation which was used in the
SERVQUAL model. The SERVPERF model was an alternative method based on the relationship among the
connection among quality of service (SQ), customer satisfaction and purchasing intent which focus on single end
product called performance of the employee to measure service quality (SQ).
SQi=∑
j−1
k
Pij
Here SQi stands for perceived service quality for i number of individuals; k = number of items; P = perception of
individual ‘i’ with respect to performance of a service firm on attribute ‘j’.
According to this model service quality measurement based on performance of the employee is an up gradation
over the concept proposed by the SERVQUAL model. Customer satisfaction is a byproduct of service quality
according to the SERVPERF model. The satisfaction level of the customer decides the future purchasing intensions
from that store. So it is clear that the service quality directly effects the customer satisfaction which in turn has a
deciding effect on the future purchasing intention of that customer (Malewski, Ream and Gaither 2015). Main
difference of SERVPERF and SERVQUAL model is based on the customer satisfaction measurement where service
quality (SQ) is measured with perceived value (P) and expectation value (E) of customers in SERVQUAL model but
SERVPERF only considers performance of the employees and expectation value (E) is discarded (Guhl, Blankart and
Stargardt 2018). The performance based scale in SERVPERF model has 22 items. A higher P value indicates greater
service quality (SQ). Service quality in the community pharmacies does not solely depend on the performance of
the employees. To ensure customer satisfaction management need to communicate with the employees after
receiving feedback from the customers. Employees can understand their role better and improve the quality of
service by understanding the customer satisfaction. So the performance based SERVPERF model does not consider
all the aspects that are key part of customer service and satisfaction related to the community pharmacies.
SERVQUAL model takes all the perspectives into consideration and highlight the gaps to measure the service quality
better. Although SERVPERF and SERVQUAL models can be used to understand the service quality and evaluate the
score based on that in community pharmacies the SERVQUAL model covers more perspectives of all the
stakeholders related to this growing industry in England.
2.5. Comparison of the models
Service quality of the community pharmacies are commonly measured by the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF
model among all the models available (Moullin, Sabater-Hernández and Benrimoj 2016). SERVQUAL is the most
appropriate model to measure the service quality o the community pharmacies as this model is commonly used to
measure service quality in health care sector and service-based organizations. There are some attributes to the
SERVQUAL model that makes it a more appropriate model to evaluate the service quality of community pharmacies
compared to the SERVPERF model. SERVPERF model measures service quality purely based on the employee
performance. Perspective of the management, industry expectation or the customer expectation of service quality
are not taken into account to evaluate the final score of service quality. Higher the performance of the employees
greater the service quality in the SERVPERF scale whereas the SERVQUAL model highlights gap from every
standpoint (Monica, Dharmmesta and Syahlani 2017). In this model the management expectation and employee
understanding of service quality is taken into account along with the customer assumption of service quality to
measure the overall service quality score. The multi-dimensional SERVQUAL model evaluates the service quality in a
holistic manner with the 5 dimensions called as tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, reliability and assurance.
These dimensions cover all the aspects of service quality in community pharmacies which the SERVPERF model
cannot. In community pharmacies the employees play a duel role to look after the technical and the functional
aspect of service (Murray 2016). SERVQUAL model can measure that precisely with five dimensions and 44 items.
SERVPERF model has 22 items in compared to the 44 items of the SERVQUAL model which collects a significantly
larger set of responses and data from the customer base and the industry. In community pharmacies customer
base is consisted of individuals with various socio-economic background and demographics (Todd et al. 2015). To
measure service quality of the community pharmacies a larger data set is essential. This is where the SERVQUAL
model has an advantage over the SERVPERF model. In SERVQUAL model gap of service is measured based on the
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employee performance and the service expectation of the customer that enables the model to measure various
features of service (Latif, Boardman and Pollock 2013). After the analysis of different service attributes the
deficiency areas can be found from the managerial and the employee perspective. Based on consumer perceptions
the management can recognise the areas where service needs to improve and guide the employees of the
community pharmacies based on that. The flexibility and the communication of the management and the
competency, willingness of the employees are tested in the model based on the expectation of the consumer to
measure overall service quality (Athavale et al. 2015). So SERVQUAL model is far superior than SERVPERF model in
analytical power which is essential to recognise the gaps of service in the community based pharmacies in England.
The SERVQUAL scale measures service quality based on 44 statements where SERVPERF is only based on 22
statements. So the data that is taken into consideration is much larger in the SERVQUAL model where customer
requirements are measured by service quality gaps based on their requirements. Consumer preferences to
different features of service along with managerial intervention and eagerness of the employee based on the
changes are evaluated before the final score is calculated in the SERVQUAL scale whereas only performance of the
employee is the only deciding factor to calculate service quality in the SERVPERF scale (Blalock et al. 2013). In case
of community based pharmacies SERVQUAL scale is far more accurate and precise because of the data collection of
the technique which covers all the gap areas of service whereas SERVPERF cannot explain the service quality and
the drawbacks as it is not expectation based. In case of community based pharmacies the SERVQUAL scale which is
based on expectation of the customer and performance of the employees is a far superior tool to measure service
quality compared to the performance based SERVPERF scale (Saramunee et al. 2014). Excellent performance from
the employees may not meet the expectation of the customers if they are not on the same wavelength so
SERVPERF scale is not accurate in community based pharmacies. So SERVQUAL method should be applied in the
healthcare sectors including the community based pharmacies to ensure consistent and well-rounded service
quality to the customers which varies from a person to person basis. The flexible SERVQUAL method can measure
quality of service and help to grow the customer base of the community pharmacies in London in the coming days.
2.6. Gap of research
The service quality of the community based pharmacies depend on multiple variables including the
employee and management perspective coupled with the expectation and perception of service from the
consumer base. Well known models like SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are used to calculate the service quality score
(Adil, Al Ghaswyneh and Albkour 2013). SERVPERF only calculates the performance of the employees to measure
the overall service quality. The perspective of service quality of the patient or the managerial interventions are not
considered in this model so the service quality score is inaccurate in case of community pharmacies. There are lot
of gaps when the SERVPERF model is used to calculate service quality like the expectation of the customer and the
idea of the managers about service quality, specifications of service quality with the idea of quality service of the
management, difference of the service provided with the service specifications assured before delivering service,
service delivery and external communication to customers, difference between the expectation of service quality
from the community pharmacies and the perspective of the pharmacies about service quality delivered to the
consumers, difference of expectation from the pharmaceutical stores with the idea of the employee about
providing service, difference between the perception of an employee about the customer expectation of service
quality and managerial idea of service quality (Nitadpakorn, Farris and Kittisopee 2017). The gap model of
SERVQUAL considers all these perspectives and gaps and explains it while measuring the service quality. Though
SERVQUAL is the best available model to calculate the service quality of the community based pharmacies there are
some gap areas which should be considered in future. The organizational structure of the community pharmacies
consists of the management and the employee. Their communication has an important role to understand the goal
of the company and the consumer expectation. As managers go through the customer feedback from the
questionnaire they are in a better position to understand the customer needs so their communication with
employee can do wonders to the service quality provided (Castaldo et al. 2016). So the factors that effect the
internal communication should be focused on to ensure better customer satisfaction (Brown et al. 2014). The
customer expectation of service quality may vary based on their age, sex, socio-economic condition and the
demography. As the consumer base in consisted of all kind of individuals the above mentioned factors may have an
effect on the perception and expectation of the customers. The questionnaires should be segregated and evaluated
based on the factors to understand the effect of the factors better. It will be helpful to the employees to approach
the customers based on their overall profile and take individual care suitable to that consumer to maximize the
effect of service quality that will result in greater customer satisfaction. Employees of the community pharmacies
play a very important role in the customer service as they play a dual role of retailer and counsellor to the patients
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(Rotta et al. 2015). Information and education about the drugs, diseases, diagnosis, patient background and the
understanding of patient expectation is crucial for an employee working in a community pharmacy (Gubbins et al.,
2014). So finding out the proper way to train and educate the employees to make them competent enough for
providing service to any consumer with accuracy should be priority to increase the service quality of the pharmacy
store (Fang et al. 2013). Along with providing quality service to the consumers the kind of service that satisfies the
consumers the most should be part of the future study. Different customers may have separate yardsticks for their
expected level of service quality. Some may look into the operational service aspects like availability of drugs,
shorter waiting time and easy payment while some customers prefer friendly and warm behavior (Patterson,
Holdford and Harpe 2018). Patients may also look for proper counselling and allocation of drugs from the store.
These preferences vary from a person to person based on their sex, age, economic back ground and social status
(Whitty et al. 2015). So the questionnaires used in the models to measure service quality need to be upgraded with
time. Before doing that study should be conducted to have an idea about specific preferences of service based on
the specific consumer. Along with these perspective of the distributor attached to the pharmacy should also be
considered as it is also an important aspect of the healthcare system and the community pharmacy (Parmata 2016).
The models like SERVQUAL and SERVPERF can be updated after obtaining information from the mentioned research
gaps. In case of community pharmacy the use of an updated SERVQUAL model will yield more precise service
quality measurements. The existing gaps of service in the community pharmacies can also be identified and solved
with the obtained information from the research.
2.7. Conclusion
This can be deduced from the discussion that community based pharmacies are an integral part of the
healthcare industry in London. Their role in healthcare is a significant one for the local patients who rely on the
service from the local pharmaceutical store. Measuring the service quality of the community pharmacies is crucial
for this reason. Service quality of the community pharmacies depend on technical and functional roles of the
employees. They allocate drugs after counselling patients and sometimes sell medicines without prescription. This
is directly related to patient related outcome and adverse effects. So better service quality assures greater
customer satisfaction and positive patient related outcome. It also decreases the amount of adverse effects related
to the patients. Service quality is measured by different models. SERVQUAL and SERVPERF are the prominent
models to measure and quantify service quality. SERVPERF is purely performance based scaling while SERVQUAL
method considers all the aspects and provides a holistic result to calculate service quality. To measure service
quality of the community based pharmacies SERVQUAL is a more accurate method. It considers all the aspects of
pharmaceutical stores like the perspective and understanding of service quality of management and employees
along with the expectation of the consumers. So the best model to measure service quality in the community
pharmacies is the SERVQUAL model. This gap model covers all the aspects of service quality and provides clarity of
the entire system involved in delivering service. Still some gap areas exist in the system which involves all the
stakeholders related to the community pharmacy. Identifying the gap areas and working on them is quintessential
to improve the service quality in the healthcare system and especially in the community pharmacies. Aspect like
background and overall profile of the customers and their relation with the kind of service they prefer is still not
well known. The role of the managers, type of education of the employees, interventions from the management
and the communication procedure I the organization are some of the features that need thorough research to have
a better understanding so implications can be done to upgrade the service quality further (Hasan et al., 2013). With
improved service quality the community pharmacies in London will create a loyal customer base and subsequent
growth in the business in near future.
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3. Proposed Research Methodology
- Research methodology (upto 3,000): Research onion
- bring into play the methods used in the literature review
The research proposed for this project will be conducted following a positivistic (objective) research philosophy,
which accepts existing theories and variables for the research conducted (Saunders et al. 2016). It will have a
deductive strategy by experimental testing of the hypotheses presented in section 3.5 of this proposal in order to
prove or reject them (Saunders et al. 2016). This is in line with the aim of the research project proposed in this
document: to assess the relationship between the factors affecting service quality from the employees’ perspective
and the customers’ perception of service quality, in the context of the community pharmacies of London . From the
aim, it is evident that the researcher proposing this project has no intention of identifying a new phenomenon, and
rather, proposes an assessment of the relationship between the variables considered.
Fig. 3 – Key variables for the research project proposed (created by author)
A quantitative research approach will be used to conduct the assessment proposed in the aim, as it is a primary
mode of research within the positivist philosophy (Saunders et al. 2016).
The research design proposed is of cross-sectional multiple case studies, for which a number of community
pharmacies owned by large multiples contractors (contractors owning more than 100 pharmacies (Prescribing and
Medicines Team, 2017)) located within Greater London and The City of London will be chosen by the researcher
and his project tutor. The rationale for choosing community pharmacies owned by large multiples contractors lies
on the following aspects:
a) There are 1854 community pharmacies in London (1 community pharmacy per 4762 inhabitants), 37% of
which are owned by large multiples contractors (Prescribing and Medicines Team, 2017; Sukkar 2016).
There are 12 large multiple contractors operating in London (research conducted by author based on
information available in Sukkar (2016)), owning around 61.6% of the total market share (Sukkar 2016). This
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Research topic
Relationship between the factors affecting service quality from the employees’ perspective
and the customers’ perception of service quality
Independent
variable
The factors affecting service quality from the employees' perspective
as determined by factors influencing the employees’ understanding of customer expectations
and their preparedness and ability to meet them (White and Klinner, 2012)
Dependent
variable
Customers' evaluation of service quality
as the gap between costumers’ expectations of what the service should provide and their direct
evaluations of what the service does provide (Mirzaei et al, 2018)

indicates that there is increased competition between these companies and that these businesses could
make use of the findings of this study in order to improve the quality of their services and potentially
achieve competitive advantage.
b) Community pharmacies owned by independent contractors typically have a reduced number of employees’
(Prescribing and Medicines Team, 2017). Upon analysis of this fact, the researcher concluded that this
aspect could potentially bias the findings of the research proposed and limit its validity and scope.
c) The researcher determined that a reduced number of small multiples community pharmacies contractors
operate in London (research carried out by researcher based on information available in Sukkar (2016)).
Researching pharmacies owned by these contractors could potentially limit the scope and validity of the
project proposed.
The project will conduct primary data collection (as described by Saunders et al. (2016)) by use of self-administered
questionnaires (the type of questionnaires used in quantitative research when respondents select all their answers
from a prescribed list as a yes or no form without intervention of the researcher (Saunders et al, 2016)). Two
structured questionnaires will be developed:
a) Questionnaire 1 to be given to the chosen community pharmacies’ employees staff;
i. This will be aimed at assessing the existence of factors influencing service quality from the
employees’ perspective, and will be based on Zeithaml et al (1988) Conceptual Model of
Service Quality.
b) Questionnaire 2 to be given to the chosen community pharmacies’ customers;
ii. This will be aimed at assessing customers’ perception of service quality by use of the
SERVQUAL multiple-item scale proposed by Parasuraman et al (1988).
Both questionnaires will be anonymous and will include a demographics section in order to systematize the
respondent profiles by data analysis (Saunders et al, 2016). Both questionnaires will be based on the Likert Scale
with five answer types (1 – strongly agree, 2 – agree, 3 – neutral, 4 – disagree, 5 – strongly disagree).
The sample to research will be chosen upon discussion between the researcher and his tutor. Preliminarily, the
researcher proposes the following:
a) Use of the stratified sampling technique to select the community pharmacies where data will be collected.
i. The number of pharmacies to research will be agreed between the researcher and his tutor.
• From the market data available (Sukkar, 2016), the researcher preliminarily proposes the
ratio of this selection to be based on the number of pharmacies owned by each large
multiples contractor (refer to Fig. 4), in order to have a representative sample of the
market (Saunders et al, 2016).
ii. The number of the employees to be given a questionnaire will be agreed between the
researcher and his tutor. The employees should be directly involved in provision of customer
service (i.e. pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy assistants) between 09:00 GMT
and 17:00 GMT and will be handed Questionnaire 1 and asked to complete it independently.
b) Use of systematic sampling to select customers of the selected community pharmacies.
i. The number of customers’ sampled will be agreed between the researcher and his tutor.
Customers of the selected pharmacies will be approached systematically (as described by
Saunders et al (2016)), with the consent of the pharmacies’ management teams.
ii. The researcher proposes that every 5th customer entering the pharmacy is approached and
handed a Questionnaire 2 and asked to complete it independently. This would be repeated
until the agreed number of customers to be sampled is achieved.
SPSS® will be the analysis tool used software analysis. Fig. 5 reconciles section 5 of this document (research onion
of the project proposed).
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Page 13 of 20

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4. Expected_limitations_of_the_proposed_research
The researcher considers that the proposed research would be limited by the relatively small number of
pharmacies to be included due to time constraints. Furthermore, the fact that they’re all located in London limits
the generalizability (as described by Saunders et al (2016)) of any findings of this study.
5. Action Plan and Resource requirements
The researcher will have to consider logistical and time restrictions. No particular financial resources are required.
The action plan in the table below provides an overview of the essential tasks and activities to be carried out for the
project proposed (please note that some dates could not be specifically defined – in these cases a range of possible
dates is presented):
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6. References
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1, pp. 8-32
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pharmacy retail: the role of the store in developing satisfaction and trust. Research in Social and
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• Holdford, D. (2003). Marketing for Pharmacists. Washington DC, USA. The American Pharmaceutical
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Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy 8, pp. 122–132
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Community pharmacy. [online] World Health Organization. Available at:
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