High satisfaction ratings for chemists and pharmacies as Australia faced bushfires and then the COVID-19 pandemic
Nearly halfway through 2020 it’s fair to say this year has presented some unprecedented challenges to many Australians.
The year began with devastating bushfires raging across much of Australia with millions of hectares burned and the loss of thousands of homes around the country. Over the summer holiday period regional towns were under severe threat and there were striking images on a daily basis, particularly from hard hit regions in South-Eastern NSW and Eastern Victoria.
Dozens of Australians were killed by the fires, but the Royal Commission into the Bushfires convened in recent weeks has heard the biggest ‘killer’ from the fires was the smoke that blanketed Australian cities for days, and sometimes weeks, on end. An estimated 445 Australians were killed by the smoke haze and up to 80 percent of Australians were affected by the smoke at some point.
This smoky haze forced many Australians to wear masks to protect their respiratory systems and also provided a preview of what would happen only weeks later as COVID-19 struck. Suddenly masks were the hot item to own, as well as a copious supply of hand sanitiser, gloves – particularly sanitary gloves, and of course toilet paper – all of which are (usually) available at your local chemist or pharmacy.
The latest research from Roy Morgan conducted in the year to March 2020 shows that 12 million Australians (57%) shop at chemists/ pharmacies in an average four weeks. The leading stores including Priceline Pharmacy, My Chemist, TerryWhite Chemmart and Chemist Warehouse each have well over 1 million customers.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that the good news for chemists and pharmacies is that the 12 million customers of Australia’s chemists/ pharmacies rate their customer satisfaction amongst the highest of any of the more than 30 industries Roy Morgan measures on a weekly basis:
“Overall customer satisfaction for chemists/pharmacies averages a very high 90.5% and is in third position out of 32 industries. Chemists/Pharmacies rank behind only highly rated car manufacturers (92.3%) and hardware stores (90.8%) led by Australia’s most trusted brand Bunnings.
“This high satisfaction for the industry is across the board and the top eight chemists and pharmacies are separated by a total of only 5% points.
“Australia’s handling of COVID-19 has generally been regarded as one of the world’s best and perhaps this should be no surprise as prior to the pandemic Australia was rated the nation fourth most equipped to deal with a pandemic.
“Alongside the highly rated medical system Australia’s health workers such as nurses, doctors and pharmacists are rated as the three most highly trust professions by Australians. In turn, the chemists and pharmacies we turn to when we need to patch ourselves up, combat a sore throat, or get a flu shot, are an integral part of the well-functioning health and medical ‘eco-system’ in Australia.
“In an industry with such high satisfaction across the board it is hard to single out brands but so far in 2020 TerryWhite Chemmart has excelled and won the first three Customer Satisfaction Awards. TerryWhite Chemmart has averaged customer satisfaction of 92% so far in 2020 to be just ahead of Chemist Warehouse, Priceline Pharmacy, Amcal and Guardian – all averaging at least 89%.
“To go deeper on this or any other topic, just ask Roy Morgan, home of Australia’s most comprehensive consumer insight data.”
Roy Morgan Industry Customer Satisfaction Rankings – March 2020Chemists/Pharmacies are 3rd of 32
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, April 2019–March 2020, n= 13,208. Base: Australians 14+.
How Roy Morgan monitors and scores customer satisfaction across companies and brands for the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards
For over 78 years Roy Morgan has collected objective, independent information on consumers. Our customer satisfaction ratings are collected from Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey of approximately 50,000 Australians annually – the world’s largest ongoing single source survey.
This data is used as the input into determining the winners of the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction Awards. To be eligible for an Award an organisation’s product or service is included within the Roy Morgan Customer Satisfaction list for Roy Morgan Single Source and has a minimum sample size.
How Roy Morgan scores customer satisfaction?
What constitutes satisfaction?
For each product or service Roy Morgan asks customers to rate that product or service on a scale of: ‘very satisfied’, ‘fairly satisfied’, ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’, ‘fairly dissatisfied’ and ‘very dissatisfied’ or ‘completely satisfied’, ‘somewhat satisfied’, ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’, ‘not very satisfied’ and ‘not at all satisfied’. We combine those that were ‘fairly satisfied’ and ‘very satisfied’ and calculate this as a percentage of total customers. For every category only customers of that product or service are included.
Products and Services monitored
Due to the broad scope of our Single Source surveys and conducting the surveys nationally Roy Morgan monitors customer satisfaction for many products and services. However some smaller, but no less worthy, products and services may not be monitored by our survey or may not have enough customers surveyed to be included.
Click here to see products and services currently being monitored. If your organisation competes in a particular sub-category and would like to be considered for inclusion in the survey please contact us at: enquiries@roymorganonlinestore.com.
For comments or more information please contact:
Roy Morgan - Enquiries
Office: +61 (03) 9224 5309
askroymorgan@roymorgan.com
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
