Vietnam pharmacy survey links communication and counseling with satisfaction

Customer satisfaction at community pharmacies in Da Nang, Vietnam, was most strongly associated with pharmacist-customer communication and responsiveness, pharmaceutical counseling and clinical information provision, and perceived price fairness, according to a cross-sectional structural equation modeling study of 409 customers. Satisfaction was also associated with customer loyalty and intention to recommend the pharmacy to others, although the survey design cannot establish that changes in service quality caused these outcomes.

Researchers surveyed pharmacy customers from January through March 2024 to examine whether distinct dimensions of service quality were associated with three customer outcomes: satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth intention. The analysis used a 23-item service-quality scale covering pharmacist-customer interpersonal communication and responsiveness, pharmaceutical counseling and clinical information provision, perceived price fairness, pharmacy physical environment, medicine availability and quality, and service accessibility and convenience.

Satisfaction was assessed with a single item, while loyalty was measured with three items and word-of-mouth intention with two. Respondents rated all measures on five-point Likert scales. The investigators used exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the structure of the service-quality scale, confirmatory factor analysis to assess the measurement model, and covariance-based structural equation modeling to estimate the proposed relationships. Additional regression and moderation analyses examined associations between customer characteristics or pharmacy type and each of the three outcomes.

The measurement model showed satisfactory reliability and validity. Factor loadings were all above 0.65, composite reliability values exceeded 0.78, and average variance extracted values were above 0.53. The fit indices were χ²/df = 1.722, CFI = 0.960, TLI = 0.952, RMSEA = 0.046 and SRMR = 0.041, which the researchers described as indicating adequate model fit for the survey responses.

Customer responses were generally favorable. Mean satisfaction was 3.91 ± 0.75, mean loyalty was 3.74 ± 0.77, and mean word-of-mouth intention was 3.63 ± 0.78 on the five-point scales. The proportions scoring above the midpoint were 80.2% for satisfaction, 76.3% for loyalty and 67.5% for word-of-mouth intention. These values describe the surveyed sample rather than the broader population of pharmacy customers in Vietnam.

Three service-quality dimensions had statistically significant positive associations with satisfaction. Pharmacist-customer interpersonal communication and responsiveness had the largest standardized coefficient, β = 0.316, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.193 to 0.429. Pharmaceutical counseling and clinical information provision followed at β = 0.247 (95% CI, 0.132 to 0.359), while perceived price fairness was associated with satisfaction at β = 0.181 (95% CI, 0.056 to 0.296).

The modeled associations for the other three service-quality dimensions were not statistically significant. Pharmacy physical environment had a coefficient of 0.086 (95% CI, −0.035 to 0.196), medicine availability and quality had a coefficient of 0.028 (95% CI, −0.097 to 0.156), and service accessibility and convenience had a coefficient of 0.107 (95% CI, −0.016 to 0.240). Because each confidence interval included zero, the analysis did not find evidence of an association for these dimensions in this sample, rather than proving that the dimensions are unrelated to satisfaction.

Satisfaction was strongly associated with loyalty, with a standardized coefficient of 0.794 (95% CI, 0.737 to 0.840), and was positively associated with word-of-mouth intention, with a coefficient of 0.183 (95% CI, 0.042 to 0.310). Loyalty was also strongly associated with word-of-mouth intention, at β = 0.712 (95% CI, 0.583 to 0.837). Customer demographic characteristics showed limited associations with the outcomes, and there were no significant moderating effects of pharmacy type.

The study provides initial psychometric validation of a multidimensional service-quality scale and evidence about associations in urban Vietnam. Its scope is limited by the cross-sectional design, self-reported survey responses, a single city and a sample restricted to customers of community pharmacies. The findings therefore identify relationships in the surveyed population, not proof that improving a particular service dimension would produce higher satisfaction, loyalty or word-of-mouth intention.

Subject of Research: Associations between community-pharmacy service quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth intention in Da Nang, Vietnam

Article Title: Multidimensional service quality and its associations on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth intention in community pharmacies: a structural equation modeling study

Article References: Nguyen, T. T. X., Ho, T. M., Doan, D. A., & Dinh, D. X. (2026). Multidimensional service quality and its associations on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth intention in community pharmacies: a structural equation modeling study. BMC Health Services Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-026-15546-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-026-15546-3

Keywords: community pharmacies, Vietnam, service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, word-of-mouth intention, pharmacist communication, pharmaceutical counseling, structural equation modeling, cross-sectional survey, Multidimensional, service