Just yesterday, I took a prescription straight from the doctor’s practice to the chemist downstairs. It was an Amcal. I asked the pharmacist how much the script would cost and he said around ten dollars. I knew I’d got exactly the same one at Chemist Warehouse for half that price in the past. I said thanks, but no thanks, I’ll buy it cheaper elsewhere. I might just be alone in chasing a small saving around the city, though, with a new study by Roy Morgan showing price isn’t as big an influence on chemist consumer satisfaction as you might think.

Amcal has squared up with cheap med merchants Chemist Warehouse and Priceline for customer satisfaction in the pharmacy sector, calling in at an impressive 90% satisfaction rating.

Roy Morgan’s industry communications director, Norman Morris, says the whole chemist industry has got a lot to be proud of.

“Satisfaction for chemist stores rated among the highest of all stores measured in the Roy Morgan Retail Satisfaction report,” Morris says. “This quarter revealed four chemist stores ranking in the top ten of the 80 stores measured.”

“The standout performer over the latest six months has been Amcal,” he continues, “who after gaining two percentage points since the September 2010 result, now lead alongside Chemist Warehouse and Priceline Pharmacy.

Morris thinks that a simple but memorable piece of branding for Amcal may be responsible for the rise in satisfaction.

“Amcal’s advertising tagline of ‘Better ask an expert’ is a more personal and customer focussed approach and could be the key to their success in raising the satisfaction of their customers,” Morris says.

Morris says that the research has shown that customer’s are looking for more than just cheap prices in a pharmacy.

“Customer satisfaction is as much about the customer as it is the price, product, range and experience. Roy Morgan Research profiles customers of different pharmacies and monitors what products they buy there compared to competitive retailers, and also what illnesses or health issues they may have as well as differences by state, and also city versus country locations.”