Life Pharmacy Wins Canstar Blue’s Most Satisfied Customers Award

With winter kicking in, there’s no doubt we’ll all be taking a trip to the pharmacy at some point this season. Be it for vitamin C, cough syrup or a stuffy nose remedy, pharmacies are a hub for good advice and grab-and-go aids to feeling better.

Sometimes a trip to the doctor isn’t entirely necessary, so the advice of your local pharmacist can be appreciated. As part of our mission to inform consumers of the best NZ has to offer, Canstar Blue canvassed the opinions of New Zealanders who had made a purchase from a pharmacy in the past six months, across a range of categories, to measure and track their satisfaction.

To decide which pharmacy offered the best level of customer satisfaction, each was rated across the following categories:

• Overall Satisfaction
• Availability of Pharmacist
• Prescription Availability and Speed of Dispensing
• Range of Products
• Service and Advice Provided
• Value for Money

Winning top spot and taking home Canstar Blue’s award for Most Satisfied Customers | Pharmacies is Life Pharmacy. It’s a well-deserved win, as Life Pharmacy was the only pharmacy in our ratings to achieve a 5 Star Overall Satisfaction rating. It earned further top ratings for Availability of Pharmacist; Prescription Availability and Speed of Dispensing; and Service and Advice Provide.

Also highly commended was Chemist Warehouse. The newcomer to our award, it was the only other pharmacy to earn 5 Star ratings, for Range of Products and Value for Money. 

What Kiwis want in pharmacy

What dictates New Zealanders satisfaction levels with a pharmacy? According to our survey, Service and Advice (at 34%) is the driving force. Where health is a concern, price appeared to be less of a consideration. Prescription Availability & Speed followed at 24%, followed by Value for Money at 17%.

New Zealanders like advice

Canstar Blue’s survey revealed Kiwis appreciate good service and a bit of help when they visit a pharmacy. Of those in our survey, 33% say they visit a pharmacist for advice for minor ailments rather than visit their GP, and 39% trust the advice of their pharmacist as much as that of their doctor. Being open about medical problems can be tricky, though, for some: 13% say they sometimes feel too embarrassed to explain their health problems to their pharmacist.

Cost is a concern

Medicines, remedies and perfumes don’t come cheap. So understandably, 52% of our respondents feel the rise of discount pharmacies is a good thing for consumers; 14% also said they choose a pharmacist by cost alone.

Read the full results of Canstar Blue’s survey by hitting the button below, and if you’re heading out to a pharmacy this winter, know you’ll be in good hands at Life Pharmacy!

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