OBJECTIVES: To examine how a humanistic outcome of patient satisfaction in community pharmacy stores is affected by perceptions of service quality and to explore the effect of service dimensions (Tangible, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy) of SERVQUAL on customer satisfaction. METHODS: A cross sectional research design, utilizing a self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire and convenience sampling techniques, was adopted to address the study objectives. Pharmacy service quality was measured utilizing SERVQUAL (Service-Quality) instrument and scores on a two-item patient satisfaction scale served as the study dependent variable. About 101 customers who visited New York City community pharmacies over a period of 8-10 weeks were recruited for the study. 76 usable questionnaires were obtained (response rate=75.24%). Interrelationships among SERVQUAL dimensions and their correlations with customer satisfaction scores were evaluated. RESULTS: A multiple linear regression model revealed useful patterns and the order in which SERVQUAL dimensions contributed to variations in customer satisfaction scores. Service Assurance was the most important of the five factors in the prediction of customer satisfaction, followed by empathy, reliability, responsiveness and tangible respectively. Significant positive correlations were found between assurance dimension of SERVQUAL and customer satisfaction (r=0.711, P<0.01), and between empathy and customer satisfaction (r=0.487, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Besides confirmation of positive influence of service quality on patient satisfaction, the current study also provides insights into the order and significance of diverse service components in the determination of satisfaction. Certain dimensions of service quality, namely assurance and empathy, are more important in the prediction of patient satisfaction than others. Therefore, from a pharmacy perspective, prioritizing these factors in service encounters might actually result in desired health outcomes for the patient and increased revenues for the store.