Services Marketing Mix, Service Quality, and Productivity Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Dr. Beckett's Dental Care, focusing on the application of the seven elements of the services marketing mix. It examines how the clinic addresses product, price, promotion, place, people, process, and physical evidence to deliver its services. The report further investigates the relationship between service quality and productivity within the clinic, highlighting the importance of maintaining high standards to ensure customer satisfaction and business efficiency. Additionally, it explores the methods Dr. Beckett and her staff employ to educate patients about the services offered and suggests potential improvements, such as utilizing a website and a dentist partner to manage demand. Finally, the report identifies the supplementary services provided by the clinic and evaluates their impact on enhancing overall service delivery, including facilitating and enhancing supplementary services.

Running head: SERVICES MARKETING
Services Marketing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................2
1. Elements of services marketing mix related to the case.................................................2
2. Relation of service quality and productivity with the case.............................................5
3. How Dr Beckett and her staff educate the patients regarding the service. What else
they can do in this regard?.....................................................................................................6
4. The supplementary services that are offered and the way they have enhanced their
service delivery......................................................................................................................7
3. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
Dr Barbo Lauri Beckett, a lady dentist was born and spend her childhood in Sweden.
She studied dentistry and right after her graduation, she started practising the dentistry and is
running her own dental clinic named Dr Beckett Dental Care. She serves the nearby residents
for more than thirty years but did not have any experience and knowledge on how to run a
business. Majority of the people dislike going to dentists due to their fear, anxiety and the
sight of dental chair and instruments in their mind1. She wants to differentiate her practise in
terms of quality. She, along with her staffs collaboratively developed a mission statement for
their business that goals for providing superior dentistry service in both efficient and
profitable way within the confinement of quality and caring environment. The main objective
of Dr Beckett behind this is to follow differentiation strategy for profitability while working
for higher efficiency. This paper shall elaborate on presenting a business report on examining
which one of the seven different elements of the services marketing mix are addressed in the
case study of Dr Beckett’s dental office while giving examples of each P that would be
identified. Furthermore, it shall discuss how service quality and productivity is related to the
case and how Dr Beckett and her staffs educate the patients regarding the service that they are
receiving. Lastly, the different supplementary service that are offered by the business shall be
highlighted.
2. Discussion
1. Elements of services marketing mix related to the case
After reading the case study carefully, it can be stated that all the seven elements of
services marketing mix are present in it.
1 Suhani, Raluca Diana, Mihai Flaviu Suhani, and Mindra Eugenia Badea. "Dental anxiety and fear among a
young population with hearing impairment." Clujul medical 89.1 (2016): 143.

3SERVICES MARKETING
I. Product- Products in this case are the services that one gets in the Dr Beckett Dental
Care clinic. Dr Beckett wants to provide all her patients highest level of dental care
and hence, is advertising with the best staff, equipment and services. The clinic offer
every services right from simple to difficult ones. Also, they give a trustful dental
service and one could depend on the service blindly. This further increases the value
of their services with the extra facilities on the basis of the quality of the product that
the clinic make different from the other competitors in the market.
II. Price- It is to mention that as compared to the other competitors in the market, the
price of the services and products offered at Dr Beckett Dental Care clinic are higher
and they try using different strategies for having a pricing power. Dr Beckett has
planned to opt for differentiation strategy for gaining pricing power2. The modern
office facilities and equipment in the clinic have also added to the issues of price
management for the business.
III. Promotion- It is to note that there is no direct advertisement done by Dr Beckett. It is
mostly the positive word-of-mouth promotion by the patients who visit Dr Beckett
Dental Care that cause more number of visitors and patients in the clinic3. However,
they provide their patients which some brochures and short films for showing them
the treatment procedures. Also, her staffs talk with all their patients regarding the
different ways for getting better outcomes of treatment.
IV. Place- Place in this case is the Dr Beckett Dental Care office itself where she treats
her patients providing them with quality services and experience so that their
likelihood of visiting the office again increase in the near future.
2 Davcik, Nebojsa S., and Piyush Sharma. "Impact of product differentiation, marketing investments and brand
equity on pricing strategies: A brand level investigation." European Journal of Marketing 49.5/6 (2015): 760-
781.
3 Kumar Roy, Sanjit, Walfried M. Lassar, and Gul T. Butaney. "The mediating impact of stickiness and loyalty
on word-of-mouth promotion of retail websites: A consumer perspective." European Journal of
Marketing 48.9/10 (2014): 1828-1849.

4SERVICES MARKETING
V. People- Like any other business, the most vital thing in this service nature is the
staff4. Employees in every workplace should be kept happy and satisfied. Hence, Dr
Beckett ensures motivating and training all her employees for adding positive
attitudes among them along with the necessary skills by means of providing them
timely bonuses, vacations etc. With the same, she also makes it sure to listen and take
into consideration the suggestions and ideas of her staffs.
VI. Process- The staff’s work in the office is well-organised among the employees and
they always try to decrease the errors by means of educating and examining the
assessments and then asking for professionals to help them. With the same, it is also
to mention that the patients are the direct receiver of the whole service and this is
why, the office ensures that the patients are satisfied with the provided service and at
the same time, they also offer extra services for further improvement. For example- of
there is a change in the time of doctor’s appointment, they call the patients to inform
them.
VII. Physical Evidence- Dr Beckett has focused more on the interior decoration of her new
office to ensure maximum customer satisfaction with some attractive, modern and
spacious place. The colours for the staff uniforms and the other office equipment
gives a sense of calmness and relaxation. With the same, Dr Beckett ensured that all
her patients feel comfortable inside the office and for this she provides them with tea,
coffee, magazines etc. at their seating areas. Also, dental degrees of her are displayed
on the office walls to make sure that the patients feel confident and save. With the
same, Dr Beckett and her staffs talk with all their patients regarding the different ways
for getting better outcomes of treatment. Also, both before and after the treatment, Dr
Beckett and her staffs consult with the patients. There is also a children room in the
4 Paillé, Pascal, et al. "The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An
employee-level study." Journal of Business Ethics 121.3 (2014): 451-466.

5SERVICES MARKETING
clinic. When the parents are getting treated in the clinic, they can keep their children
in the room to play in.
2. Relation of service quality and productivity with the case
According to Mahr, Lievens and Blazevic 2014, the action of reconciling the productivity
and service poses a high difficulty to majority of the firms in a pursuit of increased profit
margins5. This further attributes the fact that the different forces of quality improvement
works contrary to the degree of productivity, while holding the other important factors such
as technology constraint. After analysing the case study of Dr Beckett it is clear that these
two aspects (service quality and productivity) are the two sides of the same coin. For
improving the productivity, Dr Beckett realised that the quality of the services provided at Dr
Beckett Dental Care offered ought not to be compromised at any expense for the increased
productivity. She wants to differentiate her practise in terms of quality. She and her staffs
collaboratively formed a mission statement for their business that goals for providing superior
dentistry in both efficient and profitable way within the confinement of quality and caring
environment. Notwithstanding this fact, along with some relevant techniques, the level of
productivity could be improved with the help of improvements in terms of efficiency while
delivering higher quality of dentistry services to all the patients. For achieving this, Dr
Beckett has reconstructed the newly relocated offices and at the same time, redesigned the
service delivery through the equipment and the sate-of-the-art facilities that are used in the
field of dentistry. With the same, there is a children room in the clinic where the parents who
are getting treated in the clinic, can keep their children in to play and stay engaged. Along
with this, Dr Beckett and her staffs talk with all their patients regarding the different ways for
getting better outcomes of treatment. Also, both before and after the treatment, Dr Beckett
and her staffs consult with the patients.
5 Mahr, Dominik, Annouk Lievens, and Vera Blazevic. "The value of customer cocreated knowledge during the
innovation process." Journal of Product Innovation Management 31.3 (2014): 599-615.

6SERVICES MARKETING
According to Curino et al., both productivity and service quality operates in contrast to
one another as they both work subject to the resource constraint, which is further in contrast
to the objective of optimisation in terms of cost minimisation6. While trying improving the
service quality of the business, more number of resources are involved, which further helps in
increasing the total costs of the operation. As the objective of the office is to expand its
margin of profit, this is why, it needs to change the higher prices of the services that are
offered for recovering the total costs that are incurred in the improvement of the service
quality7. This is why, the additional costs would prompt the office to lay off some of its staffs
and this would further reduce the workplace productivity. In case of Dr Beckett, the
management has launched a movement for decreasing the costs of health care for the
insurance of the companies in an attempt for reducing the overhead costs.
3. How Dr Beckett and her staff educate the patients regarding the service.
What else they can do in this regard?
It is to note that Dr Beckett has tried doing needs assessment for her patients to make
them consider it as a positive thing, which will further help in differentiating the service of Dr
Beckett Dental Care from the other competitors in the market. Apart from this, the office staff
also try to provide the required information and details through showing the patents all the
educational videos related to the different dental processes along with the brochures. They
provide their patients which some brochures and short films for showing them the treatment
procedures. However, it is suggested that Dr Beckett can develop her own website with
before and after pictures of the patients along with their positive reviews on the product and
6 Curino, Carlo, et al. "Reservation-based scheduling: If you're late don't blame us!." Proceedings of the ACM
Symposium on Cloud Computing. ACM, 2014.
7 Lohri, Christian Riuji, Ephraim Joseph Camenzind, and Christian Zurbrügg. "Financial sustainability in
municipal solid waste management–Costs and revenues in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia." Waste Management 34.2
(2014): 542-552.

7SERVICES MARKETING
service. Also, she can also have a dentist partner for helping her in balancing the excess
demand.
4. The supplementary services that are offered and the way they have enhanced
their service delivery
It is to mention that both the facilitating and enhancing supplementary services are
offered at Dr Beckett Dental Care.
a) The Facilitating supplementary services offered: They patients of the clinic are made
aware of the procedures before they get the treatment. Patients are also allowed to
make appointments for their dental care. Also, in case of any kind of change in the
time of doctor’s appointment, they call the patients to inform them. They provide a
trustful dental service and one could depend on the service blindly.
b) The Enhancing supplementary services offered: The business have provided a
comfortable environment for all the patients while providing them with all the modern
amenities along with comfortable environment for their patients like tea, coffee,
magazines, classical music, comfortable chairs, follow up of calls etc. Apart from this,
there is also safekeeping services for the children. There is a children room in the
clinic. When the parents are getting treated in the clinic, they can keep their children
in the room to play in. With the same, Dr Beckett and her staffs talk with all their
patients regarding the different ways for getting better outcomes of treatment. Also,
both before and after the treatment, Dr Beckett and her staffs consult with the patients.
They consult them regarding the ways of increasing the outcomes of their treatment.
3. Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis of the case of Dr Beckett and her dental care service,
it is to conclude that she provides high quality service to all its patients and that too, in a

8SERVICES MARKETING
quality environment. Dr Beckett wants to provide all her patients highest level of dental care
and hence, is advertising with the best staff, equipment and services. The clinic offer every
services right from simple to complicated ones. It is also clear that there is a trade-offs in
between the expensive and cheap costs. The price of the services and products offered at Dr
Beckett Dental Care clinic are higher and they try using different strategies for having a
pricing power. If one wants to get treated in a comfortable environment, one should pay more
money. However, she can also offer pet care for her patients who have pets with them and
also, a parking space. This would further improve the service quality of the business.

9SERVICES MARKETING
References:
Curino, Carlo, et al. "Reservation-based scheduling: If you're late don't blame
us!." Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Cloud Computing. ACM, 2014.
Davcik, Nebojsa S., and Piyush Sharma. "Impact of product differentiation, marketing
investments and brand equity on pricing strategies: A brand level investigation." European
Journal of Marketing 49.5/6 (2015): 760-781.
Kumar Roy, Sanjit, Walfried M. Lassar, and Gul T. Butaney. "The mediating impact of
stickiness and loyalty on word-of-mouth promotion of retail websites: A consumer
perspective." European Journal of Marketing 48.9/10 (2014): 1828-1849.
Lohri, Christian Riuji, Ephraim Joseph Camenzind, and Christian Zurbrügg. "Financial
sustainability in municipal solid waste management–Costs and revenues in Bahir Dar,
Ethiopia." Waste Management 34.2 (2014): 542-552.
Mahr, Dominik, Annouk Lievens, and Vera Blazevic. "The value of customer cocreated
knowledge during the innovation process." Journal of Product Innovation Management 31.3
(2014): 599-615.
Paillé, Pascal, et al. "The impact of human resource management on environmental
performance: An employee-level study." Journal of Business Ethics 121.3 (2014): 451-466.
Suhani, Raluca Diana, Mihai Flaviu Suhani, and Mindra Eugenia Badea. "Dental anxiety and
fear among a young population with hearing impairment." Clujul medical 89.1 (2016): 143.