MKT3014

Assessment: Individual Report

Task
As you are a marketing consultant, analyse the marketing tactics adopted by Dr.
Beckett’s dental office, and propose ways to increase revenue.

Student No.

Student Name:

Submission date:

Word Count (3,000 word max): 2935 words

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Executive summary
This report aims to identify the marketing management issues faced by a
dental practice and propose relevant strategic recommendations for
increasing revenue. Multiple marketing concepts were used to analyse
the dental practice’s marketing tactics including the services marketing
mix, consumer behaviour, productivity, quality, capacity, and demand.
The proposal was informed by relevant academic literature and dental
trade sources found through secondary research. The dental practice’s
values and objectives are to differentiate on the basis of quality and
provide efficient services in a caring environment. To be able to offer
higher quality services and to manage rising operational costs, a
decision was made to not offer insurance provisions and instead charge
premium prices, however, the dental practice is struggling to
communicate the quality of the dental services to justify the high prices
for customers. The analysis of the marketing tactics found that the
Dental practice has not sufficiently expanded the number of
supplementary services or method of distribution. The ability to
communicate the quality of the brand is limited by solely using word of
mouth. The ability to appeal to and target customer segments is limited
by the premium prices and high non-monetary costs. The ability to
satisfy customers is limited by not managing the scents in the service
environment as well as the management of low capacity and high
demand. Additionally, the staff can be trained to provide a more
comforting interaction for anxious customers and the service process
can be shortened by removing the time costs associated with providing
informative videos. The proposal recommended five main improvements
to the dental practice’s marketing management tactics that can lead to
an increase in revenue. The implementation and offering of new

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innovative digital self-service options for core and supplementary
services accessible online, that can cut time costs, improve customer’s
experience and associate the brand with being modern. The
implementation of rate fences to target new segments and make the
price more appealing to existing customers. The creation of a social
media presence to more strongly communicate the brand’s identity,
encourage loyalty and help overcome non-searchable and mentally
impalpable attributes of the service. To add value to anxious customers
and ensure the service process runs reliably, an air freshener can be
added to enhance the service environment and staff can be trained to
calm customers down with stress coping methods to ensure other
customers are not left waiting. Lastly, high demand can be managed
better by hiring more employees, increasing the number of dental
procedure areas and training staff to prepare patients for dental
procedures before the dentist arrives.

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Introduction

The purpose of this report is to identify the issues in the dental practice’s
(DP) marketing management strategy and propose potential strategic
solutions that can lead to an increase in revenue. The firm is a dental
practice in Northern California that serves 2,000 active customers from
white-collar backgrounds. The firm’s values and objectives are to
differentiate on the basis of quality and provide efficient services in a
caring environment. To enable the ability to offer higher quality services
and to manage rising operational costs, a decision was made to not offer
insurance provisions and instead charge premium prices, however the
firm is currently struggling to communicate the quality of the dental
services to justify the high prices for customers. The report will comprise
of an analysis of the firm’s current marketing management through the
lens of elements from the marketing mix concept including Product,
Price, Place, Promotion, Physical Environment, People and Process,
followed by a proposal of the new marketing management strategies.

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Analysis of marketing tactics
Analysis of Product

A firm’s services can be categorized into Core services, Facilitating

supplementary services that facilitate service delivery, and Enhancing
supplementary services that add value to the existing services. The DP’s
core services are dental treatments including high-quality radiation-free
X-rays, teeth cleaning, diagnosing oral decay, and treating oral health
issues. The DP’s goals are to differentiate based on high-quality service
offerings, however dental services have credence attributes, therefore,
achieving this goal is difficult due to the high level of education needed
for consumers to evaluate the quality of a dental treatment. As a result, it
is important to refine this DP’s supplementary services to gain a
competitive advantage. The DP’s facilitating services include information
provided in the form of DVDs describing dental procedures and dental
examinations prior to a new customer’s appointment, as well as in-
person billing, payment, and order taking in the form of telephone
appointments. The enhancing services include hospitality in the form of
offering hot drinks, magazines, in the waiting area as well as
headphones for anxious customers and toys for children. The DP does
not offer or promote the safe keeping of confidential customer
information and can improve staff empowerment to offer exceptions
such as customized experiences and problem solving, to add value to
the services.

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Analysis of Price
The DP’s pricing strategy involves standardized services at premium
prices determined through value-based pricing, meaning it is determined
based on factors such as customer’s perceived value and perceived
costs of service. Premium prices alone are not suitable for the DP
because customers are being deterred for not fully understand the
intangible benefits of the dental procedures, therefore the DP needs to
better manage customer’s perception of service value. Additionally,
customers face significant non-monetary costs that increase the
perceived cost of the service. These costs include psychological and
sensory costs associated with fear of pain during dental procedures as
well as time costs of potentially waiting for delayed services. The DP is
already taking action to decrease these non-monetary costs such as
offering magazines in the waiting room as well as noise-cancelling
headphones during procedures to block out uncomfortable sounds.
However, more action can be taken to decrease non-monetary costs
and add value to the customers.

Analysis of Place

The DP’s core services are provided through one physical channel
involving customers visiting the service location. The DP recently moved
from a smaller cramped space to a larger space in an attempt to
increase the efficiency of staff productivity. The DP does not deliver any
of their core or supplementary services online when doing so has the
potential to increase productivity, and perceived quality.

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Analysis of Promotion
The DP relies on word of mouth (WOM) for promotion, and a sizeable
number of customers have been attracted through positive referrals,
however, by solely using this method the DP has limited its ability to
manage customer expectations, perceived value and risk. Additionally,
negative service experiences can encourage negative WOM that can
impact the brand image. Furthermore, WOM limits the DP’s ability to
build a positively perceived strong brand and brand loyalty by limiting
control of the brand’s message. More promotional activities can also
provide customers with brand information that can help overcome
intangible service attributes and benefits that are non-searchable and
mentally impalpable.

Analysis of Physical Environment

Optimizing a service environment can be integral in enhancing
productivity, shaping a positive customer experience and communicating
a DP’s brand image. The DP’s new office space was designed to
differentiate and create associations with quality, sophisticated and
professional brand image, while creating a functional, inviting, calming,
and comforting atmosphere. The office layout includes a waiting room,
patient treatment rooms with the procedure equipment, and a
conference room where patients are shows informative DVDs. The office
building was designed to be spacious to facilitate customer and
employee comfort. The general interior facilities include lots of lighting, a
Scandinavian design, modern furniture in muted colours, live plants and
art covering the walls. Calming classical music is also played as
background music. Signs displaying the staff’s achievements and
qualifications hang on the walls. One element that enhances customer
perceptions and experiences that the DP does not manage is the scent.

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Analysis of People

The DP’s staff consists of two front office staff and five back-office staff
split into two hygienists and three chairside assistants, not including the
dentist. The front office staff cover receptionist tasks, secretarial tasks,
budgeting and financial work, while the hygienists covered routine
procedures. Staff sometimes need to handle multiple roles meaning the
dental practice does not have enough staff to manage demand which
can lead to stressed employees and mediocre services. The DP’s
culture and values for offering high quality, profitable services in a caring
environment are heavily promoted and staff are encouraged to be
cooperative with each other. Staff are empowered through repeated
training, being involved in decisions, and performance-based rewards.
The DP’s services are standardized to increase efficiency rather than
being customer-oriented and offering customizable service interactions.
Standardized services can often lead to mediocre service delivery that
can negatively impact the DP’s image. The DP’s customers consist of
2,000 white-collar workers looking for high-quality dental services. A
significant portion of the DP’s customers feels anxious and
uncomfortable with dental procedures, exposing the need for a stronger
relationship between the DP’s staff and customers. Staff may also feel
more stress if not trained to know how to serve anxious customers which
can lead to mediocre service delivery.

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Analysis of Process

Based on the blueprint in appendix 1 the DP takes time in the service

process to show customers an informative video, however, this can be
replaced to reduce time costs throughout the process. One failure point
is the potential for employees to mistakenly book appointments at the
wrong time causing an inconvenience for customers. Additionally, some
customers are feeling dental anxiety, and there are multiple points of
interaction between employees and customers where employees can be
better trained and scripted to make customers feel more comfortable.

The DP aims to operate with maximum capacity and, employees are

trained to increase demand by filling in cancelled appointments to
achieve this goal. However, this has led to staff taking on roles that are
not in their job description to manage to work at maximum capacity, as
well as, consumers waiting long periods in the waiting room and waiting
of 3-4 months to have their appointments. This also has the potential to
rush staff members and cause more mistakes throughout the service
process, which can result in overall low quality of service delivery and
low customer satisfaction that can be avoided by managing capacity and
demand.

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Proposals
Implementing Digital Self Service Technology

To improve customer’s perceived quality it is recommended to invest in

self-service technology (SST) in the form of a website or phone
application (Irving, 2018). Core services can be modified to offer
convenient teledentistry, where consumers are given the option for
dental consultancy and treatment planning through video calls and
images (Ghai, 2020; Rahman, 2020). Supplementary services such as
order taking, billing, and payment can be offered digitally to increase
convenience (Schaarschmidt, 2017; Dorbos, 2017). Ghai (2020) states
that information can also be provided before customer’s visit through
online videos and a Frequently Asked Questions page describing the
location and price of services, the dental procedures offered in
replacement of the current informative DVDs in the conference room and
describing how to use the SST Services. These SST services can
enhance the productivity of the service process through decreasing the
time it takes to deliver services while communicating to customers that
the brand is technologically innovative, modern and professional (Iqbal,
2018).

Additionally, customers can be further empowered by having the option

to access their appointment timings, dental records and test results
online, allowing for a more personalized information experience that can
make customers feel more secure before and after a procedure, while
decreasing potential for appointments to be booked for the wrong time
(Hutson, 2013). Hutson (2013) adds that dental patients feel more
satisfied and prefer having the option to use SST technology or in-

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person services, rather than to be limited to one distribution option. This
technology also allows the firm to offer new supplementary services
such as systems that will safe keep customer’s private information
(Hutson, 2013), as well as training staff to offer exceptions when
customers make mistakes in appointments scheduling self-services, to
avoid conflict between staff and customers (Schaarschmidt, 2017;
Dorbos, 2017).

Implementing Rate Fences

Price strategy can be managed through the use of rate fences to attract
different market segments. Dorbos (2017) states that solely lowering
prices can negatively impact the brand by attracting unappealing
customers. Instead, the DP can implement rate fences for example
different prices for tele-dentist appointments to promote the new
services. Another example is discounts for families with children under
18 years to attract and target a new customer base (Vidrova, 2020).
Additionally, discounts can be offered for customers that book in
advance or discounts for consumer referrals to encourage wider spread
of word of mouth (Arulrajah, 2017; Vidrova, 2020).

Implementing Social Media Promotional Activities

When trying to strengthen the relationship between the dental practice

and customers, while further communicating the high-quality of the
services, social media marketing on Facebook and Twitter can be a
significantly useful tool (Dorbos, 2017; Parmar 2018). Wagner (2020)
emphasizes that dental patients are attracted to dental practices that use
social media to promote service attributes and benefits. Creating weekly
social media posts promoting different aspects of a brand’s identity such

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as the Dental practice’s logo, colours and values as well as, the staff and
customer’s positive experiences, can be an effective way of familiarizing
customers with the brand and facilitating customers identifying with the
brand (Hutson, 2013; Wagner, 2020). Posting about the service staff’s
credentials and achievements can also decrease the perceived physical
and mental risks of dental services (Wagner 2020). Parmar (2018) adds
that engaging and conversing with consumers in the comments section
of a post can significantly strengthen brand relationship and loyalty.
Additionally, creating posts that explain the benefits of the dental
practice’s services while giving dental hygiene advise are an effective
way to manage customer’s expectations, increase perceived benefits
and overcoming the attributes of the service that are non-searchable and
mentally impalpable (Dorbos, 2017; Parmar 2018).

Creating an Attractive Experience for Anxious Customers

To increase revenue and add further value for customers the dental
practice can differentiate itself by offering services that are optimized
and personalized to satisfy patients with dental anxiety. Dental anxiety is
a factor that deters a significant number of dental patients from
frequently visiting a dental practice (Ibrahim, 2017; Fägerstad, 2019).
McMaster (2012) adds that the physical environment is especially
impactful for customers with dental anxiety. While the DP has already
committed to creating an inviting and comfortable environment, a
significant improvement can be made by providing an air freshener in
the service environment. According to DentistryIQ (2019), scents are
effective tools for calming anxious patients and facilitates the creation of
a comforting atmosphere. Additionally, scents can help make a positive

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experience more memorable and distract from negative experiences,
which subsequently can increase perceived quality and encourage
repeat purchases of the dental practice’s services (Appukuttan, 2016).

To further attract and add value for anxious patients, service staff can be
trained to interact appropriately and offer coping methods for managing
customer’s fear and anxiety (McMaster, 2012). Staff can be trained to
communicate effectively with calming tones, provide a non-judgmental
environment for patients to talk about their fears, discuss positive and
distracting topics as well as coach patients through breathing exercises
to facilitate the service delivery process and decreasing psychological
costs (Appukuttan, 2016; McMaster, 2012). These customer service
methods are also effective for strengthening the relationship between
staff and customers to enable more loyal customers. (Appukuttan, 2016)
adds that training staff to understand these stress coping methods can
subsequently empower them to feel motivated and cope with the stress
involved when confronted with an anxious customer.

Managing Capacity and Demand

To ensure a more productive high-quality service delivery and a more

reliable service process, the DP should be aiming to work at an optimal
capacity opposed to a maximum capacity (Afèche, 2017). According to
Levin Group (2020), one potential solution is to adjust the firm’s ability to
manage high demand by hiring more staff that can take on needed roles.
Additionally, time costs in the service process seen in Appendix 1 can be
decreased through staff being trained to move customers from waiting
areas to empty treatment areas and prepare them for treatment while
the dentist is finishing treatments with another patient, allowing the

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dentist to quickly and efficiently alternate between customers, and
enabling staff to interact and build relationships with customers (Levin
Group, 2020). Levin Group (2020) adds that the DP can gradually
expand capacity by modifying the service environment to include a spare
dental treatment room that can be used for delivering high-quality
services when demand is high. As capacity increases the staff can focus
on providing high-quality services and the DP can attract new customers
and target new markets to increase revenue without sacrificing quality
(Cortis, 2013; Afèche, 2017.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, multiple features of the dental practice’s marketing
management strategy can be improved upon to increase revenue. The
core and supplementary services can be enhanced by offering
convenient and accessible digital self-service options that can
strengthen the brand’s image and cut time costs as well as offering safe
keeping services and exceptions. Rate fences can be implemented to
target different market segments. Increasing the DP’s social media
presence can strengthen brand image and encourage brand loyalty.
Customers with dental anxiety can be better targeted and satisfied
through offering an environment with pleasant scents and training staff
to manage these patients through coping strategies. Lastly, the dental
practice’s service process can be made more efficient and reliable while
increasing the quality of service by hiring more employees, training staff
to prepare patients for dental procedures before the dentist arrives, and
by gradually increasing capacity through a spare dental procedure area.

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Appendix

Appendix 1: Dental Practice’s Service Blueprint

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