From Service Factory to Service Theatre: Solving the Positioning Dilemma in the Medical Practice

Abstract

Doctor's surgeries are typically inefficient: They are generally stuck in the middle of the market, neither providing an individually tailored personal experience, nor one that is fast, efficient and cost effective. Introducing ideas from service simultaneity, and dramaturgy (the theory and practice of dramatic composition), this paper provides a simple but powerful model for the conceptualisation and redesign of the doctor's surgery. We argue that doctor's surgeries that are successful will be those that focus either on standardisation of activities in a back office environment (Service Factory), or high customisation of activities in a front office environment (Service Theatre). Those that attempt to do everything will succeed in doing nothing well.

Keywords

doctor's surgery operations management service factory services marketing service theatre

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ries

Trout

(1982). Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Warner Books, New York, NY.

Goffman

(1999). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Peter Smith Pub Inc, New York, NY.

Clark

Mangham

(2004). From dramaturgy to theatre as technology: The case of corporate theatre. J. Manage. Stud. 41(1), 37–59.

Haahti

(2003). Theory of relationship cultivation: A point of view to design of experience. J. Bus. Manage. 9(3), 303–321.

Gardner

W. L.

(1992). Lessons in organizational dramaturgy: The art of impression management. Org. Dyn. 21(1), 33–46.

Ritti

R. R.

Silver

J. H.

(1986). Early processes of institutionalization: The dramaturgy of exchange in interorganizational relations. Admin. Sci. Q. 31(1), 25–39.

Grove

S. J.

Fisk

R. P.

Laforge

(2004). Developing the impression management skills of the service worker: An application of Stanislavsky's principles in a services context. Ser. Ind. J. 24(2), 1–14.

Grove

S. J.

Fisk

R. P.

John

(2003). The future of services marketing: Forecasts from ten services experts. J. Ser. Market. 17(2), 107–121.

Grove

S. J.

Fisk

R. P.

(1997). The impact of other customers on service experiences: A critical incident examination of ‘Getting Along’. J. Retail. 73(1), 63–65.

10.

Hochschild

(1983). The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

11.

From back office to front office. Available at http://www.accenture.com/xd/xd.asp?it=enweb&xd=industries%5Ccommunications%5Caerospace%5Cinsights%5Cback_office.xml. Accessed on 23rd March 2005.

12.

Berry

L. L.

(1980). Services marketing is different. Business, May-June 24–30.

13.

Berthon

P. R.

Pitt

L. F.

Katsikeas

Berthon

J. -P.

(1999). Virtual services go international: International services in the marketspace. J. Int. Market. 7(3), 84–105.

14.

Schmenner

R. W.

(1986). How can service businesses survive and prosper?. Sloan Manage. Rev. 3, 21–32.

15.

Bendavid

R. E. E.

(1995). Shouldice: A biography. Prob. Gen. Surg. 12(1), 1–5.

16.

Hallowell

Heskett

(2004). Shouldice Hospital Ltd. (Abridged). Harvard Business School Case Study 9-805-002. Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA.

17.

Knudsen

T. R.

Randel

Rugholm

(2005). The vanishing middle market. McKinsey Q. 4, 6–8.