Customer Service in Dental Offices: Analyses of Service Orientations and Waiting Time in Telephone Interactions With a Potential New Customer

Abstract

Increasing competition among health care organizations has prompted greater concern for the quality of "customer service" in brief encounters with patients. This study examined service practices engaged by dental office staff interacting over the telephone with a potential new customer. The goals of the study were to determine whether the staff displayed customer-oriented and control-oriented service communication behaviors and to examine the relation between these service behaviors and waiting time required of customers. Structured observational data were collected in phone encounters with staff in 84 dental offices. Approximately 40% of the staff engaged in the customer-oriented behavior of inviting the customer to share questions or concerns, and 31% exhibited the control-oriented behavior of reciting promotional pitches on behalf of the dental office. Six other communication behaviors were observed with less frequency. Staff who made customers wait on the line longer were more likely to use promotional pitches. Analyses revealed no significant relation between waiting time and other service communication behaviors.