Qualitative analysis of hospitality extended to patients by reception desk clerks at Japanese dental clinics

Abstract

The way appropriate manner and speaking for customers is one of the important things for the people who are engaged in the service industry. With the maturity of society and the market, besides the quality of products, improvement of the service extended to customers is one of the important factors to increase the company’s turnover and profit. Currently in Japan, due to the upsurge of the dental clinics, the dentistry industry as a whole is suffering from severe and excessive competition. In this study, we focus on the dental clinic management in Japan, where the service quality exerts a great influence to the clinic’s outcome. In order to make the good evaluation criteria of dental clinic reception, corresponding dental receptions in dental clinic with established reputation were employed. One dental clinic in Kanto region and three dental clinics in Kansai region were chosen to investigate through video analysis. The responses of clerks in reception to their patients at dental clinic were taken by videos since the entrance of patients. Analysis of greetings, smile and sight line were carried out. The results showed that clerks with 10 years experiences commonly communicate with patients with more sight contact and smile face than those clerks without 10 years experiences, which is considered as the guideline to make the good evaluation criteria.