From production to performance: solving the positioning dilemma in dental practice

BACKGROUND: Thriving dental practices are excellent at providing a warm personal experience or are efficient, fast and cost-effective. Those that that attempt to do both end up being mediocre at just about everything. CONCLUSIONS: Introducing ideas from dramaturgy and service simultaneity in the services marketing literature, the authors provide a model for the conceptualization and redesign of the dental practice. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Successful dental practices will be those that concentrate on low customization of activities in the back office or high customization of activities in the front office.