Quality, Service, and Price: the “Unattainable Triangle” of Advertising and Marketing

We have all heard the references to quality, service, and price.  The sciences of advertising and marketing explain that  it is impossible to provide all three at the same time.  Let’s explore this a bit.  Let’s look at McDonald’s for instance.  McDonald’s provides fast food very quickly at a fairly reasonable price; based on this principle it may be the quality of the food that is less than the other two measures of service and price.  A contrasting example could be Starbuck’s coffee.  At Starbuck’s they known for high quality coffee drinks provided quickly and kindly; based on this triangle these drinks cannot be provided at a low fee.  We all know many of the coffee drinks at Starbuck’s can easily exceed $3 per drink.  To provide another contrasting example, some businessmen enjoy having custom dress shirts.  These shirts are comparably expensive and are of very high quality; these shirts cannot be obtained quickly as a result.  The speed of service is compromised when compared to purchasing ready-made shirts at a department store.
Now let’s look at how dental practices apply this triangle of quality, service, and price.  There are some large dental practices that provide treatment to patients without an appointment who simply walk in, and that provide these services at a more reasonable fee.  According to this triangle of marketing, it may be the quality of the care that is compromised.  Quality can be compromised at a dental practice by having lesser experienced staff members, by providing lesser expensive filling materials like silver fillings, by utilizing cheaper metals for crowns which may cause allergic reactions or which may corrode over time, by having crowns and dentures made by lesser expensive laboratories utilizing lesser expensive materials and lesser trained technicians, by hiring inexperienced dentists, among other ways.
In my dental practice we have placed an emphasis on quality and service.  While we cannot provide for these at a low fee, we do our best to provide quality and service at a very reasonable fee.  We do strive to provide care which will decrease our patient’s lifetime investment in their teeth.  We are honest and we are not aggressive in our plans of treatment.  We also provide flexible options for patients to pay for their care, including accepting insurance payments towards our valued patient accounts.  As difficult as it may be, we sincerely and genuinely attempt to fulfill all three measures of this “unattainable triangle” of quality, service, and price.  Our patients deserve this effort.  We really do try to deliver.
If you are interested in experiencing our unique philosophy of care we invite you to contact us for an appointment.  We invite you to let your family, friends, and coworkers know about us.  We can be reached at our north Dallas office by calling (972) 250-2580.