Service Marketing Challenges for Healthcare Professionals. Empirical Evidence from Some Components of the South African Healthcare Industry

This paper constitutes an exploratory enquiry into the consumer behaviour factors of allopathic and alternative medicine users. The researchers used qualitative (e.g. focus groups and collage) and quantitative techniques (survey) to obtain the data. The research addresses the following areas of the behaviour of consumers towards allopathic and alternative medicine:

• Patient's perceptions of allopathic and alternative medicines.

• Motives for resorting to alternative medical treatment.

• The attitudes of patients towards allopathic medicine and alternative medicine.

• To determine the market segments of allopathic and alternative medicine users.

The results of this research indicate that the current users of allopathic medicine are satisfied with the treatment and there is an overall positive attitude towards allopathic medicine. Allopathic medicine users will not easily switch to alternative medicine.

Service marketing issues emanating from the research will be discussed in the paper.