The Strategic Role of External Customer Satisfaction in Healthcare Services Marketing: Evidence from Türkiye’s Health Statistics Yearbooks

Özet

This study examines the strategic importance of patient satisfaction in healthcare services marketing by adapting the marketing concept of the “external customer” to the healthcare context. For this purpose, patient satisfaction rates for Turkey and internationally comparable indicators (OECD countries) reported in the Health Statistics Yearbooks published by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Türkiye are utilized. Designed as a descriptive study based on secondary data, the research first describes Turkey’s annual trend in patient satisfaction and then evaluates it comparatively with selected countries. The findings are interpreted within the marketing framework linking external customer satisfaction to loyalty and preference, and the potential effects of patient satisfaction on perceived service quality, repeat utilization, word-of-mouth communication, and brand equity of healthcare organizations are discussed. Furthermore, the study offers implications on how these data can be used to inform healthcare services marketing strategies, support patient-centered management in public hospitals, and strengthen Türkiye’s competitive position in health tourism. Overall, the study suggests that re-reading official statistical data from a marketing perspective can contribute to the design of external customer–oriented policies and practices within the health system.