How do people feel about medical checkups?

—Medical checkups as a service business—

Abstract

 I investigated the features of the “medical checkup service” as a service business, from the viewpoint of the person undergoing the checkup.
 This service is featured by ① being intangible, ② including both elements of production and consumption simultaneously, ③ showing diversity, ④ covering results and a course of events, and ⑤ joint production. Joint production with the client in particular was shown to involve the functions of decision-making and quality control of the content of the service, education, as well as marketing.
 To understand the way clients (persons undergoing the medical checkup) experience the service, I performed an interview survey of persons who had undergone a medical checkup. Based on the narratives provided by four interviewees, we concluded that ① people undergo the medical checkups with various feelings (and for various reasons); ② those who have undergone the medical checkups are basically only interested in the results of the various examinations; ③ they prefer to keep a “businesslike distance” with the provider of the medical checkup service; however, ④ if they are greeted in a friendly way indicating that they have been remembered, e.g. with the word, “I’m glad to see you this year too,” it increases the value they attach to the health guidance provided based on the results of the checkup.