A few days ago I was walking through the Red Light District in The Hague. I wasn't cruising for a score but it so happens that a friend of mine lives in the neighborhood. Not that I have anything against using the services of the oldest profession in the world, mind you. In fact, the odds are that at one point in my life I will succumb and use them, since according to a recently published statistic over 65% of men in The Netherlands have admitted to a nocturnal/carnal visit to an abode of sin. As any healthy young lad can affirm it is nigh on impossible to walk by all the windows displaying the wares and not actually taking a look. So I did. There were plenty of fine looking ladies there, one thing struck my eye however, I saw more than a fair share of obviously transgender individuals there. Most of them were actually women to all intents and purposes; some were quite obviously sporting a bulge in their underwear, which would probably put Ron Jeremy to shame. I neither approve nor disapprove of them being present in the combat zone. I am really kind of indifferent. It did shoot through my mind that in some cases a transgender prostitute presenting herself as a real female may pose an interesting consumer-affairs issue. It is an obvious case of misleading advertising and could be construed to be a case of unfair competition by the fellow hookers. Thinking about that has brought a number of other interesting ideas relating to consumer affairs to my head. I will attempt and outline them in this piece and try and point out the obvious difficulties relating to prostitution and applying standard business models to it.
Prostitution has been legal in The Netherlands for the past two or three years. It is a common misconception that it always was legal. The legalization only took place very recently. Pimping is still illegal though. This means that under current law prostitutes are considered to be self-employed, one-man operations. It would be interesting to apply Michael Porter's value chain analysis to the prostitute's business. In short value chain analysis is used to analyze the specific activities through which firms can create a competitive advantage. The basic value chain consists of the following activities:
- Inbound logistics include the receiving, warehousing, and inventory control of input materials.
- Operations are the value-creating activities that transform the inputs into the final product.
- Outbound logistics are the activities required to get the finished product to the customer, including warehousing, order fulfillment, etc.
- Marketing & Sales are those activities associated with getting buyers to purchase the product, including channel selection, advertising, pricing, etc.
- Service activities are those that maintain and enhance the product's value including customer support, repair services, etc.
I will first attempt to describe the various steps and how they relate to the business model of a prostitute and later try and go into consumer affairs and consumer recourse.
Inbound Logistics
In the case of a prostitute the inbound logistics consist first of all of being born. This is an essential step in the production chain. Without it no
complete product can be manufactured. As to
warehousing it is a very complex step which takes several years to complete and is far beyond the scope of this paper, in essence it includes
feeding,
upraising and
educating the
future prostitute. As for the control of input materials it is very closely tied to the
marketing strategy to be chosen in the future. Depending on what market the
business owner will cater to it is important to monitor the amounts and quality of
food intake as well as exercise. In some cases it may be desirable to perform
surgical augmentations so as to cater to specific preferences even more. The inbound logistics is a very lengthy process in this case and can be compared to making high quality
whiskey in that a number of very complex factors add up to produce the
finished goods.
Operations
The
value-creating activities are simple yet at the very time quite complex. In contrast to services such as
accounting or
IT services no lengthy intakes and/or
project proposals are feasible. Due to the very nature of the business, transactions take place at very short notice without involved negotiation. The prostitute must very quickly be able to determine what the exact service is that the client desires. She must then provide it and in some cases dissuade the client from pursuing his/her fancy, this refers to the more unusual and unsightly of preferences some people posses. (think
coprophagy or as it is also
noded here
coprophagia,
hardcore SM and others) Unfortunately it is hard to determine when the service is completed. It seems easy, allow the client to
ejaculate in an
orifice of choice or outside the body, and you're done. Unfortunately some clients may require further attention such as a chat and/or a statement reassuring the client's
manhood. The operations, in this particular branch of service, probably rely a lot on experience.
Outbound Logistics
In the case of prostitution this is very closely related to the operations. Warehousing consists of presenting the service provider in a small room with a window facing directly towards the street.
Order fulfillment and
invoicing are closely connected with operations as well.
Marketing & sales
Marketing is very dependent on the target group one is trying to sell the service to. Depending on whether the
businessperson is attempting to sell to
blonde-lovers, red-hair
fetishists,
leather and latex lovers,
fat girl lovers or just your average
girl next door admirers, important choices must be made during the inbound logistics phase prior to marketing the product. However a number of short-term marketing activities must be undertaken regularly. These include but are not limited to:
showering,
applying make-up, possibly
shaving the pubic area, wearing enticing outfits/
lingerie. The sales activities due to the window-shopping nature of the business in The Netherlands are limited to approaching possible prospects by repeated
tapping on the window. A sturdy
ring is an important sales tool in this. After a prospect responds, one must quickly offer a price and agree to anything the prospect says in order to entice him/her into the room. My belief is that this is similar to the operations phase in that it requires a lot of experience.
Service and aftersales
This is a little bit more problematic. No matter how much a john thinks that his service provider is aroused by him she probably isn't. The businessperson is not interested in striking up lengthy conversations or possible friendly relationships. In the interest of
maximizing returns and
increasing turnover the john must be kicked out as quickly as possible. A fine balance must be struck between not wasting too much time and alienating the client and in doing so foregoing any future sales. In the case of aftersales things get even more complicated as it kind of hard to ask for a
refund. It is also hard to judge the
level of satisfaction of a customer just by using the simple ejaculation criterion. As we all well know one wad does not equal another wad. This intriguing problem brings me to the remainder of the analysis i.e. the potential customer recourse.
Customer Satisfaction
In my analysis I have identified a number of potential issues:
Measuring the level of satisfaction is incredibly difficult. It is impossible to place objective standards on the level of service provided by the business owner. First of all, all of the businesses are unique. This is so despite the fact that they provide more or less the same service. The
whiskey-making or
winemaking analogy comes in handy here once again. Even though
Glenmorangie may be considered a similar product to
Oban or
Glenkinchie they are distinctly different. The same goes for
Tracy,
Jenna and
Mary. Not only are the services unique, the customer demands are probably even more varied and unique and liable to change over time. Therefore, measuring the satisfaction level can only be done on an individual basis, whereby a business owner determines the level of satisfaction by the number of return visits. This obviously seriously limits an objective analysis of the branch.
Misleading advertising is actually what got me started on this whole issue. If one considers that a very large percentage of potential customers (at least in The Netherlands) are inebriated or otherwise impaired, it follows that the business owners may use that fact to mislead the clients. Blurry vision, raging hormones, blood alcohol levels of 1.0 and other factors do not generally promote a sane and objective assessment of the product or service one is about to purchase. This fact can be used by wearing tight corsets hiding superfluous rolls of flesh, which may not necessarily appeal to a man looking for a skinny waif. Padding bras to create a more impressive bust falls in the same category. Excessive makeup hiding the effects of failure during the inbound logistics stage of production can also be considered. (one must think of excessive acne scarring and other potentially devaluating features) The most malicious one is, however posing to be a woman when one isn't in fact one. The aforementioned Ron Jeremy look alike obviously doesn't qualify in that category since only a state of inebriation akin to a coma could make a potential client miss the obvious 12-inch hint. The transgender individuals are a bit of a problem however. I must point out that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with transgender business people offering prostitution services. There is a problem, however, when they try to hide that fact and entice clients who do not wish to indulge in sexual activity with a businesswoman formerly known as a businessman.
All of this brings us to customer recourse, customer rights and customer watchdogs. Because of the unfortunate social stigma resting on this branch of services there are not many watchdog organizations involved in providing aid for customers who feel that they have been mistreated or not received the level of service they expected. This means that the only recourse a customer has is a direct complaint to the business owner. Unfortunately most business owners in Dutch Red Light Districts employ the services of protection agencies. These protection agencies operate slightly outside of the general market in that they do not follow standard guidelines but rather employ two simple guidelines: "Shut up and leave" and "You're still here? Prepare to Suffer". The outcome of the latter guideline may end up in an unwanted hospital visit. The only real form of recourse is legal action. Due to the stigma mentioned earlier this is very undesirable, not to mention potential marital problems. Consider a drunk young man having sex with one of the transgender providers, it is not very likely that he would then like it publicized to the entire community. Besides this particular blatant aspect of poor or wrongful service there are countless other examples of unfulfilled expectations. Even if we choose to disregard the protection agencies it is hard to gain recourse. Unlike a VCR which if broken can be returned to the local electronics store you can't exactly complain that you didn't like the way you came or that the service provider's curves weren't exactly what you expected. Neither can one reclaim the wasted semen. All of these mean that prostitution will for a long time be on the outskirts of the regular service industry. Customer satisfaction cannot be guaranteed and I do not foresee a watchdog involving itself with this touchy issue. So keep in mind: You don't always get what you ask for.