How is your front office doing lately?

If you want to see whether a dental practice is thriving or not, just take a look at the front office team. If you see a super-attentive and friendly team that greets every incoming visitor with a welcoming smile, it’s more than likely that this practice is doing well. More often than not, you would find customer satisfaction levels are sky high and patient referrals off the charts. Of course, the reverse is true as well.

It’s true that the success of a dental practice often translates to an upbeat mood and positive atmosphere around the clinic, and nowhere is it more apparent to the visitor than at the front office.

In many ways, your reception staff represent the ‘face’ of your dental practice. It forms the bulk of how your customers assess your clinic’s level of customer service, or lack thereof. This is the main reason why the most negative Google reviews are targeted at front desk staff.

In short, you cannot afford to neglect this highly important customer-facing segment of your business.

To make sure those front office positions are being filled by responsible, professional and productive staff, you will need to regularly review and evaluate the team. Here are some important questions to ask yourself to help make an informed assessment.

Are your front office staff facing a burnout? Is the front office working environment toxic, tense and prone to miscommunication and mistakes? Or is it a vibrant, happy and productive place to work in? How are tasks being delegated and who takes responsibility for them?

All these questions, when properly addressed will determine whether your front office operation runs efficiently, and if you have a productive and happy team on staff.

Are your dental front office staff facing a burnout?

One of the most worrying trends in dentistry is the rate of staff burnout. We’ve all read about the “the great resignation” taking place across industries around the world, the worst impacted being the healthcare industry. This is a critical time to tackle the sensitive issue of staff burnout with your front office staff.

The pandemic has been very challenging for dental practices. Your front office personnel are bearing the brunt of many newly imposed regulations and increasingly disgruntled public.

Besides making sure that visitors are observing the COVID-19 guidelines – which in itself is a delicate task given how polarised views are regarding the handling of the pandemic – front office staff have to manage pre-screening and onsite screening duties, answer irate enquiries, and cover duties for other staff who may have caught the virus themselves or are looking after a family member who has.

All these things can and do add up.

Do not ignore signs of disengagement

If you have noticed signs of frustration or disengagement from a dental front office employee, do not brush them aside. Given the stress-induced frustration coming from dealing with COVID-related issues, it is not unusual if you do notice some signs of staff disengagement.

However, if not properly addressed, such issues may spiral into bigger problems later.

It’s important to sit down with your front office team mates and calmly conduct an open discussion, letting them know that you care. The best way to conduct an intimate one-on-one discussion is to ask questions and listen attentively before asking another follow-up question.

You may ask about any recent difficulties they may be facing in their jobs, difficult customers they have  encountered and whether they lack any resources to excel at their work. Slowly work your way towards potentially sensitive topics like: Job satisfaction, professional accomplishment, stress factors and family commitments.

Your empathy and concern will go a long way towards assuring your staff member that he or she is not alone. If your front office staff are emotionally strained or feel overwhelmed at the workplace, you need to obtain their feedback on how things can be improved, looking into areas like better work delegation, putting in a few more coffee breaks or automating some of the more repetitive tasks.

Is your front office a happy place to work in?

We all like to be around happy, positive and fun people. Moreover it’s been proven time and again the higher productivity, work rate and customer-service quality of a happy employee as opposed to one who is persistently downcast and miserable looking.

The bad vibes of a negative person can easily rub off on others around him or her, causing a chain of negativity that can be devastating for your team morale. A happy person is especially important in a customer-facing work environment. You don’t want to set off a chain of negativity around the front desk do you?

The biggest tell-tale sign of an unhappy workplace is the lack of smiles, banter and laugh-out-loud moments. Are your staff members suddenly going quiet during office gatherings? If the environment is toxic, you would feel lot of side glancing going on, even hear gossipy whispers in the corridors or fake-sounding laughter at someone’s expense.

Now if the mood feels tense and cold around the front desk, that is exactly what you’re exposing your paying customers to on a daily basis.

On the flip side, if you have a happy front office workplace, your team will be:

• Socialising and engaging in casual banter with patients all the time.
• Volunteering for work and non-work related activities
• Offering to help out team-mates
• Always friendly and approachable
• Asking questions and willing to try new things

If you’re the employer or practice manager, your mood, general disposition and people skills will also affect the general atmosphere of the dental reception. Just as you’re keeping an eye out for signs of a unhappy workforce, you may also wish to self-diagnose and find out if you are helping to perpetuate a healthy and positive working environment.

Whatever your observations, it’s a good idea to start conducting half-yearly review and feedback sessions with your customer-facing team. Reviews help to foster better communication and understanding between the ranks. It gives them a chance to air any grievances or raise any issues that have otherwise slipped your notice. You should let them know that you respect their privacy by assuring them the absolute confidentiality of shared information.

It’s also a chance for you to show how much they are valued and appreciated by management. Since it’s a private conversation, you can also call attention to some mistakes in a discreet and professional manner.

How are you delegating tasks?

Delegation is not as simple as doling out tasks and setting deadlines for their completion. To achieve any essential goal, you want to delegate in a way that expresses your trust in the person’s ability, prioritising his or her ability and time in consideration of the work that’s already on their plates. Simply put, you want to be aware of the person’s present commitments and available resources, before you assign a new task.

Every employee should already have a list of ‘must-do’ tasks. If you are adding on a new task, you need to make sure how it will impact the person’s pre-existing workload. If the task at hand is more important than the others, be explicitly clear that those are less critical and if necessary, should be given a lower priority in the to-do list.

Where possible, you should also delegate in view of the person’s strengths and interests. Assigning the right tasks to the right person will boost productivity and keep your team members happy while improving their job satisfaction.

Trust is an important ingredient in delegation. As a delegator, you need to learn how to let go and trust that the person will complete his or her tasks without the need for micro-management. That is different from setting measurable goals to track the progress.

Finally, if your goals are being met, recognise and reward accordingly. For example, if your dental receptionist staff meets a target for up-selling a new product or service, you can reward them with cash, gift cards and paid time off.

Use technology wisely

In order to improve front desk productivity, you need to assess what is currently taking up time and causing delays. Common culprits include paperwork, scheduling, and patient communication.

Once the sources of inefficiency have been identified, specific solutions can be put into place. For example, automating routine tasks or using software that streamlines communications can help reduce the amount of time wasted on administrative tasks.

Using electronic health records (EHR), for example, can help reduce the amount of time it takes to document patient information.

Happy inspiring!

At the end of the day, you want to cultivate happy and motivated employees in your dental team. These are the people with whom your customers interact and from whom they form an opinion about your services.

Motivating your front office staff is key to a successful dental practice. By using the tips provided in this article, you can create a positive work environment that will keep your staff motivated and productive.