Laura Hatch is an Office Manager that has started and successfully grown two dental offices and is also the founder of Front Office Rocks, a fully comprehensive online front office training program. For more information, visit www.FrontOfficeRocks.com.

Laura Hatch

	The first week of a new employee's time in the office is vital to their happiness and success as a long-term employee. Oftentimes, in a dental office, a new hire is not taken through a structured training program and allowed the time they need to absorb what is expected in their new role.

	Instead, they are faced with multiple tasks assigned by different people, without anyone confirming the new employee has successfully comprehended and accomplished one or two specific tasks.

Must-read: The top 8 worst types of patients in the waiting room

What is the best way to start a new employee in your office?

 Ensure they are trained correctly from day one and they are successful in their training before the practice staff starts throwing several things at them all at once.

	Take a moment to consider all the things we do at the front desk. Now, apply that list to a new employee as a list of responsibilities they must be trained to do: how to answer the phone, how to forward the phones, how to call insurance companies and the list goes on and on. There is a lot of information for a new employee to take in, especially if they've never worked in a dental office. Make sure your new hire is successful at being an employee in the office before teaching them the ins and outs of the dental industry.

	Here are three suggestions on how to spend your time during your first week with a new employee:

 Walk him or her through the entire office-front to back-and introduce them to each staff member and explain what each person does in the office. Show them where to put their things, where to take breaks and explain the entire office layout. Make them comfortable in their new space and show them where everything is and how the office flows. Avoid just dropping off your new hire in their seat without walking through the entire office. Each position in the dental office relies heavily on the others, so it’s vital to know who everyone is and what they do to be successful in their new role.

Rather than just send the new employee on their way, training in hand, set them up for success. Explain why we train, how they will be trained, encourage them to ask questions and seek information-go into detail about why we do what we do and what results are expected. Your newest employee must understand what they are being taught, from the beginning, to avoid miscommunication and misunderstandings. Train on only a single task first. For example, if you want your new receptionist to 

, they should begin by viewing all the training videos for answering the phone. Sit down with them and talk about what they’ve seen, help them understand the importance of answering the office phone and answer all their questions. Don’t move on from the phones until he or she is correctly and successfully answering it. If you add too many responsibilities to the mix too soon, the new employee will not do any of the tasks well. Instead, they will feel insecure about their ability to do this job. The 

longer the new employee functions with insecurity

, they will never quite achieve the results that are expected-and other employees will question if the new person can do do anything well.

Related: 3 reasons new employees shouldn't answer the phones

With learning and mastering one task at a time, you build confidence in the new hire and among the entire team. Their self-esteem skyrockets and they know they are an asset to the office and the co-workers. It may be something as simple as keeping the reception area clean and fully stocked, but the new employee bears responsibility, shows their ability to manage themselves and become a highly functioning team member.

	Without a new hire plan and a strong training program in place, you flounder and your new employee gets frustrated and overwhelmed. As the office manager or practice owner, you have the responsibility of setting up new employees for success in your office. They and your existing staff depend on you to have a plan to introduce new staff, train them correctly and integrate them into your office culture and processes.

Do you need more hiring resources? We have you covered at 

 channel to view videos about finding and hiring your next rock star employee.

Articles

Laura Hatch of Front Office Rocks explores the challenges of successfully integrating a new employee into a dental front office team, and provides strategy to make the transition seamless and successful.

3 keys to training a new employee

	It’s the one thing we can all agree on: when we walk into the office in the morning and look at the schedule, there is zero possibility the day will run as planned. How often does the schedule ever run the way it looked in the morning? Various issues come up-patients run behind, we run behind, emergencies call to schedule, we work through lunch and leave work late-that feels like our normal.

	What would you say if I claimed I could solve your scheduling problems in one day? I bet I would make everyone reading this very happy. Maybe I should save the secret and somehow figure out how to turn this into a million-dollar idea, or I could just share it with you now.  

	We can all agree the schedule in a dental office can make or break a day. It is also the most stressful topic of discussion between departments and between team members, because it affects everyone. Can it be fixed? What can you do about it? There is one way, and only one way, that you can fix your schedule in your practice. You and your team need to become proactive about the schedule and develop a plan.  
	
	What causes so many problems with the schedule is a reactive office. Things are handled on the fly as they come up instead of having a clear policy in place beforehand. In other words, as issues arise, one person handles it without consulting the rest of the team. The result is frustration from others on the team who were not able to give input about the situation and how it should be handled. 

More from the author: 3 ways to handle an unmotivated employee 

	The way dental offices run is we all work in our little “worlds” within the office, so we don’t have the opportunity to call emergency staff meetings like some businesses do. When an issue comes up, the people in that little world (whether it be the operatory or the schedule) must decide about what to do. If an instrument breaks, the clinical team in that procedure decides what needs to happen at the point. When a patient calls and says he or she is running late, the front office team decides whether the patient can be seen or not. When the hygienist has a “talker” in his or her chair, a decision should be made on how to handle him or her because or else the schedule will run behind. Throughout the day, decisions are being made in each part of the world.  But since the entire team is not in on that specific scenario, the final decision can lead to differing opinions, upset feelings and drama.  
	
	Here is a 3-step plan to easily fix the daily schedule in your dental office.
	
	1. Have a meeting. Schedule a meeting with the entire team-not during patient hours-and include everyone. Ensure that everyone knows the subject of the meeting and ask that each staff member bring scenarios to discuss. The agenda of the meeting is to list every specific situation that comes up during the day that can wreak havoc on the schedule.  

	2. Write a policy. Once everything is listed, discuss the options for how the issues could be handled.  It is important to have this meeting at a time when you can fully discuss the pros and cons of all the options and no one feels pressured to have to get back to patient care. It is also important that someone monitors the discussion and makes sure that nothing becomes personal or too heated. The intention is to come to a conclusion that the entire group can agree on for each item on the list.

	3. Follow the policy. Once an agreement has been reached by the entire team how each situation will be handled going forward, type it up and post it. Put it somewhere that everyone can see it and follow it. It is paramount that everyone, including the doctor, follows it. The Scheduling Policy becomes a written agreement among the entire team-no longer a cause for drama and stress but a way to bring the team together.  
	
	Why not just borrow someone else’s scheduling policy? Because the process of looking at daily issues and developing a solution for each as a staff is the key to writing a successful policy with full office buy-in. If you use another office’s policy, it may not apply to your situation or needs or fit your culture. Your team is more likely to comply with a scheduling policy when they have had a hand in creating it. The process lends itself to a team environment by creating a common goal.
	
	Want to find out more about managing an effective schedule? Visit 

 for more information or to view a video about scheduling.
	 

Creating a policy – and sticking to it – can help your dental office operate more smoothly.

How to fix your scheduling problems in one day

	I spend a lot of time in dental offices, observing the day-to-day systems they use. Frankly, I see a lot of systems, policies and office flows that make little sense. Here are several real-life examples that I have seen, and how you can avoid them:

	Answering the phones with “Dr. Smith’s office, how may I direct your call?”

	For most dental offices, the same front desk employee answering the phone is the one who is actually going to handle the caller’s request. Very rarely does the 

 need to direct that call to anyone else, as we typically handle it right then and there for the patient. Why not answer the phone with something along the lines of this: “Dr. Smith’s office, how may I help you?” The patient will understand that you are going to be able to help them, not pass their call on to someone else. This is good customer service, and it makes more sense.

Related article: 3 ways to help make communication the priority in your dental practice

	Making extra work by copying treatment plans into Excel

	I have seen offices enter the entire treatment plan into 

, only to copy all all of the treatment plans into an Excel spreadsheet so that you can present the treatment plan with payment options on a form that shows the out-of-pocket costs and the patient’s payment options. This is just an extra step that does not serve a real purpose. The 

 is designed to make our lives easier, so why not use the software for its intended purpose? Get that information into your system so you can get what you need to present to the patient, without the added task of entering it into Excel.

	Using paper forms in binders instead of relying on the software

	This is another example of offices making extra work for themselves because they are more comfortable with paper than software. I have seen staff fill out forms that outline the patient’s treatment plan-after entering into 

-so that the paper can be filed into three-ring binders labeled either “Scheduled” or “Unscheduled” by the doctor and date the patient was seen.

	Then, the paper has to be moved accordingly if the patient schedules the appointment or cancels after the initial appointment. The paper also has to be tracked down by the hygienist or dental assistant on the day of the next appointment to be reviewed in the huddle, even though the identical information already exists in the software system.

Related article: 3 ways to synchronize your systems and promote your practice

	Why use two systems to track the same information? Rely on the software that has been implemented for that very purpose. Let the software do the work of making your office more efficient.

	Up next: More common front office mistakes and how you can avoid them

	Tracking information that never gets reviewed with the team

	This is so common, but it makes absolutely no sense. Some offices track certain pieces of information by entering them onto a piece of paper (for example, the number of patients that scheduled their next appointment that day, number of 

 the team asked for that day, etc.) at the end of the day, and then filing that information away in another binder or book.

	The truth is, that information is never reviewed by anyone! It doesn’t get shared with the team to discuss how well or poorly the numbers were in any given area. No one can make a plan to improve those numbers if they don’t see them. Someone is just filing it away every day and going home. What is the point of tracking information if it is never actually used to make improvements?

Watch: Top 5 things every dental practice should track

	I have personally observed each of these examples in dental offices. When I ask why they do what they do, I hear the same answer from every single employee, “Because that’s the way we have always done it.”  The employees have no idea why they are doing these extra tasks or answering the phones the way they do. 

 that way because it’s how they were originally trained, and they never stop to think: Why do we do this? Is this necessary? Is there a more efficient way?

	Maybe you are reading this and thinking, “Our office doesn’t do any of those things on your list.” That may be true, but are you doing other things that make no sense? Think about your daily duties and tasks. Have you ever asked yourself why we even do this when it just seems like extra work? There are probably things that you do in your office on a daily and weekly basis that made sense in the past but are no longer necessary. Yet you still do them because “that is the way we have always done it.”

	I suggest you take a moment to review all the systems you have in place, and decide if they are necessary and producing the intended results-or any results. Analyze whether there may be a better or more efficient way. If there is a daily or weekly task that falls into a questionable category, discuss it. Ask these questions: "Why do we do this?" and "Are we getting the results we want from this?" If you or your coworkers answer with anything close to, “I don’t know, this is just the way we have always done it,” then try to find a better or more efficient way.

Read more: What happens when your practice runs on autopilot?

	Many times things migrate into autopilot in an organization, and everyone just evolves into creatures of habit. But it does not have to stay that way. Change your perspective and look at the systems you use every day to help you recognize areas that need improvement, changes or a complete overhaul. Take the time to identify what might need to be updated, so it is no longer done just because “that’s how it’s always been done.” Figure out a way to make it not only more efficient, but more effective. The result will be a more productive office. Everyone will feel better about the fact that their daily job duties are necessary to effectively run the practice and serve patients, while no longer feeling as though any part of their job is just busy work.

A look at some of the common mistakes front offices make by creating too much work and not enough results.

Is the "way we've always done it" really the right way?

	Recently, we had an upset in our practice, and I thought sharing our experience might help others. I have been the office manager of my husband’s practice since 2002, but about two years ago I took a step back from running the office from day-to-day so I could focus on growing my own business, Front Office Rocks. I was still available to them on a high level and as needed, but I no longer managed the team, schedule or systems on a daily basis.

	Then, one week ago I got the call from my husband. Our junior office manager gave notice. Ok, that’s not good, but we can still manage with the remaining staff. Then, he called me again about two hours later. Another front office employee just gave notice. What the heck was going on there? It was time to head back in and see what was happening.

	After a very long and difficult day, one person walked out and the other was let go. We went from a front office staff of four (and we were in the process of trying to hire a fifth person) down to two people in a matter of a few hours. I sat there at the end of the day trying to process everything that had happened, and knew that though it seemed bleak right now, this would be one of those days in our career we would remember forever. The question, and decision we had to make, was: will it be remembered as negative or positive?

	One week later, I can happily say it is going to end up a positive memory, though we still have a huge hill to climb. The only thing to realize is that when things like this happen, there are always lessons to learn. Here are two lessons we have learned very clearly thus far:

	Up next: What went wrong and how to fix it

	As I said earlier, one of the people that left that day was our junior office manager who was running the staff and practice. When she took on the role, for a long time things ran great. But about six months ago, things started to go flat, and then more recently turned from flat to a decline. The office was reaching its goals on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, but the culture of the practice was changing. The staff was no longer having fun, and the doctors were no longer excited to go in to work.

	During this time, we were unaware that the junior manager was no longer doing her job well. She was letting things slide and not working with the team. She was in her office looking busy and working on "stuff." The doctors saw it, but just let it slide. It was easier to ignore it than to confront it or confront her.

	Now that she is gone, it is like night and day and we are witnessing a visible shift in the office. After she left, we discovered she just wasn’t doing her job. She had been threatening the staff rather than motivating them, which as it turns out is why the other employee left that day. She warned the staff not to go to the owners with issues because they would only be told to come right back to her. This is one example and there are so many more.

	There was a second hard lesson learned during this process. The owner doctors and I had “let go.” The practice had been running well and systems were in place, so we let it go into auto pilot. We were not in touch with the practice the way we should have been. There was not enough real communication with the employees to hear or know what was going on and hear how they felt. The systems we worked so hard to put in place, were slowly either modified to become ineffective or dropped out altogether.

	In the end, we let the practice go. We stopped checking in. We stopped monitoring it. The practice needed someone who built it and cared for it from the ground up to ensure it was staying the course and heading in the right direction. We didn't do that. We let go of the steering wheel and it turned us to where we are today. The good news about our current situation is we know what needs to be done.

	There are five steps to take to regain full control and fix this:

			We began by acknowledging what happened and took responsibility for it.

			We need to reinstate the systems and training, like we had done before.

			We need to hire some rock star front office employees that we will ensure are trained well and follow the office policies.

			We will make sure if someone isn't working out, it's better to part ways than hold onto them too long.

			Finally, we will put safeguards in place so when the practice is running smoothly again we don't take our eyes off the road or our hands off the steering wheel.

	My point is not to tell you our sad story, but to tell you that this situation was happening and the owners had no idea. We uncovered all of this after she left. But now that we know, we’re getting back to the basics and communicating with the staff. This past week was the best production week we have had in over a year with half our normal front office staff. Our employees seem to be happier and more motivated. The entire vibe of the office is fun again.

	Our lesson was a hard one to learn. But when someone needs to go on your team, it is best for all involved to take the steps to make it happen than to ignore it or hold onto them even one day too long.

When your front office suffers, your whole office suffers. Find out what you need to keep your practice healthy.

What happens when your practice runs on autopilot?

	A new year is an opportunity for new beginnings, a fresh start or looking at things with a different perspective. This year will provide insight on where your practice is excelling and highlight areas that can be improved.

	Whether your goal is to increase new patients, increase collections or build your credibility, here are six ways you can shape your practice into an organized, well managed and productive office in 2017.

 policies and procedures. Read each of them with fresh eyes and make updates where needed to improve the office processes as well as overall patient and employee flow.

			Have your team practice asking for payment so they’re comfortable with this 

. Document new routines and make them official written policies to ensure every member of your team is on the same page, especially when asking for payment and handling late patients.

 and place it back on the patient. If “what type of insurance do you have?” is within the first 5 questions, insurance is driving your office.

 in your 2017 goals. You can reduce office stress by opening the lines of communication and including the entire staff in discussions and getting their input.

			Walk through both your internal and external marketing efforts. Are they working? 

? Make the necessary changes to align with your intentions for the year. Look for ways to convert leads into scheduled patients.

 receiving the ultimate customer service experience? Develop a plan to drive 

 higher, receive new and positive reviews, and get even more referrals than last year.

	The New Year is a new opportunity to improve upon things that happen within the four walls of your dental office. Your online presence and telephone skills are the first impressions of your dental practice-make sure you’re creating a great impression. Continual training is the way to keep your skills sharp and remind you of the important things that made you successful in your job. Just like clinicians need to keep their tools and skills sharp, so does the front desk team.

was developed as a resource to not only help dentists train new employees, but to also help those employees remain at the top of their game. If you work hard, offer great customer service, do your jobs well and always put the patient first, your practice can grow, no matter what is happening outside your office. 

We take a look at 6 ways to improve your dental practice in 2017, and tell you what you need to know to make your practice great.

6 ways to improve your dental practice in 2017

Unmotivated employees can bring down a whole team, so addressing the problem quickly is important.

3 ways to handle an unmotivated employee

	Motivated employees are ones who love taking on a new idea and running with it. They are ones who are always looking for ways that they can contribute and help the office grow. If our entire teams could be made up of employees like this, every dentist and office manager would be happy to go to work each day.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Inevitably it happens that, either consistently or sporadically, a team member pushes back or is not as motivated as others on the team. Sometimes these team members were previously motivated but have lost that quality over time.

Trending article: 4 myths about conflict in the dental practice

	This issue can be made worse by the fact that dental offices tend to not run like most other businesses, with clear behavioral expectations and a hierarchical structure. Instead, many dental offices run more like a “family” than a business. This is fine when things are going well, but when things need to change or improve, simply “managing” a disgruntled family is not going to usually fix the problem.

	The real solution is to identify unmotivated employees as quickly as possible and deal with them on an individual basis, before their lack of motivation has a chance to infect the rest of the office.

	Continue to the next page for three suggestions about how to help that one employee find their motivation...

	Many times, people don’t realize what they are doing or how much it affects office morale. In this case, just having a conversation regarding the issue is enough to get them headed in the right direction. Be sure to provide actual examples of times they seemed to get in the way of an idea or when they did not really move on something when you expected them to. Find out from their perspective if they feel that they have some reason that they are holding back, and see if you can help them find a better way to show their motivation and become more of a team player.

Trending article: Are you working with employees or team players?

	For most people, understanding and accepting the reasoning behind a specific task is a huge motivator for doing well on that task. It’s too easy for members of a dental team to get annoyed or overwhelmed by all the little tasks that have to get done, and they can lose sight of the bigger picture of why each task is vital for the office and our patients.

Trending article: Do you have a dental practice bully?

	When you talk with an unmotivated employee, make sure they understand the big picture of why each assigned task is so important. You can also address this in a bigger way by doing ongoing education for the whole team about why procedures and changes are important for patient health and office sustainability.

	Sometimes there’s one employee who just can’t seem to step it up as needed, even after one-on-one support and office-wide education. In that case, it might possibly be time to make it perfectly clear for that one team member what is at stake for them personally.

Related reading: 3 steps to legal, humane employee termination in the dental practice

	That person is being paid to do a specific job for your office, and part of the expectation of that job is to contribute at a certain level. In exchange for their contribution, they receive a stable work environment, a good paycheck, dental care, benefits or whatever else your office offers your employees. Remind them that you do not want to lose them as an employee; however, if they do not figure out a way to get more motivated and contribute at the expected level, they may not make it in this position long-term.

	This discussion will usually get the person’s attention, and if they have an interest in keeping their job and staying employed, they will find a deeply buried internal motivation to improve.

	Case acceptance is a hot topic in our industry-how to get the patient to want to spend money on dentistry. I have heard so many different presenters teach various different ways to accomplish this.

	I’ve heard all the suggestions: sit next to them and be their friend; send home a PowerPoint to the patient’s spouse with pictures of their teeth as a motivator; use certain words that will ignite a desire in the patient to get the treatment done ... and many more. Wouldn’t our lives as health care professionals be so much easier if we could figure out a sure-fire way to get our patients to 

Related reading: How patients decide to accept, delay or decline care

	Think about it. People always find ways to afford what they want. They stand in line to get the latest Apple product. They save up to take that Disney vacation. They get interest-free financing to buy that new big-screen TV. Imagine if patients prioritized dentistry in the same way-if they could leave our offices feeling excited and happy about what they had purchased!  

	Just as much as the next office manager, dental professional, presenter and dental trainer, I would love to find the one foolproof way to get patients to want dentistry and to happily shell out hard-earned cash for their treatment plans. I would love for people to be excited about what we do and how we can help them. It would be amazing if the public would change their opinion about going to the dentist and getting work done to save their teeth.

Related reading: 7 behavioral cues that lead to increased treatment acceptance

	However, that is not going to happen. At least not in my lifetime. No one is ever going to feel excited and happy about having a piece of balloon material clasped down over their mouth, getting drills and needles in their mouth, smelling their tooth as it gets grinded away, and drooling down their numb cheek. It just won’t happen. And the fact that after all that, you then have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for the privilege of undergoing the procedure-that is just the icing on the cake.

	So, when it comes to case acceptance, there are three key factors that we need to help our patients push through, in order to get to them to that place of wanting what they need.

Continue to the next page to see the top three things to remember...

	First, we need to be persistent. We can’t tell the patient just one time what they need and then rely on them to follow through on it. They have to be fully convinced of the importance and feel psychologically ready to act on it. Most people are just not going to be ready right away. Like me, they may not take the first available opportunity to get the work done-but if we are gently persistent about the need for it to happen, usually they will schedule it.

Related reading: 4 steps to improved treatment acceptance

	Second, be sure to clearly explain why they need the work. When a person is considering what you are saying, they are weighing it with other things that they want to have. Let’s say a patient needs a bridge, but they really have been considering a new big-screen TV, and getting the dental work done next week means they’ll have to wait a few more weeks or months for the TV. You may have to help them differentiate between a TV they will use an hour or two a day for relaxation and their teeth that they will use every day, all day, to chew, eat, smile and talk. It’s your job to spell that out for the patient and make them feel that their dental health has to be a priority.

	Third, it is important to recognize that patients are not educated in dentistry the way you and your team are. They don’t really comprehend the outcome of not taking care of their teeth until, unfortunately, it’s too late and they are in pain or lose a tooth. You need to make sure your patients understand what is likely to happen to their teeth without the treatment you recommend. You’ll have to explain in a way they understand, not in dental talk. The number one way to help patients understand where they are headed without care is by showing them a picture. Give them a visual example of what happened to another person’s tooth with a similar issue that went untreated. Then they’ll be able to see the potential harm for their tooth and hopefully choose a better outcome for themselves. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Trending article: 4 reasons patients don't go forward with treatment

	We as dental professionals need to accept that patients simply will not ever want to buy our treatment plans... but they are often willing to invest in their dental health when they understand the alternatives. As healthcare providers, we are here to provide our patients with what they need. As long as we ask our patients what they “want” to do, we are not going to help very many people. But if we change our wording and our attitude about educating patients, we will help our patients live longer and live a better life.






Case acceptance is a hot topic in our industry-how to get the patient to want to spend money on dentistry. I have heard so many different presenters teach various different ways to accomplish this.

3 key factors in case acceptance

	It is typical in a dental office that when we hire a new employee at the front desk, they start by answering the phones for the office. Really, when looking at it from the dentist's perspective, that is the easiest thing to start with, right? Other duties such as scheduling, treatment plan presentations, collections, etc., require a lot more training and knowledge of the dental office and policies.

	That definitely seems to make sense, but frankly, that is one of the worst things you can do for your office with a new employee. The best first step you can take should happen well before they start answering the phones. Let's go over a few scenarios of how these calls typically play out:

		A new patient calls and wants to know what insurances your office takes. This new employee says, "Umm, I don't know exactly but let me find out. Please hold." After asking a more senior person at the office, the new employee gets back on the phone but after putting the new patient on hold for over three minutes, the new employee hears a dial tone. You have now lost a potential new patient.

		A patient calls and says they need to cancel their crown appointment for tomorrow. The new employee asks if they would like to reschedule and the patient says not now. They hang up and you lose a scheduled crown for tomorrow costing you not only production, but time in your schedule.

		A person calls and wants to know how much a crown costs in your office. Your new employee pulls up your fee schedule and gives them the price of your crown. The person says, "Wow, that is more than the other office down the street. Thanks anyway," and hangs up. Your office just missed the opportunity to get the patient in to do a proper treatment plan presentation, so the potential patient decided based on price only.

Related reading: 10 tips for handling new patient calls with confidence

	Hopefully these are specific enough real-life examples to make you recognize how much this mistake is potentially costing the practice in lost production. Even though answering the phone seems easy, it is what happens after the "thank you for calling Dr. So and So's office" that is the problem.

	By now you should understand and agree as to why you shouldn't put a new employee on the phones right away but you might be asking, "what do they need to be trained on before they can answer phones?"

	First, the person answering the phone needs to be friendly, welcoming and distinct. You want the person on the other end of the phone to get the feeling that they are welcomed and their call is important. Hopefully, the new employee is already great at customer service. However, if this is not natural to them, you want to make sure they get some training so they understand what this looks like. This employee is potentially the first impression that the person calling in will have about your office-make it a great one. You never get a second chance to make good first impression.

	Second, the new employee needs to understand what they are allowed to handle and what they are not. If the new employee is presented an issue or question that they have not been approved to handle, they need to either pass the phone call to the appropriate employee that can help or they need to take a very good message and make sure someone calls that person back-both things that require proper training. The worst thing that they can do is to try to handle something that they are not trained on yet or make decisions that are not within their power. This is vital to make sure the new employee understands this because they may just be trying to help, but sometimes their help causes bigger problems. Once this is fully explained to the new employee, I recommend that if the employee attempts to do this even once, that they immediately get taken back off the phones.

Related reading: The top 7 mistakes dental practices make during patient phone calls

	Lastly, whether a patient is calling to move or cancel an appointment, ask about fees or insurance, etc., anyone answering your phones needs to understand the ultimate goal: to get that person into the office. The person needs to know how to handle that patient and their questions with the result being to get the patient to schedule or stay scheduled. It is amazing how quickly your schedule can fall apart or how your new patient numbers stay low when your employees, new or long-term, don't fully understand this purpose.

	The key to success is to try to avoid the mistakes before they happen or correct them with proper training before they are repeated. Just like with other front-desk tasks, training is vital before you allow a new employee to answer phones. The phone is your office's connection to the outside. You would be better off taking any money you put into marketing and gamble it, than to allow someone brand new with no training handle your phones. A new employee that does not know your philosophy, services or policies is not educated enough to be the first impression to a potential new patient. Beyond that, this new employee needs to understand their purpose when answering phones. It is not just to handle the call or answer the questions; it is to either get that patient to come in to the office to discuss their needs, get them to schedule or keep them in the schedule-all of which require training.

It is typical in a dental office that when we hire a new employee at the front desk, they start by answering the phones for the office. Really, when looking at it from the dentist’s perspective, that is the easiest thing to start with, right? That definitely seems to make sense, but frankly, that is one of the worst things you can do for your office with a new employee.