A busy dental practice sometimes means that it is a healthy business with jam-packed work schedules. But it will also mean that a busy work environment, even for front office staff, (in addition to welcoming the patients), should also find time to book new appointments, manage billings, contact the patients for any new updates on their appointments, and many more.
If the front office staff of a dental clinic is stretched thin, the immediate danger would be dissatisfied clients, and this will have an adverse effect on how they will interact with the clients. If the office operation runs smoothly, there is a big chance that the office staff will be more productive and happy.
Not only that, even the patients and clients will enjoy going to the dentist if the staff are very accommodating and pleasant to talk to. Take, for example, if you are running a dental practice like Digital Dentistry at Southpoint, you need to check every factor that can make your business more effective, the place, client, and most importantly, your employees.
Step 1: Delegate all the tasks
You have to review your must-do admin tasks. You have to take time to consider every job that needs to be done and plan a strategy for delegating the tasks to every member of the team. You also have to remember that you need to review how the additional, less critical admin tasks are being done. You need to make sure that no employee will be responsible for more two of the extra tasks.
It will be a good starting point to delegate your duties properly. The next thing you need to do is to appoint the tasks based on your staff members’ interests and strengths. You have to know which of the staff has experience in project management as well as a team member who are good at communicating with the clients and patients.
Delegating the jobs with this is an excellent way to boost the staff’s productivity, at the same time, keeping them satisfied. If you have a senior employee, ask them to help with identifying the interest and strengths of your staff and delegating the tasks.
It will minimize your workload and make sure that everyone in the team will have a part in the decision making process. You will soon see that a reasonable and smart task delegation can save you a lot of practice money, strain, and time.
Step 2: Make sure that you have a productive work environment
Most front office staffers are forced to do multiple tasks. Research shows that staff that are multitasking don’t work correctly. You have to keep your team members focused, reduce or eliminate any distractions so each worker can get their jobs done accurately and quickly.
Make sure you look at how you operate. If the workflow in the front office is always interrupting the admin tasks, you need to consider hiring another administrator to complete the tasks. If you don’t have the resources to employ other personnel, you have to re-train your current administrator.
Not only that, you need to make sure that the front desk environment is not slowed down by small talks. Although it is beneficial and healthy for employees to talk with other staff and socialize, friendly conversations should not hinder the flow of work in the office. Other productivity tips related to time-saving include:
Track the time that is spent on scheduled regular work, and you need to find a way to minimize that time.
Follow the “two-minute rule,” which states that any work or task that can be completed within two minutes or less should be done as soon as possible.
Step 3: Execute the online scheduling
Perhaps, there is no digital service available today that has the power and effectiveness to improve the practice of productivity more, than online scheduling. When you give the clients an opportunity to book, cancel, or modify their appointments online, the volume of calls to your dental office will dramatically drop.
Front desk workers then have more time to communicate and connect with your patients in person, and they can complete a lot more necessary admin tasks. The question is, what online scheduling services should you pick among the many services available in the market today?
You need to consider the service that will integrate with your dental practice’s current online calendar. That way, your admin staff will not need to learn another digital service, all they have to do is to synchronize the service to your current online scheduling calendar.
For example, PatientPop is providing dental practice clients with scheduling that will integrate with their current practice systems. That is part of an end-to-end platform growth for small to medium dental enterprise.
To know more about the advantages of online scheduling system, clickhere.
Step 4: You have to automate all the tasks when it’s possible
One of the key ways to make sure that your front office will have an efficient and smooth sailing job is to rely on automation on some tasks. The process to get where you want to be is very simple. Study your office’s workflow, identify the tasks that take up the most of your worker’s time, and explore all the options for any tasks that will require automation (make sure it works).
For example, instead of calling clients to remind them of their upcoming dental appointment, you need to consider if the appointment reminder process can work if you automated it. Your clients and patients can receive reminders using text messages or email, and your employees will no longer spend a lot of time making all the phone calls and listening to patient’s voicemails, not to mention the value of some clients that will not show.
If you are soliciting client’s feedback using paper surveys, you need to switch to a digital version that is text or email your patients automatically after they confirmed their appointments. Not only is it effective, but it also saves your employee’s time since they will no longer have to retype and sort all the results into a database.
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