Have you ever asked yourself this question? As a dentist, you have a front office team to answer calls, speak with patients, and schedule appointments. Outside of your website, they are a potential client’s first encounter with your practice. With that in mind, how would you grade their performance? A solid front office team is an essential component to your success. You may even consider a secret shopper scenario to find out how you might improve patient experience at your office.
How Do They Field Calls?
The phone should be answered in a friendly manner by your staff. In addition, the front office team should be able to return calls in a timely manner, and know how to effectively field a number of different calls, such as:
- Client changing or scheduling an appointment
- A new patient who needs to make an appointment, or has insurance questions
- Inquiries from insurance company representatives
- A vendor or service provider with questions
Your team should have a specific procedure in place for each of these situations, allowing them to address the call quickly and effectively. After all, this is a crucial stage for a potential patient and may affect whether he/she actually comes into the office for treatment.
Do They Return Emails?
All emails should be returned within 24 hours. If the email is from someone who doesn’t schedule an appointment, then they should be included on a list for follow up emails. Remember, if a person doesn’t hear back, he/she will simply contact another dentist in the area.
How Would You Grade Your Front Office Team?
With all these facts in mind, how would you grade your team? If they are friendly, knowledgeable, and can respond to a person’s queries in a timely manner, then you have an excellent team. Otherwise, you may need to help them change their approach to front office duties.
Need a Secret Shopper?
If you need help evaluating your team, one of our representatives can perform a firsthand assessment of their front office methods via phone call, email, or both. This also allows us to make sure all email forms on the website are functioning correctly. We can then offer tips and strategies to improve your office staff’s techniques when fielding calls and interacting with patients, vendors, or insurance representatives.
Want to know more about the current trends in dental website design? Ready to create or update the digital face of your dental practice? The experts at MDPM Consulting have got you covered. Give Jill a call today at (972) 781-8861, or send us an email at info@moderndentalmarketing.com.