Your dental front desk employees are the first line of communication between patients and your back office staff. Without the proper training and technology, communication breakdowns can result in scheduling errors and dissatisfied patients. You can avoid these problems by adhering to five simple practices to streamline communication between your dental front desk and back office.

1. Ensure That Your Employees Share a Common Purpose

Dental professionals work better as a team when they share a common purpose. For example, most practitioners dedicate themselves to serving their patients with outstanding care and ethical treatments. It’s important to ensure that all your employees know which values your dental practice promotes to avoid conflicts of interest.

Encourage a friendly and productive environment, giving staff a reason to come to work and stay engaged throughout the day. One way to accomplish this is by greeting your front and back office employees each morning as a group. Alternatively, you could host company events that give your staff time to socialize and connect outside regular office hours.

2. Establish Accessible Pathways for Communication

Depending on the size of your dental practice, communication between staff can be challenging without an internal phone system or a shared computer network. Team Chat allows your dental front desk team to send instant messages to the back office when patients arrive or have questions.

3. Coordinate Employee Responsibilities Clearly

Coordinating employee responsibilities is vital for your dental practice management. Each of your employees should understand their individual roles in the office and how they contribute to the team.

You should invest time in quality training for dental front desk new hires. This way, they are confident in their ability to greet patients and correctly communicate information to the back office.

Set clear expectations to prevent back office employees from demanding more from dental receptionists than their job requires, or vice versa. Adding extra responsibilities to their role can slow down daily operations and lead to miscommunication. 

Hosting a weekly meeting is an excellent way to coordinate responsibilities between your employees, discuss expectations, and let your staff offer recommendations to improve workflow.

Alternatively, you could arrange short huddles in the morning between your front desk and back office employees. Our Morning Huddle feature makes it easy to run through your schedule and make plans for the day.

4. Designate a Space for Employee Concerns

Many dental offices do not offer a way for employees to communicate concerns to staff openly or anonymously. This problem can create resentment, hindering communication between the front and back offices. Create a safe space for your team to communicate problems, and provide non-judgemental solutions.

Try to discourage staff from airing their grievances during routine morning huddles. Instead, set aside time or an anonymous suggestion box for employees to discuss group cohesion and problems they may be experiencing.

5. Always Work Toward Better Solutions

One or two meetings will not be enough to establish strong communication in your dental practice. You and your staff must continue to work toward better solutions to improve the efficiency and performance of the front and back offices.

Your dental practice may need to readjust when inactive patients return or your team grows with new employees. In these scenarios, it’s always a good idea to regroup with your team and discuss effective ways to move forward.

You can determine what works by reviewing communication strategies that failed in the past. This way, you don’t repeat the same mistakes. Remind your dental teams that they have shared values, and continue to acknowledge their hard work to build trust.

Dental Practice Solutions That Improve Communication In Your Workplace

Facilitating productive communication between your dental front desk and back office is essential for your practice’s success. With these communication tips for improving dental team performance, you can explore new ways to manage your staff without stress and deliver incredible customer service to your patients.

At Dental Intelligence, we help you build your strategy from the ground up with convenient tools like Digital Forms, Payments, and more. 

Schedule a demo today and learn more about we can help you improve communication.