The following tips will assist receptionists enhance their interactions and as a result, patient experiences in the dental office.
- Create the right first impression
- Ensure the waiting area is clean, calm and comfortable as it reflects the practices’ attitude toward overall patient comfort
- Professional appearances
- Receptionists should be well-groomed, clean – do not underestimate the impact of clean and neat hair and hands
- View the professional image that is portrayed through the patients’ eyes
- Greet patients
- Perceptions formed at an initial meeting of 2 people are the basis for their relationship
- Positive interactions including making eye contact, smiling and engaging in polite conversation lead to more cooperative relationships
- An important component of patient interaction even when reception is extremely busy
- Telephone interactions
- Patients’ first contacts and impressions are often made when they call the office as such the greeting should be clear, concise and friendly
- Consistent telephone technique also helps to project a professional image
- The style and protocol for answering the phone should be outlined in the policy manual
- Ideally, telephones should be answered away from the front desk to allow the receptionist to focus on the present patient
- Inspire trust
- Patients who have trust in the receptionist tend to feel more relaxed
- Receptionists who inspire trust are more successful at negotiating with patients
- Receptionists often act as mediators between the dentist/dental team and patients
- Clear protocols
- Consistent systems to ensure positive customer experiences lead to cooperative and collaborative relationships
- Planned and recorded protocols kept in a procedure manual
- These systems should be communicated to all staff
- Effective communication amongst the dental team
- Receptionists tend not to use technical jargon which leads patients to seek their guidance or assistance in “translating” explanations or information they have received from the clinical team
- As such, receptionists should be aware of and understand the information that was given to the patients by the clinical team and reinforce this message
Source: Dental Reception and Practice Management, Wiley 2007.