Make Your Front Desk Your Practice’s Growth Engine

The right people, doing the right things with the right attitude, offers tremendous ROI.

There’s a stat that shocks most dental offices. According to Genevieve Poppe, CEO of Poppe Practice Management, it has to do with new patient call conversion. “It boils down to this analysis: When a new person engages in a conversation with their office, what’s the percentage of the time that they are scheduling an appointment at the end of that interaction? In many cases, we’ll see that call not resulting in an appointment 30 to 40 percent of the time.” 

It’s a metric that can blindside a clinician, but it’s a key indicator of where to start fixing operational leaks.

“Everyone knows first impressions are important, but I find a lot of teams are getting away from that focus,” says Poppe. “They’re busy, they’re juggling all those internal office tasks, and it can begin to feel like that patient calling or even walking through the door is an interruption to an insurance claim the staffer’s trying to file.” 

Poppe is a fan of automating what she refers to as “low-touch” processes.

“To the extent that you can automate online scheduling of new patient appointments or cleanings and checkups for your existing patients, I’d look for those technologies. Start from there, and help your staff keep that ‘head space’ clear for the people who are right in front of us.”

“It’s a simple equation: People need that bandwidth for personal interaction.”

Getting Past the Technophobia (and Dentophobia)

Poppe should know: She’s been in the dental field for 25 years, starting as a dental assistant and eventually owning and managing seven dental offices in the Midwest. Her perception of the available technology has evolved in that time. 

“If you’d asked me whether an AI assistant answering the phone was acceptable, up until just a few years ago I would’ve said no.” 

The demographics have changed along with the tech, though, and Poppe notes that most modern patients are fine with automated answering services and texting—to a point. 

“I find myself training people who really never talk on the phone.”

But that telephone training is important, as people have questions about their teeth (and their insurance) that need thorough, caring responses. 

“Front office people can get desensitized to that stereotypical fear that people have about dental procedures because we’re dealing with them every day,” says Poppe. “You have to find people for those seats who are understanding,” she stresses. “And it’s a little funny that this is a part of my consulting work; I always joke that if you need an expert in how to talk to somebody, you find a girl from Wisconsin.”

Finding Those Unicorns

One thing that Poppe’s found when it comes to the hiring process is that the right front desk candidate may not align exactly with what the owner of a practice imagines. 

“The average dentist is looking for a highly compliant, meticulous, detail-oriented hire,” she says. “They look at their front desk and think they need to hire a bank teller to handle those first impressions, and that’s probably not the right skill set.” 

When the patient clicks past the AI assistant or calls to follow up after that reminder text, they need someone a bit different.

“I want to hire the server who can upsell me that cheesecake and chocolate martini at the end of the meal, and that’s an entirely different kind of person,” she explains. “I think the biggest difference is shifting the desired mindset from ‘Here are the details of the big, unexpected treatment plan, let me know if you want to do this’ to “Here’s what you really should do, let’s work together and figure out how to do it.’” 

As the old saying goes, “perfect may be the enemy of good,” and Poppe finds that true of those front desk employees who interact with the public every day. 

“I know it drives some dentists crazy, but maybe find a seat for the perfectionist that’s further away from the front door,” she adds.

The Human Touch

The other issue is the reticence of someone who is ostensibly a care provider having to deliver bad news—along with expensive solutions. 

“This is a very under-trained component of the job,” says Poppe. “Most people who fit that archetype of ‘dental receptionist’ aren’t at all comfortable with the idea that they’re selling something,” she says. “They don’t approach this with the idea of overcoming objections –

 or even wanting to build that skill – because that feels pushy. I teach people a lot of verbiage, but what I really coach them on is their mindset. They’re the sales department, but at the same time, they’re mostly helping people get work that’s a need, not a want.”

Another red flag that Poppe notices constantly is the office fixture who’s causing issues that an owner or manager may be reluctant to address. 

“We’ve all heard about or encountered that one person who’s been at the desk for 20 years, and everyone knows they’re crabby, and nothing’s done about it,” she explains. “The number one killer of front desks is where I watch poor behavior or poor performance go completely unchecked for years and years and years and years.”

“I’ll speak with practices that have been stuck at the same revenue level for 10 years, and they just can’t break past that number. I’ll immediately ask, ‘Okay, well, tell me about the team you’ve had up there.’ They’ve almost always had the same exact person or people there for that entire duration, and it’s never occurred to them that maybe that person either needs coaching, or even a different role.”

Poppe has a very specific example of the kind of interaction that will keep a patient coming back, and even inspire the right word of mouth. 

“When someone calls the desk and says ‘I broke a tooth at lunch,’ we can all hear that edge of panic in their voice. The staffer will say ‘Okay’ as they’re glancing at the schedule. That ‘okay’ is not meant to be dismissive or disinterested, but it may come off that way. “However, if the response is, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened? Are you in pain?’ — that human interaction makes all the difference.”

Turn your front desk into a true growth engine. Download The Buyer’s Guide to Dental Front-Office AI Tech to discover the tools that eliminate front-office bottlenecks and elevate patient experience.