,Part of the Dental Whale learning management platform, Front Office Rocks offers online education courses that make it easy to train front-office team members for success on day one,
,Every workplace has its fair share of challenges, and the dental office is no exception. Often, these challenges are employee-based, as practices struggle to train front-office team members with varying levels of experience, communication skills, and familiarity with the dental industry., ,“Dentists always want to hire someone with dental experience, but just because that person understands dental policies and procedures doesn’t mean they have the training they need to work in your office,” said Laura Nelson, the founder of Front Office Rocks, an online training membership platform that since 2013 has educated over 20,000 employees. “Then, if you hire someone without dental experience, it’s like throwing them to the wolves. We speak a totally different language!”, , ,
“If we can bring people into the dental industry and train them to love what they do and do it well, we’re going to help more patients keep their teeth for life.”,– Laura Nelson, BS, MS, FAADOM, , ,Front Office Rocks offers position-based training tracks for receptionists, financial and treatment coordinators, hygienists, assistants, office managers, and more that cover how to meet daily production goals, communicate effectively with patients, explain dental policies and procedures, and learn basic dental terminology., ,“We can’t expect someone who has never presented a $10,000 treatment plan to be comfortable talking to the patient about it, or to convince a patient to make an appointment they don’t want to make if we’ve never taught the employee how to do that,” noted Nelson., ,She added that one of the key areas where front-office team members lack training is phone skills. “The phone is our lifeline to the outside, and it’s still the No. 1 way that patients contact the practice,” Nelson said. “When employees learn how to handle phone calls, the office sees an immediate increase in production, scheduling, and new patients.”, ,Front Office Rocks is part of Dental Whale, an all-in-one membership platform that creates solutions to simplify the business side of dentistry. Dental Whale’s intuitive learning management platform houses a robust digital library of videos, CE courses, seminars, and virtual events that makes it easy for new and existing dental team members to immerse themselves in a variety of topics., ,“The whole focus of Dental Whale is to be an easy button for dental offices, a one-stop shop for supplies and training and support, so Front Office Rocks really fits well into that model.” With a simple monthly subscription to Front Office Rocks, practices can start training up to 20 team members and gain access to over 250 on-demand training videos, plus a document resources library., ,“When a new employee gets hired, they need training right away—not 4 months down the road when the next conference is scheduled,” added Nelson. “My focus with Front Office Rocks is to be the go-to platform for bringing new employees in and training them correctly from day one. If we can bring people into the dental industry and train them to love what they do and do it well, we’re going to help more patients keep their teeth for life.”, ,Like any relationship, the connection between the dentist and the office manager—or the office manager and the dental team—comes down to communication. “Many of the problems that occur in the dental office really come down to the right amount of communication,” said Nelson, who holds a master’s degree in organizational development., ,“I talk to hundreds of dentists who say they’re lost on how to help their team. Then I talk to 100 team members who say they’re lost on how to help their dentist. I created Front Office Rocks to bridge the gap and get the dentist and the dental team talking.”, ,Nelson can recall a time when a friend of hers, who is a dentist, hired someone with zero dental experience to run his practice. “At the time, this was his only employee, and she fully learned what she needed to know about the dental industry and the front office from Front Office Rocks,” she said. “Now, a second location is opening, and she’s training all the new employees with the platform. To me, that’s a huge testament to the platform because she knew nothing about dental and had no one to look up to.”, ,The Bottom Line,At the end of the day, the front-office team needs continual and consistent training just as much as the clinical team needs continuing education., ,Perhaps the founder of Ford Motor Company said it best: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” Despite the dental and automotive industries being polar opposites, the same principle applies., ,“Invest in your office team. They’re the first and last impression for every patient experience,” said Nelson. “Patients don’t know if you’re a good dentist or not, or how great your crowns or fillings are, but they do know how the team treats them. If you hire well and train your employees well, you can grow your office team to be successful.”,
, ,866.585.4999 | www.frontofficerocks.com
