Lie #9: Is reception really an entry-level job?

This is our ninth post in the Biggest Lies in Dentistry series. Things the dental industry repeats to itself until they sound true. See the full series here.

Walk into almost any dental practice and ask someone which position requires the least amount of skill, and sooner or later somebody will point toward the front desk.

"The receptionist."

After all, they just answer the phone.

Really? Let's think about that for a minute.

Where every marketing dollar ends up

Every dollar your practice spends on marketing eventually ends up in exactly one place. The reception desk.

It doesn't matter whether that patient found you through Google, Facebook, a postcard, a referral from another patient, your website, a community event or the giant sign you paid far too much money to put in front of the building. Every marketing dollar you spend has exactly the same destination.

The telephone rings. Or the front door opens.

Now what?

If that first interaction isn't handled correctly, every marketing dollar you just spent has the potential to go straight down the drain.

Think about how much time dentists spend trying to generate new patients. They hire marketing companies. They redesign websites. They buy Google Ads. They pay SEO companies. They join PPOs hoping someone will discover them. They'll spend thousands of dollars every month trying to make the phone ring.

Then they hand the phone to the least trained person in the office.

Interesting strategy.

What the job actually is

The receptionist isn't just answering calls. They're creating first impressions. They're setting the tone before the patient ever meets the doctor. They're making nervous people feel welcome. They're controlling the flow of communication throughout the entire practice.

Every phone call. Every patient. Every visitor. Every email. Every delivery. Every message. Every one of them starts there.

Communication is either flowing. Or it isn't.

When communication breaks down at the front desk, it doesn't stay at the front desk. It spreads through the entire practice. Messages don't get delivered. Patients become frustrated. Team members become frustrated. Doctors become frustrated. Somewhere along the way everyone starts blaming everyone else, when the real problem is that communication stopped flowing long before anyone noticed.

And then there's everything else

The receptionist notices when a patient has been waiting too long. They offer coffee or water. They make sure a nervous new patient isn't sitting alone wondering whether everyone forgot they exist. They greet people by name. They thank patients for coming in. They ask for reviews. They recognize opportunities to schedule family members. They help create an experience people actually want to tell their friends about.

None of that happens by accident. It's trained. It's practiced. It's expected.

Marketing worked. The phone rang.

Some practice owners spend more time interviewing someone to mow the lawn than they do hiring the person who controls every first impression their practice will ever make.

Then they wonder why new patients don't schedule. Or why patients don't come back. Or why marketing doesn't work.

Marketing worked. The phone rang.

The question is what happened next.

What you pay for is what you get

If you truly believe the receptionist is an entry-level position, you'll pay accordingly, train accordingly and expect accordingly. And you'll probably get exactly what you paid for.

But if you understand that the receptionist is one of the most influential people in your practice, you'll invest in that position. You'll train them. You'll give them a career instead of a job. You'll expect professionalism because you've taught professionalism.

One more thing

None of this happens if the person at that desk never gets the chance to do it.

In a lot of practices, the person answering the phone is also the person sitting on hold with an insurance company. Thirty minutes at a stretch, several times a day. And the phone keeps ringing while they're sitting there.

So the new patient you paid good money to attract gets voicemail. Or gets a rushed call from someone who is still mentally on hold with a carrier.

That isn't a training problem. That's a workload problem, and it's a solvable one.

The real problem

Most practices don't have a marketing problem. They have a communication problem.

And almost every communication problem eventually arrives at the same place.

The receptionist.

Part of The Biggest Lies in Dentistry. Read the full series here.

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