Anyone who works in an office knows that the office manager is the heart and soul of the operation. Office management personnel have a seemingly endless list of tasks to accomplish every day. If they fall behind, chances are good that everyone else will too.
If the office is a dental office, they need to get everything done correctly and in a timely manner is even greater. Anything that can be done to take the pressure off the office administrator and dental staff should be done. Effective time management is one big step in accomplishing this. Here are a few steps that may increase the efficiency of your dental office management.
Have Clear Cut Roles
People are most effective when they have one job to do and they focus on that. Members of your office management team don’t have time to answer phones, check patients in, or find new patients. Hire enough staff to ensure that each one has assigned roles that they can work on exclusively.
Schedule Wisely
This refers not only to the accurate scheduling of staff but also to the scheduling of specific tasks.
Unless your practice is very large, there is likely no need for multiple receptionists early in the morning or late in the evening. It will save your budget to only schedule the help you need when you need it.
When scheduling tasks, first make sure they are to be done when you have the correct personnel on hand. Then, check to see how often they actually need to be done. There is no need to have someone check for past due bills on a daily basis. Instead, set aside time once a week to tackle the problem.
Find The Right Help
Sometimes the easiest answer to the problem of overworked office management and staff is to outsource some of their work. This is especially helpful if the tasks that need to be done require a certain level of expertise in areas far outside the normal dental office routine.
Finding a steady stream of new patients is likely one of those tasks. This task requires a firm understanding of online marketing campaigns and lead generation. While these are skills your office manager could learn, they are currently busy doing a hundred other things.
The most efficient way to get this done is to find an app that can streamline the process of generating leads. This helpful app should also help you turn those leads into patients and attract those who are browsing for information and turn them into patients as well.
Consider denTEL
Conceived and built by dentists who know just how important it is to optimize admin time, the denTEL app is catered to meet the needs of a busy dental office with little to no additional hassle. All the administrator or other dental office staff need to do is claim their listing and customize it. They can list the office’s location, hours, and specialties. If you have reviews you can add them. If not, the denTEL app will help you generate them. The app is entirely focused on bringing your office more patients so your office management staff can focus on everything else.
Discover denTEL to find out more about how we can help you build your patient base and improve your efficiency by better managing time at your dental office.
