Dentists: One in Four Lose Patients at the Front Desk

March 31, 2009 By Julie Frey 2 Comments

Dentists have a range of opinions about their front desk staff, found this survey. A third of dentists (34%) said their front desk team does an amazing job, and another third (31%) said those team members are satisfactory.

However, 24% of dentists acknowledged that they lose patients at the front desk. Another 11% admit that they need to prioritize additional front desk team training.

Dental front desk "My front desk person just left for medical reasons and I discovered huge amounts of denied claims and inadequate insurance processing," said one dentist. "My accounts receivables are horribly high and probably lost forever. I didn't pay enough attention."

"Do I have any front desk horror stories?" asked a Texas dentist rhetorically. "It's too painful to reply."

Read more: Dental Practice Success May Hinge on the Front Desk

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Filed Under: Dental Surveys Tagged With: dental office, front desk, new patients

About Julie Frey

Julie Frey is the Editor of TheWealthyDentist.com blog. She has dedicated her career to Internet marketing and communications, working side-by-side with dental marketing guru Jim Du Molin since 2006. She has a degree in Linguistics from Stanford University, has a passion for language and writing, and lives in San Francisco. Julie Frey+

http://www.thevisibledentist.com/ The Visible Dentist

Most definitely the buck stops here — no matter how much he or she markets their practice, without a smoothly run front desk with a socially adept staff, the dentist’s efforts fall short.

John Barremore
Houston, TX
Curious

They way I read this, 66% of dental office front desk personnel need to improve their on the job performance. Now Jim, I have your “Creating A Front Desk Marketing Machine” material and it has definitely improved our conversion ratio on marketing response. But where is the CE for front desk personnel, or even more comprehensive baseline standardized training? My front desk people often interact with our patients a heck of a lot more than I do, and I would think that investing in improving their performance, will also improve my bottom line. Keep us posted please, great survey!

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