Hiring from Scratch? Helping New Employees Master Their Dental Receptionist Duties When you’re looking to fill the role of dental receptionist, candidates with prior experience in the dentistry field are always ideal. Unfortunately, there may not always be a large pool of applicants with this type of background from which to choose. As such, you may find yourself having to hire from scratch. The good news is, it’s entirely possible to recruit someone with no industry experience and train them in the required dental receptionist duties. To get you started, let’s take a look at a few dental office receptionist tips below. Know what to look for First and foremost, the employee you hire to run your front desk should possess the basics: friendliness, professional appearance, good communication skills, positive attitude, etc. Ideally, you’ll want to look for someone who already has some administrative or front desk experience, even if it’s not in the dental industry, as many of these skills are easily transferrable. The additional dental receptionist duties can then be taught once the new hire comes onboard. Starting off on the right foot If you do hire a receptionist with no prior dental experience, there are certain ways to bring them up to speed and get them set up for success quickly. Start by making a list of all of the dental receptionist duties the new hire will be responsible for. For instance, this list might include the following: Answering the phone (i.e. learning/following a script, scheduling new patients, fielding insurance questions, etc.) Gathering patient information and completing appropriate forms Entering patient/insurance/payment information into practice management software program Managing the appointment calendar (rescheduling cancellations, booking emergency appointments, filling in open time slots with last-minute requests, etc.) Calling patients for follow-ups Working with daily scheduling targets and a strategy for achieving them Of course, you may have additional dental receptionist duties to add to this list that are specific to your practice. Feel free to use this as a template or guideline for building out your own checklist of training requirements.