Are you considering a career as a dental administrative assistant? If you are a people-person with good organization skills and enjoy helping others, it could be the perfect career for you! Good communication skills will be a valuable asset when you become a dental administrative assistant. A dental office with good communication means happy staff and happy clients. Communication in a dental office includes how staff communicate with each other, how they communicate with clients and the different processes that make up how the dental office is run.
Read on to find out some useful tips to improve communication in a dental office if you want to become a dental administrative assistant.
Prioritize the Morning Huddle
The morning huddle is an effective way of improving communication and teamwork between staff members. Having a quick 15-minute meeting every morning means that all staff will be on the same page and will be aware of what to expect that day. It can also help to create a feeling of community and belonging, as all staff will be reminded that they are part of the same team.
You can inform staff about any unusual activity that day so that they are well-prepared. In addition, this might also be the only moment in the day of the week when all the staff are together. The moment when you get together with your team is the moment when you know you are a part of something important.
Make Use of Digital Communication Tools
There are many different ways for you to improve office communications throughout your career. You could use a cloud-based electronic health records system that is automatically updated and that all employees have access to it. This would help to reduce communication errors and make sure that all dental staff will be able to see the latest information for each client. As well as this, after dental administration assistant programs, you could introduce a digital calendar that everyone on the team can update with their hours, availability, vacation days, and other important information.
Thanks to technology, it’s now easier than ever to communicate with teams. When you become a dental administrative assistant, you could also introduce digital tools like Slack to the office to streamline communications. This means that everyone in the dental office will be able to communicate with one another on different channels and share updates.
You should also choose which method of communication is right for which moment. Whereas a long email might be better for a formal update to all staff, a short text is sometimes better to communicate a quick but important message.
Use digital communication tools to improve communication across the dental office
Improve the Client Handover
One of the most challenging moments where miscommunication sometimes happens in dental offices is during client handovers. After you graduate from dental administrative assistant courses, you can help address this and make sure that everything runs smoothly.
For example, if a client is being directed from the waiting room to the hygienist, you will need to share all relevant information with the hygienist. During these times, it’s important to be sure that all the information the dental hygienist is receiving is accurate and up to date, so that no miscommunications or misunderstandings occur. This way, you’ll help keep communications accurate throughout your career as a dental administrative assistant.
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