One of the biggest challenges offices are facing these days is staffing. It was an issue for many before the pandemic, but now it’s a different beast. Staff have become accustomed to working from home, some don’t yet feel comfortable interacting with patients, and others may be facing personal challenges that prevent them from returning to the office, such as access to childcare.
We spoke to a former registered dental assistant (RDA) to get some practical insider tips on overcoming staffing challenges. They recommended optimizing your current personnel by cross-training your team until your office is fully staffed. Cross-train your RDAs to learn the process flow of the front desk and treatment plan coordinating. Alternately, have your front desk team learn some of the chairside procedures. This includes learning to read a periodontal chart, sterilizing instruments, taking intraoral photos and other clinic tasks that don’t require any special certifications or licenses. Through cross-training, your team expands their knowledge and expertise past their normal office duties and becomes incredibly well-rounded and adaptive.
Where cross-training can’t help and there may be concern over revenue loss, Launch Loyalty can jump in to save the day. Whether you have a discount plan, but no staff to manage it or you’ve been interested in offering your own plan and just haven’t made the leap, look no further. Launch Loyalty is a full-service administrator for in-house membership plans. You won’t have to do anything but talk about that plan. This means more hands-on time with your patients!
Some perks of creating your plan through Launch Loyalty:
- A company founded by dentists for dentists. You will work with an experienced Discount Plan Organization (DPO) with over 40 years’ experience in dentistry and membership plans.
- Full-service administration – we aren’t just a platform, we’re your partner. You can be hands off while we’re hands on:
- Experienced compliance and legal team to ensure all materials are compliant with DPO regulations.
- 24/7 PCI compliant, secure website for patients to join your plan.
- 120+ seat call center to answer plan questions and sign up patients over the phone.
- Recurring billing for monthly/annual paying members. Plus, our retention team reaches out to plan patients to keep their account and payment information up to date.
- Customized marketing materials with your office branding. We’ll print and ship materials to your office at no extra charge.
- Dedicated Client Success Advisors to help your office stay on track to reach and exceed your goals.
- Bundle in savings on value-added products like vision, LASIK and prescriptions. At no extra cost to you or your patients.
- Access to our exclusive Launch Royalties discount plan. A discount package for your office staff to save on some of our popular health and wellness products– FREE!
Here are some additional tips to increase productivity and streamline your workflow processes. Free up your staff’s time so they can focus on what matters most – your patients!
- Automate processes for appointment scheduling and office communication to give your team valuable time back.
- Reevaluate your staff’s job functions and adjust based on their strengths and shortcomings.
- Maximize your time management skills and efficiency.
- Set realistic, achievable and measurable goals.
- Prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance within the office.
- Give yourself a break! All work with no break or self-care is a recipe for burnout, which can easily impact your productivity.
- Plan ahead for increased workloads.
Even if you aren’t short staffed, don’t miss out on having a successful in-house plan. Let Launch Loyalty handle the administration of your plan with their automated processes, to save your practice precious time. Visit www.launchloyalty.com to learn more and get started today!
