Keeping the lines of communication between you and your staff open is a great way to increase in-office harmony and improve relationships with your patients as well.

When you regularly make yourself available to hear staff concerns, you open the way to learn more about the quality of customer service they provide to your patients.

All these benefits depend upon creating an open, non-judgmental atmosphere in staff meetings. If your dental staff members don’t feel they can speak freely about their concerns without risking criticism or possibly even public humiliation, they’ll keep whatever problems they may be having to themselves.

When staff members feel they can speak freely, they’ll let you know about problems they’ve had with patients before those problems become too big to resolve. Perhaps a patient has treated your receptionist with less than the respect she deserves and the receptionist is understandable irritated. By intervening before the feeling of annoyance escalates, you can turn down the volume on your receptionist’s feelings and allow for a better patient interaction the next time.

Regular meetings are also the perfect place to work out disharmonies between members of your staff that need attention. If the problem requires you to make a decision or change an established course of action, just be careful to allow all parties to have their say before you move forward.