Team Huddles: How They Impact Your Schedule, Your Team, and Client Satisfaction
A Team Huddles Role in Scheduling
Great organization is key in any workplace environment, and it greatly relies on having established systems.
In a dental office, the daily schedule, whether paper printed or on a computer monitor, is a masterpiece creation that the entire dental office team relies on every day.
Without proper dental scheduling, there are many ways that time can be wasted in a busy clinic.
And when time is lost, revenue and morale take a hit too.
A well ran schedule helps a dental office anticipate, prevent, and react to unexpected changes while minimizing the impact to both their team and patients.
Creating an efficient schedule is a fine art and the entire dental office contributes to building and maintaining the office schedule.
But, a lot of the time, the schedule doesn’t get looked at together as a team, instead, it gets looked at individually.
But what if the front desk didn’t allow enough procedural time or the clinician is asking for less time that the front desk knows is going to be needed?
If a client cancels and the time can be allocated for a better flow, that can be identified and dealt with effectively in a morning team huddle.
What one team member can see in the alteration of the schedule another one may not, because we have different roles.
If an office is implementing a daily team huddle, then any discrepancies can be brought up and dealt with then.
3 Reasons Why Team Huddles Are Essential
- They allow for each team member to feel values and heard
- They help keep the entire office running smoothly every day
- They play an important role in client satisfaction
How Team Huddles Can Improve Teamwork
A team huddle is a tool every dental office can utilize to start the day off on the right foot.
Regardless of whether an office has 3 or 15 operatories, clarity is required to know who will be where and when, and who will be pulled away from their regular duties because someone else needs support.
We all have a time and place to be in the schedule and it can be tricky if we don’t know where that place is or when we are supposed to be there.
Organized chaos is not organization.
An unorganized office can quickly lead to team members with too much stress.
We are seeing the effects of too much stress feeding the current labor shortage in dentistry.
A daily team huddle can prevent miscommunication between staff and helps keep everyone organized and stress levels down.
For a team's overall morale, a morning team huddle can be crucial.
Dentistry is a high-performance job. In high-performance jobs, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and undervalued.
A daily team huddle can inspire and motivate everyone on the dental team to be the best they can be.
Goals can be set that challenge a team member's skill set, and everyone can have a chance to be heard.
A team huddle is one of the best tools any office can use to keep their team engaged, focused, and feeling valued.
How Team Huddles Can Improve Client Satisfaction
This relays back to the client's need.
For example, if the schedule can highlight when and where the DDS needs to be for recare checks the client will not be left waiting.
If we already know Mrs. Smith is coming in and needs pre-medication, a morning team huddle can identify that ahead of time.
There are no shortcuts to be taken on medical history review and the involved medical histories need identification to prevent a medical emergency.
How about customer service?
Why not share if it's someone’s birthday at the team huddle?
Maybe a milestone in some of our clients' lives?
Just like the television series ‘Cheers’, in acknowledging ‘Norm’, every human wants to be heard and recognized. The team huddle allows for both safety and rapport on the client-side of the dental office visit.
RELATED: How to Organize a Team Huddle
To Sum it Up:
Do your schedule a favor, stop glancing at it and give it the attention it needs with a team huddle.
Having a daily team huddle can benefit the entire office by ensuring smoother navigation of each day.
Daily team huddles also play an important role in client satisfaction and with each team member feeling valued.
A happy and organized team will want to work towards the shared mission of the office.
The team huddle is a great leadership tool any office owner can use to keep their team engaged, focused, and feeling wanted.
