For dental practice owners · Back office
Plan a new front desk hire's first week
A day-by-day first week for a new front desk hire, built from your own routines, with your privacy rules on day one and a list of what goes to a person.
The prompt
Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in each part in [BRACKETS]. Practice owners and office managers bringing on a new front desk hire.
I run a dental practice. A new front desk hire starts soon, and most of what they need to know lives in our heads. I want a plan for their first week that teaches the routine in a sensible order and makes clear what they never handle alone. What I have: - What the front desk does on a normal day: [A NORMAL DAY] - Who they will sit with, and when: [WHO THEY SHADOW] - The privacy and phone rules we already follow: [OUR RULES] - What always goes to the office manager or the dentist: [WHAT GOES TO A PERSON] - Which days and hours they work in the first week: [THEIR WEEK] What I want: 1. Lay out the week day by day: what they watch, what they try with help, and what they do on their own by the last day. 2. Start with phones, check-in and confirmations. Leave billing calls and insurance questions for late in the week, and only to watch. 3. Put our privacy and phone rules on the first day, in plain words. 4. Add three questions I ask them at the end of each day. 5. End with a one-page list for the desk of what always goes to a person. Rules: - Write a draft for me to read. Do not send anything. - Use only what I gave you. If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing. - Never quote a price or make up a policy, rule or step I did not give you. - Leave out anything about a patient's health, treatment or history, and do not use real patients as practice examples. - Do not add legal or compliance requirements. Mark where our own required training goes. Give me back: - The day-by-day plan - The end-of-day questions - The 'goes to a person' list for the desk
When to use it
A new front desk hire starts soon, and so far the training plan is to sit with someone and watch.
When not to
Do not use it in place of your required privacy or safety training, or to decide what the new hire can see in your practice software. Those stay with you.
What to paste in
- [A NORMAL DAY]: The front desk's day from opening to close in a few lines: phones, check-in, confirmations, checkout, recall calls.
- [WHO THEY SHADOW]: Who they sit with and on which days, by role or first name.
- [OUR RULES]: The privacy and phone rules your desk already follows, such as what may go on a voicemail and how you check who is calling.
- [WHAT GOES TO A PERSON]: What the front desk never handles alone, and who takes it.
- [THEIR WEEK]: Which days they work in the first week and their hours.
Never paste
- Patient names, birth dates, phone numbers or insurance IDs
- Screenshots of your practice software or schedule
- Anything about a patient's health, treatment or history
- The new hire's personal details beyond a first name
A filled-in example
Sample. Fictional business, fictional client.
A NORMAL DAY: Open phones at 7:30. Check patients in and scan cards. Confirm tomorrow by text before lunch. Check out and collect the patient's part. Work the recall list from 3 to 4. WHO THEY SHADOW: Dana at check-in Monday and Tuesday, our office manager at checkout Thursday OUR RULES: Voicemails get a first name and callback number only. Confirm the date of birth before talking about any account. Screens face away from the waiting room. WHAT GOES TO A PERSON: Pain, treatment or medicine questions go to the assistant on duty. Coverage goes to the insurance coordinator. Bills, plans and complaints go to the office manager. THEIR WEEK: Monday to Thursday, 7:30 to 4
What you should get back
- A day-by-day plan from watching to doing, with billing and insurance left to the end
- Your privacy and phone rules on the first day, in plain words
- Three end-of-day questions for each day
- A one-page 'goes to a person' list for the desk
What stays with you
The prompt writes a draft. You decide what happens to it, and nothing should reach a patient until you have read it. Decisions about money stay with a person every time, and so do health questions and complaints. When KeenHand builds a routine like this, every message carries the same four decisions: Automate, Approve, Revise, Reject.
Related
- Turn office policies into a phone answer sheet. A one-page phone sheet built from your own policies, with spoken answers to routine questions and a clear list of what goes to a person.
- Run a short morning huddle from today's counts. A ten-minute standing huddle agenda built from today's schedule counts, with one action and a suggested owner for each.
- Make the old balance call with a calm script. A calm phone script and voicemail for a balance past its second statement that asks for payment and hands every hard question to a person.
More: every prompt for dental practices, back office, and AI for dental practices.
Which three fit your dental practice?
The free quiz scores your dental practice on sixteen things and picks the three prompts aimed at your three lowest. It takes about three minutes.