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Veterinary Practice News Editorial Blog:
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Frontlines of the Battlefield: Who is the Real Enemy?
By Katherine Dobbs, RVT, CVPM, PHR
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Ringing phone lines, jammed printers, buzzing fax machines, barking dogs, and growling clients…the team at the front office must handle them all, and usually simultaneously. It’s a wonder they can keep their calm and make it through one day, much less come back again and again to the veterinary practice to repeat the process on a daily basis. What makes them return? Typically it’s their profound love of animals and their respect for the human-animal bond, which is ironic when you consider that people in this position have the LEAST amount of contact with the pets that enter the front doors!
It takes a special kind of person to work the front desk of the veterinary practice. Sometimes they are professionals who have been in and intend to stay in the profession of veterinary medicine at the front desk of the practice. Yet more often, they are simply passing through on their way to “what they want to be when they grow up.” They may be finishing school, saving up money to buy a house or have children, or simply getting their foot in the door of the practice with intentions to grow into the medical end of the business. Regardless of where they were yesterday and where they are going tomorrow, it’s important that they are there today, at the front desk of the practice where they are so desperately needed.
We talk a lot about the “front vs. back” dilemma in veterinary medicine. It astounds me how often the technician types will admit that the front office is one of the toughest positions on the team, yet they don’t act as though they respect the people who fill that position. As a profession overall we have strides to make, as the front office position is often one of the lowest paid positions on the team. Yet practice owners and managers will rightfully agree that the front office personnel make up the “face” of the practice, and the first and last impression on the pet owners. Then why, if we agree on these points, is the front office as a group often given less training, less money for continuing education, and less overall involvement in the practice? I don’t have that answer, do you?
What is more damaging than us not recognizing and investing in this group of people is the tendency for THEM to feel less respected, less involved, less important in the grand scheme of things. If and when this happens, then a vicious cycle is created because they are easily disrespected by the team if they don’t respect themselves, and the cycle continues. At some point it has to stop in order for the team to be as healthy as possible, and as profitable as possible.
Too often we look at how we are different from those in other positions, and forget what we have in common. The front desk personnel want the same thing as everyone else in the practice, to help as many pets as possible while caring for the pet owners as well. It will pay for us to remember this.
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