When patients enter your office, they should feel welcome—almost as if they were entering a friend's home. A cold, sterile front desk environment will have exactly the opposite effect. At best, such an environment will make patients feel like they've just entered an unpleasant place. At worst, they won't come back for more.

To judge how welcoming your office is, ask a friend whose judgment and forthrightness you can trust to come in and give you a candid opinion. You may also want to ask an interior design specialist to pay a call as well.

Getting truthful feedback may not be fun, but it will give you the opportunity to improve your office environment by "seeing yourself as others see you."

Your front desk environment should make your patients feel valued as well as welcome. Dental staff members who greet patients by name with a smile, who ask about how their work and families are doing, who evidence in your patients as the people they are outside of their dental appointments can make even a poorly-designed front office seem fine.

Source: phoneuniversity.com