About Front Office Rocks
An online training resource, developed by Laura Hatch, a Dental Office Manager, offers first-hand knowledge and expertise designed to help improve all the day-to-day operations and create the ultimate customer service culture within your practice.
WHY WE STARTED
Laura witnessed first-hand what was missing from the front office of dental practices – training. After twelve years as an office manager and two fee-for-service scratch dental practices, Laura sought to bring resources to dental practices like hers. Together with her best friend, Janelle Storck and Business Partner, Mark Nichols, Front Office Rocks was born.
OUR TEAM
Laura Hatch, BS, MS, FAADOM
Founder and Owner
Laura Hatch has committed years of study to learning how to manage and empower team members. Laura has authored over 200 articles for leading dental publications and websites like The Progressive Dentist, Dental Assisting Digest, Dentaltown, and Dentistry IQ. You can also find her on various forums, bulletins, and dental related message boards. Laura is a Fellow of the American Association of Dental Office Managers, a national and international speaker for dental authorities like AADOM, Patterson, and Mid-Atlantic Dental Society. Laura was also recognized as one of DPR’s Top 25 Women in Dentistry for 2016.
“It’s not just about your dentist’s capability and skill, it’s about people; relating to our patients as people first, great service, and promoting their health.” – Laura Hatch
Mark Nichols
Partner
Mark provides strategic leadership at Front Office Rocks and has been instrumental in developing brand platforms for several internet companies. Mark spent the early part of his career in manufacturing. Since selling his last company, he’s worked with a number of boutique businesses. Increasingly focused on branding and the client side of the business, Mark has found a place where his entrepreneurial spirit thrives.
Mark brings a positive, forward-thinking energy to all his work. He has a clear sense of purpose that inspires his teams to collaborate and create value through the creative process. Mark’s goal is to create content that makes people feel, not just experience—a hearts and minds approach to branding. Mark now divides his time between working with boutique businesses and acting as an angel investor.
Janelle Storck, RDH
Chief Operating Officer
Janelle Storck brings over 25 years of extensive dentistry knowledge and experience to the table. As a licensed hygienist, office manager, and as a consultant within a leading dental consulting company, she’s served in every role and knows what it takes to make a successful practice perform at peak efficiency. From developing training course material to partnering with vendor solutions that increase revenue, and bringing Front Office Rocks Live Training Seminars on the road across the United States.
Janelle, alongside Laura, is pioneering within the dental industry to provide a front office training resource that’s both effective and practical, and easily accessible to every dental team member.
Our History
We opened our first practice in January 2003 outside of Baltimore, MD. With some more advanced training from a great dental training company, we took our practice from $0 with 0 patients in 2003 to about $120K a month in collections in 2007.
In January 2007, we took our entire staff to Carlsbad, CA (north of San Diego) for hygiene training and fell in love with Southern California. We sold our house and our practice and moved across country with our two young kids. For about a year, I worked in another dental office and quickly realized that without good management, working in an office is not fun. My husband and I opened our second scratch practice in June 2008, in San Diego.
My point in sharing all of this is that I have had experience as an observer of dental offices, an employee in other offices, and finally as a manager for my husband’s practices. (I use the phrase “my husband’s practices” because I believe these are (or were) his practices, 100%. He’s the one that went to dental school for four years and he is the owner of our current practice. I am his Office Manager and as such, view my role as helping him reach his goals as the owner. It is not my practice! I do, however, understand the importance of the Office Manager’s role in kicking her doctor in the butt every so often! And you’ll see that theme time and again in my training and website.)
The first time we opened a scratch practice was in 2003, in Maryland, when the economy was stronger and selling patients on treatments was much easier. We opened our second scratch practice in 2008—right after the recession. And we are only 20 minutes from Mexico, where patients can go to get much cheaper treatment. So we have had our share of challenges getting a new practice to succeed, just like many of you.
Several years on, I’m happy to report that we are generating over $200K a month in collections as a fee-for-service office, with an average of 60–100 new patients a month. I run a staff of over 15, which includes three doctors, four RDHs, three dental assistants, and four employees at the front desk. I am in the office 3–4 days a week as the Office Manager.
I have heard so many times, “Yeah that all sounds good. If only I had an office manager like you.” With the resources I have created at Front Office Rocks, you can have an office manager like that train your team in your office virtually, on your time, anytime.
As the leading authority on virtual dental front office training, Laura helps dental professionals who want to be better at what they do gain the training they need through online video courses, live seminars, and coaching.