Denise Williams – Jones
The Devastation of Leaving to Leveling Up
Episode 117
Denise Williams-Jones, RDA is a Customer Service Consultant, Speaker, Founder, and Owner of Next Level to Success.
She started in the dental field in 1995, working in some of the top dental offices in Southern California, with roles including chairside assistant, inventory and supply manager, team trainer, scheduling coordinator, financial coordinator, marketing liaison, community outreach, and front office lead.
Denise consulted for the American Dental Association as part of the Dental Team Hub Advisory Group for Practice Management.
She is a Crown Council, and Speaking Consulting Network member, and has designed continuing education courses for the American Dental Association. She graduated from the Scheduling Institute and ToPs Institute, two highly respected dental practice management training programs.
She holds several certifications in Phone Training, Maximizing Patient Flow, Treatment Case Acceptance, and Delivering Exceptional Customer Service concerning patient care.
Denise has a passion and commitment to customer service.
She believes results happen when training starts with an organized yet friendly environment and has a track record of noticeable performance growth with the practices she has worked with. Her program is designed to help dental offices improve relationships with their fellow team members and with their patients all while raising their bottom line.
Over 28 years of real-life experience in using proven techniques have taken practices to the Next Level of Success.
Denise Williams – Jones Takeaways
- Denise Williams is the Founder and Owner of Next Level to Success
- Initially, Denise started working at dental offices in SoCal in 1995
- Denise Williams has designed education courses for the American Dental Association
- Denise is passionate about excellent customer service
- Denise Williams holds several certifications in Phone Training, Maximizing Patient Flow, and Treatment Case Acceptance
Denise Williams – Jones Quotes
- “I’m a consultant, coach, and speaker. Next Level to Success is really about helping the dental community, helping dental offices reach their potential.”
- “I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. They were very strict. Years later, I left the organization and that was quite traumatic for me. And it kind of set the stage and the foundation for what I’m doing now because I was a totally different person.”
- “So I would go door to door. 90 hours every month, and I would spread the word, talk to different people, and study with them. Well, one thing I realized later in life is that that really set the stage for me to be adaptable. You never knew who was on the other side of the door.”
- “So I said, oh, it’s 8 months, 9 months, and I can work because I wasn’t working before that. I found myself as a twenty-six-year-old black woman with a 12th-grade education, and what was I gonna do to support myself now away from my family and divorced? What was I gonna do? So I had to pull myself up from the bootstraps, and I said dental assistant.”
- “You are not just the person answering the phone. You are not just the person greeting the patient. You’re the front line. You’re the front line. At that point, when they walk in, you’re the representation of the office.”
Show Notes
What is next level to success?
Denise Williams is a consultant, a coach, and a speaker. Next Level to Success is all about helping the dental community. She wants to help local dentist offices reach their full potential.
Unfortunately, dentistry’s reputation has been going down in the last few decades. Denise’s goal is to change that.
How long has Denise Williams been doing this?
Since 1995, Denise Williams has been involved in the dental community. For 17 years, she was at her first office, and then for 12 years, she was at her second office.
Somewhere along the way, she realized this is not what she was meant to be doing. Instead, she felt her calling was to help other offices grow and thrive.
Her passion is in customer service, and she wanted to help train other offices to be able to provide the exemplary customer service that she knew dental patients deserved.
Did Denise William always live in San Gabriel Valley?
Yes, Denise Williams was born in Duarte, California. She was from a family of 12. She was child number nine.
She is an SGV girl through and through and currently lives in Alhambra.
What was Denise Williams’ childhood like?
Denise was raised in a large family and as a Jehovah’s Witness. They lived out in the country and had pigs, chickens, and fruit trees. Her father was a pivotal member of the community. If folks needed something, Denise’s father was the one that they went to.
Denise had difficulties seeing the good, and when you leave Jehovah’s Witnesses, they typically do not talk to you any longer.
At a very young age, Denise was what they called a pioneer and would go door to door 90 hours a month. However, one positive that she took from this lifestyle is that it taught her to be very adaptable.
How does Denise feel about Jehovah’s witness now?
Denise still has a lot of respect for the organization. She just thought it would be better to leave out of respect than to carry that name and not live her life in accordance with the way that they structured their day-to-day lives. Looking back, there were a lot of positives for Denise, so she never speaks poorly of it.
Denise acknowledges that it was very difficult when she left in 1995, especially considering so many of her family members were still in the organization.
She went through a divorce and almost ended up homeless because Denise had very little support.
What was Denise’s home like?
She had a huge yard, and her parents transformed it into a major farming area. They had fruit trees, an area for a garden, chickens, and pigs. Her father would go hunting and fishing often.
What led to Denise Williams enrolling in a dental program?
Denise left the organization, as she calls it, and she felt like she was all on her own. The cheapest program she found was the dental program. She was a 26-year-old black woman with a 12th-grade education, so she felt her options were limited.
She ended up working at a dental office in Arcadia. She learned it wasn’t the clinical aspect of dentistry, but helping patients and inspiring leadership was what really resonated with her. But she was just an assistant; she needed a new position to help the way she wanted to. Now, she feels she can connect better with different offices since she has been in the trenches with them, so to speak.
What are some messages she likes to instill?
When Denise speaks with receptionists, she does her best to help them understand they are not just someone answering the phone or someone behind a desk who is scheduling appointments.
They are the front lines. They are the literal representation and first impression of the office and the entire dental clinic’s brand identity.
How does next level to success work?
A great deal of it is just speaking. She is constantly speaking; she has even done presentations for the American Dental Association.
She will have technicians and doctors contact her about consultations. There are offices that she visits regularly. For a while, she was consulting chiropractors, too. However, she recently decided to let all of them go and focus purely on dental offices.
Denise Williams – Jones
The Huntington Gardens and Huntington Library
Pie ‘n Burger – Denise loves how original this restaurant is; it exudes SGV.
Lower Arroyo Park for hiking and walking, where Denise could clear her mind.
