Episode #483: Using the F.O.R.D. Concept to Build Relationships in Your Practice

No matter how hard you try, you can't remember everything about every patient. But there is a way to document key details about them. It’s called the FORD concept, and Kirk Behrendt brings back Jenni Poulos, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to share what it is, why you need it, and how to use it in your practice. FORD is a shortcut to better relationships! To learn the faster, easier way to bond with your patients, listen to Episode 483 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Jenni’s email: [email protected] 
• Jenni’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenni.poulos
• Jenni’s social media: @actdental
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Main Takeaways:

• FORD is an easy way to document key patient information.
• This system ensures your entire team is up to date with patients.
• Patients will trust you more quickly when they feel listened to and cared for.
• When patients trust you, they are more likely to accept your treatment plans.

Quotes:

• “Patients want to know you care. They want to know that you're listening. They want to be remembered. We all do. And I've had so many teams say to me, ‘Gosh, we’re trying to find a way to put these notes so we can remember things. Do we put it in the clinical notes? How do we do it? Do we pin it? What's a great system for this?’ And one of the amazing doctors in our community taught us about this FORD concept. It’s a way to create a system to consistently and reliably know what's important to our patients so we can talk to them about it.” (4:30—5:08)
• “The FORD concept is making small notes about your patients’ Family, their Occupation, their Recreation, and their Dreams. These are the things that are personal to our patients. So, just by making small notes about each of these items, FORD, keeping them in your software, you can reference them before your patients come in and remember the things that are important to them. And immediately, shortcut relationship, because you begin to talk about them.” (5:59—6:34)
• “[FORD] really simplifies this [relationship-building] process, and you're not relying upon Sally’s brain to remember what was important about Mrs. Smith. You're not relying upon your assistant to recall what was talked about six, seven, eight weeks ago the last time a patient was in your chair. Our days are busy and crazy, so make this easy on yourselves and capture these key items.” (8:41—9:12)
• “Great leaders, great communicators, great team members, they remember the things that light people up. They remember those exciting moments. And when we talk about our dreams, it’s those light-up moments. It’s those exciting moments. And it actually brings us into a headspace where we have this release of dopamine, this release of serotonin, and we’re happy and excited and engaged. Our brains become malleable from a scientific standpoint. We’re actually more likely to engage in treatment and act upon things when we’re talking about the things that we love and the things that we like. So, our family, our dreams, these are things that are going to light us up, that are going to make us happy. And when we can set the stage of a conversation, what's important to you, to your life, what makes you happy, that conversation about the crown, the filling, the crack, whatever it’s going to be, it’s a much easier conversation that's grounded in relationship and trust.” (9:18—10:27)
• “If you're like me, you don't remember things. Like, ‘I totally forgot that her husband passed away.’ There are going to be things that you're like, ‘Oh, shoot. I totally forgot that.’ What's really cool about this is that you and your team can be committed to learning about these people. And as changes happen, especially in their family, you don't make the mistake of going, ‘Oh, how’s Bill?’ ‘Oh, Bill passed away two years ago,’ and you're like, ‘Oh, darn it. I totally forgot that.’ And that's a serious one, but even little things. That's why it’s important to be able to look at the record. Because at the end of the day, you want to be giving energy to things that matter most, which is making the connection with the patient.” (11:08—11:50) -Kirk
• “I hate it when somebody asks me the same questions over and over and over. I'm like, ‘I already told you this story about how many kids I have last time, and you weren't even listening. You just thought it was Charlie Brown’s teacher talking when I was talking,’ type of a thing. So, it’s a really cool concept that you can put into play right away and make it work in your practice.” (11:55—12:16) -Kirk
• “We tend to overthink things. We really tend to feel like we have to make this difficult. I think that the personality of a lot of dentists lends to overthinking. We just need to ask a few simple questions and remember a few simple things to continue to build on these relationships. Remember, patients invest in the things that they value, and they do business with the people that they trust.” (12:27—13:04)
• “Patients will often be more vulnerable with team members than the doctor. Now, that's not always true. But you're going to find that some hygienists or some assistants, or even team members at the front, are going to learn a lot more about the patient than you will, doctor, because they're afraid to tell you everything, or you just haven't had the time. And what's really cool about a system like this is they can introduce things that they’ve learned on the relationship side of things to better help you as a doctor.” (13:12—13:41) -Kirk
• “You have a limited amount of time with your patients. Right? That's just the reality of the business that we’re in. You have people that are coming down and sitting in your chair, and you don't have weeks, years, months, to slowly build a relationship with them. You need to get to know them and establish trust and connection quickly.” (14:39—15:01)
• “What you can do as a team is, number one, create the FORD concept. Get to know these patients. And then, in salutation, you can say if they're an A, B, or C patient. All you want to do is — don't kick people out but put your energy into the people that best fit what you're looking for to build your practice.” (17:19—17:34) -Kirk
• “Think a little bit differently about how we build relationships. Think a little bit differently about the things that you can do to generate amazing relationships and connection in a short period of time with your patients. Make it easy and make it actionable.” (18:39—18:57)
• “80% of your problems are going to come from C patients. You don't want to build a practice of people that are problematic. And we need a simple way, a framework, a system, that we can all be working together to love the right type of people for our practice that will bring people just like them.” (19:35—19:52) -Kirk

Snippets:

• 0:00 Introduction.
• 2:37 Jenni’s background.
• 3:53 Why a system like FORD is so important.
• 5:08 What the FORD concept is.
• 6:34 Cultivate an office of trust.
• 8:19 How FORD can shortcut relationship-building.
• 12:17 Don't overthink your systems.
• 13:10 How team members can help build patient-doctor relationships.
• 14:20 Speed up your relationship-building.
• 16:03 Organize the data you collect about patients.
• 18:26 Last thoughts.

Jenni Poulos Bio:

Jenni brings to dental teams a literal lifetime of experience in dentistry. As the daughter and sister of periodontists and a dental hygienist, she has been working in many facets of the dental world since she first held a summer job turning rooms and pouring models at the age of 12. Now, with over 10 years of experience in managing and leading a large periodontal practice, she has a firm grasp on what it takes to run a thriving business. Her passion for organizational health and culture has been a driving force behind her coaching career. She has witnessed firsthand how creating an aligned and engaged team will take a practice to levels of success that they never believed possible!