Where Are You F.R.O.M?

When I started out seeing patients while in professional school and out in my practice.  I was always nervous in meeting new patients and felt I didn’t know what to say.  After being out practicing for awhile and reading some good books I began to sharpen my “patient rapport” skills.  What I found out is the best conversationalist is the one who ask questions.  I also found out after you ask questions you must be great at listening to the answers. 

If you’ve ever heard of the “icebreaker” first statement or question, then that’s exactly how I came up with “Where are you F.R.O.M?”  I’d ask this question during my initial meeting and during my testing of the patients functional skills.  What I found, not only did it relax and bring some of their guard down, but it also allowed me to relax myself!  

So I’d say, “Where are you F.R.O.M.  Mr. Smith?” Of course they would tell me where they were from and that’s when the acronym “F.R.O.M.” comes in to keep me on track with my follow-up questions.  My follow-up question would be, “do you still have (F)amily there? So, I’d ask questions regarding their family (i.e., children, spouse, siblings, etc.).  Then I’d move on to asking the (R)ecreation question, “what do you do for fun?” or “what are your hobbies?” Mr. Smith? Personally, this is my favorite question!  This always seems to bring the biggest smiles and twinkling in their eyes as they think about the fun things they love to do and the desire to return to doing them.  Then I ask them about their (O)ccupation, “What do you do for a living, Mr. Smith?” The great thing I’ve learned about this question is that each and every occupation I’ve learned about from patients, I have been able to save that information for future patients that are in the same occupation.  What that does is allow you to connect even better with future patients or clients because they feel you know something about what they do.  And they will respond to your knowledge in a positive way!  And this brings us to the last letter in my follow-up questions; however, it’s nothing profound.  So after asking the earlier questions I may have (M)iscellaneous questions that I may ask, usually more follow-up questions regarding earlier topics we discussed or may be new ones.

Well, that’s it!  I hope you all have fun connecting with your patients or clients and learning some amazing stories about beautiful lives!  Also, I’d love to hear back from you and share with the rest of us what happened!  Take care and have fun! 

Even as a healthcare professional, the more I realize no matter what your occupation or business, you are in a people business.  I know the world we live in currently is “high-tech” but the business you are in is likely dealing with people.  Therefore, you need to approach your career and the people you deal with, in a “high-touch” fashion.  Meaning people still want to know they can trust you and that they can relate to you on a human level. 

When I was in professional school, we did not have a class that instructed us on patient rapport or what you may know as having “bed-side manor.”  Basically, you being relatable to the people you are dealing with.  I’m sure you have heard the saying,” people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” 

In my 25 years as a healthcare professional I have become very passionate about the need to have great “patient-rapport” and how it has helped me assist countless people under my care.  I’m often asked by colleagues, “how do you connect so well with your patients?”  And this is the question that motivated me to start this blog and to share my ideas and approach to “patient-rapport” or if you are not in the healthcare field, “client-rapport.”  I hope the approach I share with you on this blog will assist you in really connecting with your “clients, customers or patients.”  I can assure you that the connections you make will be priceless and the knowledge you will gain about people’s lives will assist you in making even better connections with future clients/or patients.  The approach is very simple and it all starts with, is one question.  That question is, “Where are you F.R.O.M?” 

Yes! That is it! This one question will snowball into other questions and more insight into who your clients are and what they want.  In my next post, I will go further into the approach and the acronym “F.R.O.M?” at the end.  I am so excited to share my ideas with you and assist you in connecting with your client’s! See you in the next post!