Rapport-Building Behaviors Used by Retail Employees

The rapport between employees and customers represents a particularly salient issue in retail businesses characterized by significant interpersonal interactions. Although rapport relates significantly to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth communication, the behaviors employees use to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of retailing 2008-09, Vol.84 (3), p.308-324
Main Authors: Gremler, Dwayne D., Gwinner, Kevin P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Commercial settings
Communication
Critical incidents
Customer satisfaction
Customer services
Customers
Customer–employee interactions
Employees
Interpersonal communication
Marketing
Perceptions
Public relations
Quality of service
Rapport-building behaviors
Retail stores
Retailing industry
Service encounters
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The rapport between employees and customers represents a particularly salient issue in retail businesses characterized by significant interpersonal interactions. Although rapport relates significantly to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and word-of-mouth communication, the behaviors employees use to develop rapport receive minimal attention in marketing and management literature. Using research on rapport-building behaviors identified in other literature as a basis for investigation, this study investigates the extent to which such behaviors are relevant in commercial settings. With the critical incident technique, the authors identify rapport-building behaviors commonly used by retail employees in 388 service encounters. Analysis of 824 rapport-building behaviors described in these encounters confirms three categories suggested by previous research – uncommonly attentive, common grounding, and courteous behavior – and identifies two additional categories that have not been linked to rapport in retail settings, namely, connecting and information sharing behavior. The authors conclude with a discussion of managerial and research implications.
ISSN:0022-4359
1873-3271
DOI:10.1016/j.jretai.2008.07.001