Rapport-Building Behaviors Used by Retail Employees |
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Authors: | Dwayne D Gremler Kevin P Gwinner |
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Institution: | a Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, United States b Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, United States |
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Abstract: | 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. |
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Keywords: | Rapport-building behaviors Commercial settings Customer-employee interactions Service encounters Critical incidents |
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