Exploring Employee-Customer Rapport in the Service Encounter
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Chen, Yu-Cheng
Abstract
Past empirical evidence has indicated that the rapport between service employees and customers can influence customer reactions. However, there has been little research exploring the antecedents and consequences of such rapport in service interactions. In order to fill the research gap, we propose and test a model which illustrates how the rapport builds up between employee and customer. Based on past research, we propose that the antecedents of rapport include employee affection delivery, employee connecting behavior and customer emotion, while the consequences include service quality and behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 310 service employee-customer pairs in Taiwan. Results showed that all the antecedents of rapport, including employee affect delivery, employee connecting behavior and customer emotion, have positive influence on employee-customer rapport, which in turn enhances perceived service quality and behavioral intentions. Implications, limitations and future research directions are then discussed.
Subjects
employee affective delivery
employee connecting behavior
customer positive emotion
rapport
Type
thesis
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