Do We Click at the First Sight? Exploring the Customer–Employee Instant Rapport in the First Service Encounter

Abstract

Interactions between service employees and customers have long been suggested to have a tremendous impact on customer assessment of service delivery. Among a variety of constructs in the studies of employee–customer relationships, rapport is an important issue for service organizations. Researchers have found customer–employee rapport is influential in the creation of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Yim et al. 2008). Increased customer perception of rapport also positively influences customers’ judgments about the service and commitment toward a service relationship (Gremler and Gwinner 2000, 2008). Customer–employee rapport could be achieved in the very first service interaction (Gremler and Gwinner 2000). In building a customer relationship, a service employee’s interaction with a customer in the initial encounter is critically important in creating the customer’s impression of the firm and thereby his/her desire to have future interactions with the firm (Bitner 1995).