What Is Rapport?

Building rapport with customers is all about creating a common bond of trust, particularly over the phone.

So, you must learn to empathize with your customers to build rapport, have a genuine interest in their situation and make them feel valued.

This is so important to providing good service and increasing sales.

Key learning points on rapport building over the phone

1. Remember that rapport is about being a friend.
2. Use your active listening skills and become aware of your customer’s ’emotional driver’. It will be either a ‘movement away from pain’ or a ‘planned movement towards pleasure’.
3. Excellence in communication can be achieved through putting conscious effort into your use of tonality. Be congruent in tone and words. Really mean what you say.
4. Try a more upright sitting position, or even stand up to build rapport. It really works.
5. Remember that ‘clean language’ is a quick win strategy for creating rapid rapport. Use keywords employed by the customer to reassure them that you have listened and are in tune with them.
6. Rapport building acts as the foundation for the introduction of products and services that could benefit the customer. Without establishing rapport, you are unlikely to get the results you desire.