Rapport is defined in many ways depending on the context. It can be a rapport between roommates, between a psychologist and a patient, between students in educational framework, between a sales person and a customer.
The objective is to identify the form of rapport involved in the interaction between a sales person and a customer within the framework of service encounters. The relation between the interactants marked by empathy, sympathy and harmony is how rapport is defined in the sales context where the sales person and the customer are engaged . The interaction between vendor and an industrial customer in the sales context can be put as the activity of “hitting it off” and feeling comfortable with each other.
The antecedents included in this context contain trust, honesty and respect. The expected outcomes are institutional customer loyalty and enhancement of the overall quality of the relationship between customers and vendors. Rapport is defined by as the “close harmonious relationship on mutual trust”.