What is Rapport?

The term ‘Rapport’ is widely used in different fields (e.g. healthcare, investigative interviewing, sales/service encounters, intercultural communication) and typically regarded as extremely important for interactional ‘success’. Yet the various strands of work often show little awareness of work in other disciplines and contexts and there is minimal integration. This compilation of quotations offers a first step in overcoming this weakness. I quote from work in different disciplines and contexts and organise the extracts under different themes. I do not comment on the extracts, but simply let them speak for themselves.

The compilation of quotations covers the following aspects:

Section 1: Conceptualising rapport

Section 2: The importance/impact of rapport – a few examples

Section 3: Rapport frameworks and approaches

Section 4: Managing rapport

Section 5: Establishing/building rapport

Section 6: Rapport and the professions

Section 7: Judging & assessing rapport

Section 8: Culture and rapport

Section 9: Rapport and related terms/concepts