The rapport management model: how physicians build relationships with patients

Building relationships is a central concern for professionals (e.g., physicians, engineers, sales representatives, managers, etc.) because relationships promote a client's trust and loyalty. Rapport is a concept used to describe relationship quality and has two facets: enjoyable interactions and personal connection. Prior research has described the communication strategies of leaders for building better relationships with their subordinates and sales representatives with their customers by borrowing concepts from rapport management in sociolinguistics. The goal of this paper is to extend that work by demonstrating how rapport management applies to interaction between physicians and patients. The rapport management model helps us explain how professionals succeed or fail to build relationships with clients based on their verbal communication behavior.