Bonding through service friendliness: A potential double-edged sword

Abstract

Amidst growing interest in the engineering of positive emotions in commercial interactions (e.g., Tan, Foo, and Kwek, 2004), research underscores the need to consider both employee and customer characteristics when it comes to the appreciation for nonverbally- expressed emotion (Rafaeli and Sutton 1990). We posit that strong employee-customer bonds are formed when the affective style (i.e., expressiveness) of employees aligns closely with the customer's preference for nonverbally- expressed emotions. Support comes from research suggesting that rapport (i.e., quality interpersonal interactions characterized by a connection among the interactants) can be established using nonverbal cues (Harrigan, Oxman, and Rosenthal 1985). © 2012.