Why is Building Rapport So Important?

Rapport is an essential element in all our communications, affecting our ability to understand other people’s perspective and for them to understand ours. Without rapport understanding each other becomes extremely difficult and trust becomes challenging. Communications becomes difficult, misunderstandings commonplace and we find ourselves becoming hyper vigilant becoming increasingly aware of what we are saying and deciphering ‘hidden meanings’ from communications with others. In the absence of rapport we instinctively stay alert and start questioning the validity and authenticity of what we are seeing and hearing.

Important Points of Rapport

1. We trust those who are like we are

When we first meet someone new, we are immediately looking to establish a connection with the other person, it is common to find common ground with that person, when this happens we feel more comfortable and rapport increases.

Rapport = Trust + Comfort

2. Rapport skills can be natural and unconscious

We all have the ability to create rapport naturally, rapport is mostly done outside of the conscious awareness by picking up signals in the form of non-verbal cues, tone, pitch and volume of voice. The famous US psychologist Albert Mehrabian suggested in his work that

Total liking = 7% verbal liking + 38% vocal liking + 55% facial liking

3. Non- Verbal Communication/body language is the foundation of rapport

Being able to unconsciously pick up on non-verbal cues and body language is essential to building rapport. A fundamental aspect of building rapport is matching and mirroring the other person.

4. Voice

The speed, volume, pitch and tone of voice is very important when building rapport. Mirroring the other person will immediately put them at ease and build rapport.

Building and maintaining rapport is an essential skill and is one of the most important skills you can develop to help you get better results in life.  When you are in rapport with somebody, then they are more likely to accept what you are saying, you can even effectively build rapport with someone you don’t like.

Insights Discovery can be used to take building rapport to the next level, its core philosophy is about understanding self and understanding others, once this has been mastered and applied it is a way of adapting and connecting with others.

For more information on how Insights Discovery can help you develop a better understanding of yourself or your team and improve how you interact with others and develop rapport whether it be team members, customers or clients call us today on

02392 160840 / 07811 946315 or enquiries@churchillsquareconsulting.co.uk