Without strong customer rapport:
- Transactions feel robotic and cold to customers
- Service interactions lack a human connection
- Customers don’t feel valued as individuals
- There is minimal trust established
- Cross-selling and upselling chances are missed
- Negative feedback and requests escalate quickly
- Customers readily switch to competitor offerings
Course Overview
The Building Rapport with Customers course equips client-facing teams to form authentic connections that foster loyalty and retention.
In this highly interactive workshop, participants will learn to:
- Quickly establish common ground through active listening and questioning skills
- Demonstrate genuine interest in understanding customer needs
- Identify preferences, motivations and barriers influencing decisions
- Match communication styles to tune into different personalities
- Share insights and expertise freely to provide value
- Surface opportunities to improve customer outcomes
- Deepen dialogues through relevant personal anecdotes
With stronger rapport-building abilities, participants can transform transactional interactions into trusted relationships where customers feel heard, appreciated and supported.
Who Should Attend
This course is designed for client-interfacing roles:
- Sales team members
- Account managers
- Customer success managers
- Support and service representatives
- Project implementation consultants
- Relationship managers
Course Content
Fundamentals of Rapport-Building
- The business impact of trusting relationships
- Rapport defined – moving beyond satisfaction to affinity
- Key principles of authentic connection
- Crossing the service superficiality abyss
Perfecting Listening Skills
- Minimizing distractions and focusing fully on customers
- Making eye contact, smiling and nodding
- Asking clarifying questions and paraphrasing
- Observing body language and unspoken cues
- Remembering meaningful details for follow-up
Matching Communication Styles
- Grouping customer archetypes
- Tuning into motivations, priorities and concerns
- Mirroring directness, pace, and vocabulary
- Finessing discussions to appeal to preferences
Mastering Questioning Techniques
- Open-ended questions to encourage sharing
- Probing follow-up questions to uncover needs
- Funneling sequences to hone focus
- When and how to politely interrupt
Deploying Active Listening Skills
- Repeating back key details
- Paraphrasing emotional elements
- Asking for corrections if misinterpreting
- Linking back to key themes in conversation
- Validating frustrations and providing encouragement
Identifying Upsell Opportunities
- Discussing aspirational visions and goals
- Surfacing areas of hassle or lost productivity
- Quantifying costs of persisting pain points
- Matching needs to current or new offerings
- Positioning upgrades tied to wants
Forming Lasting Impressions
- Sending appreciation, insight or assistance follow-ups
- Documenting relevant memories, milestones and preferences
- Making candid recommendations suited to interests
- Maintaining nurtured sense of partnership
Benefits for Organizations
- Increased deal sizes through relationship-based selling
- Higher customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores
- Reduced customer turnover leading to lower churn
- Deeper customer insights enabling service innovation
- More cross-sell and upsell opportunities
- Smoother support issue resolution
Benefits for Individuals
Participants will gain:
- Stronger active listening abilities
- Insight matching communication styles
- Skills personalized relationship-building
- Improved questioning and discovery capabilities
- Better identification of customer pain points
- Tools to form lasting customer impressions
FAQs
How long is the course?
This two-day interactive workshop provides in-depth skill-building.
What teaching methods are used?
The course utilizes role-plays, case studies, assessments and group collaboration.
Who are the instructors?
Our lead trainers have 10+ years turning customer interactions into partnerships.
What materials do participants receive?
The digital workbook provides frameworks, scripts, assessments and job aids that enable behavioral change.
How will I apply skills back on the job?
We personalize action plans, provide peer coaching, and measure progress with real-world customer interactions.
Ready to transform customer relationships? Reach out today.