5. General discussion
5.1. Theoretical contributions This study is in response to the call from Holmqvist and Grönroos (2012) for more research on the role of language in service failure/recovery. This research explores the role of language and ethnicity on customer rapport and service recovery outcomes in minority and majority contexts. Table 7 summarizes the main research findings and it contribution to the literature. As noted by Gremler and Brown (1998), rapport (chemistry or relationship quality) is an affective bond, characterizing the interaction between customers and employees. The concept of rapport between service providers and customers is of preeminent importance in the evaluation and management of service encounters, failures, and recoveries. In a sense, it is the silver bullet. Its absence taints the entire service encounter experience, no matter how smoothly it goes; its presence makes all things possible, even in the face of catastrophic service failure. Thus, rapport emerges as a concept of major importance in the study of service dyadic encounters. Most of the research stream on rapport building has been done on service provider behaviors in a service delivery context (Gremler & Gwinner, 2008; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2006). Understanding the role of rapport in service recovery has significant impacts to successful long-term recoveries and future relationships with customers (Gremler & Gwinner, 2008). When service providers invest in rapport building, customers can experience a major turnaround from being angry and unsatisfied to forgiving, satisfied and delighted. As such rapport becomes crucial if service firms want customers to return back to their business and speak positively about their experience.
