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The Role of Trust in the Marketing of Services
Zachary Mesa
Tarleton State University
Services Marketing 4302
Dr. Heller
Due: 11/22/2020
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Abstract
Looking at the service industry and all of the possible products that are available to choose
from, there is a certain amount of trust with a product when picking that one compared to
others. First thing first I wanted to define “Trust”, “Services”, and “Marketing”. One of the
definitions of trust reads “ Confident expectation of something; hope” (Dictionary, 2012) and I
believe that this is crucial relating to the business world with producers and consumers. The
next word is services, one of the definitions reads “Work performed for remuneration”
(Dictionary, 2012). Putting this into my own words it is a service that is paid for. Services are
created to offer many different things to the consumer, and these require some sort of pay for
it. Lastly marketing is “The total of activates involves of goods from the producer or seller to the
consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling” (Dictionary, 2012). This
is exactly what I think of when I hear the word marketing. This research paper intends to dive
deeper into those three key words and almost dissect the service industry and look at instances
where trust can be damaged or even lost with that producer on future products.
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Trust is one of the main building blocks to any relationship whether it be from business
to business or business to consumer, there must be a certain amount of trust to satisfy all
parties. In chapter 11 of the textbook it talks about developing a service culture and how it is
not built over night. These well-established services have all started from some point and over
the years gotten themselves to the point they are at today. Many services started out as
something different and eventually made the transition to focus on services. One thing to look
at when making the transition is making the consumer the focal point of your transition. The
brand that comes to mind that always keeps their customers in mind is Chick-fil-a. In 2018 they
earned the number 1 spot as America’s most beloved fast-food chain in the American Customer
Satisfaction Index annual survey. If you have ever eaten at a Chick-fil-this accomplishment
should not be a surprise to anyone. Not only did they win in 2018, but this will be their third
time in a row winning this award, a classic three-peat. Kate Taylor from Business Insider wrote
about the magnificent award “This is the third year in a row that Chick-fil-a has earned the No.
1 spot in the American Customer Satisfaction index’s 2018 survey of customer satisfaction.
Chick-fil-a earned 87 out of 100 possible points, beating chains such as Panera Bread and Papa
John’s… Customers rave about the restaurants’ cleanliness, quick, convenient service,
hardworking employees, and its high-quality food… Chick-fil-A’s ability to guarantee customer
satisfaction can be traced in part to the chain’s peculiar business model. The company accepts
just 0.4% of franchisees, one of the most selective chains in the industry” (Taylor, 2018).
Operators do not own or receive any equity in their business and can only open one location.
This is one example of how trust Is paying off for this business. They build up with the best
employees at limited locations, overdoing locations would lose the value in their products that
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they sell. I don’t know about you but that Chick-fil-a sauce it dang good and I always have to get
it with my nuggets when I go. They treat their customers as family and make sure your needs
are met and at the end of every service the employees will say “my pleasure” to let you know
that they are more than happy and willing to take your order and do whatever they can to
satisfy you and get you to come back the next day. Even though this is in the food industry I
cannot think of another business company that does it like them customer service wise and
that is one of the strongest ways to build trust with the consumer.
Looking at creating an advertisement and “promising” a product will do something or
provide a service is a hard thing to do for a marketer. Any marketer can make assessments
about a product and say what it will do but at the end of the day there will be some margin of
