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Personal Characteristics Inspiring Initial Trust – What Matters in Service Encounters?

Abstract Research background: The following article concerns initial trust, i.e. trust which is formed during the first contact with a customer. Trust is, of course, an interdisciplinary category and as such it is defined in various ways; however, it is most often emphasized that it entails a positive attitude towards another person and a conviction that the person will meet our expectations. In relation to a particular individual, trust is connected with their identity, that is, with the attributes that distinguish them from other people, such as gender, skin color, way of dressing, or age. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to determine which qualities inspire trust in the case of financial services. Research methodology: Research was conducted using the paradigm of a mixed approach and combines the use of a projection technique and multilevel regression. The respondents assessed their perceived initial trust towards 100 salespersons shown to them in photographs depicting financial service encounters. The multilevel regression model (mixed regression) and conjoint analysis using the conjoint library of the R program and the STATA and Mplus programs were used to analyze the obtained nested data. Results: The obtained results revealed that among the main qualities inspiring initial trust are appropriate appearance (a gray or blue outfit is desired), white skin color (people were less trustful towards other races), owning a cell phone as a symbol of professionalism, and also a black-and-white background. Gender is also significant, since the research showed that men inspired more trust than women. On the other hand, age is less important than we thought. Novelty: Trust testing using projection techniques is rare in economic articles. The authors did not find similar works, so the novelty will be both the method used and the area of research.