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This paper aims to clarify the interdependencies among three main stakeholder groups and to show how to manage overall service quality in customer care centers.

A framework of the relations among the target groups of a customer care center was developed. A survey methodology with a 360° approach that encompasses top management, employees and final customers as three main target groups was conducted. The sample incorporates 58 customer care centers and seven industries in Germany and Austria. Besides the management interviews, we received 1,580 completed questionnaires by employees, and 2,010 completed questionnaires by customers. Multiple regression analysis was applied on multi‐item measurement scales of the three different levels.

We were able to show that employee satisfaction is the main factor for driving customer orientation. Further management efforts resulting in employee orientation will facilitate the job of employees and increase employee loyalty.

Only 16 customer care centers participated in all three parts of the study.

Companies should consider the needs of their employees and possibly initiate measures to foster employee satisfaction. A strict quality orientation could signal a low level of trust toward the employees. It is essential that firms invest in their employees and apply an employee‐oriented management style.

The study encompasses three relevant stakeholder groups on a broad empirical base, which is unique until now in the research field of customer care centers. Interdependencies among the three perspectives could be revealed.

The concept of “trust” has gained considerable importance in the field of marketing during the last decades and is seen as a key mediator of customer relationship marketing. But upon a closer look at the literature, the construct “trust” is conceptualized and measured very differently. Based on a literature review and theoretical work, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of consumer trust in a service company, which distinguishes two fundamental dimensions. Using these dimensions, it is possible to detect different mediating effects of trust in the customer relationship to the service company.

Antecedents and consequences of trust are studied in a business‐to‐consumer services context in the banking industry. To test hypotheses, empirical data are collected from a sample of 232 retail bank customers with checking accounts. By means of a LISREL approach, two rivalling measurement models of trust are compared and show various mediating effects.

The empirical data support the two‐dimensional model of trust. Further, the two dimensions of trust are mediating the effect of customer satisfaction (CS) differently. In particular, it is shown that “benevolence” has a significantly greater influence on customer loyalty than “credibility.” Finally, beside CS, the customer's propensity to trust also influences trust.

Findings are limited to the cross‐sectional design of the study and the financial industry.

For the management of consumers' trust perception, the adequate conceptualization and measurement of trust is central. The aspect of benevolence is crucial for creating consumer loyalty and trust as well as the building of customer relationships. Consequently, management should foster activities to signal customers to be benevolent partners (e.g. service guarantees and branding) to ensure a high‐quality service experience.

In previous research, trust has been often conceptualized and measured in an inconsistent and unequivocal way. In the proposed approach, the two facets of trust are theoretically conceptualized and measured separately. Thus, differentiated effects of antecedents as well as consequences of trust can be detected.