Human Resource Management Research 2013, 3(1): 16-20 DOI: 10.5923/j.hrmr.20130301.04 Respect Your Customers and Earn Their Trust: An Empirical Evidence Siti Haryati Shaikh Ali * , Norudin Mansor, Zalinawati Abdullah Faculty of Business Management, University Teknologi MARA (Terengganu), 23000, Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia Abstract One of the most effective ways of establishing a quality relationship with customers is by respecting them. The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine the concept of respect and how it affects customers’ trust. Having developed a concrete model, we intend to determine the moderation effect of gender on the whole relationship. The framework of this study is developed from existing literature and empirical study of customers of service sectors in a few capital cities in Malaysia. Data from questionnaire survey of 469 respondents were analysed using Pearson correlation and regression analysis. Hierarchical Multiple Regression was further being used to estimate the importance of each dimension of respect on trust. Keywords Trust, Respect, Responsibility, Understanding 1. Introduction The growth of service sector in today’s competitive business environment is undeniably very important. Service businesses are finding ways to compete against one another. In doing so, at all times business providers are looking for new ways to differentiate their service from competitors. At the same time, service companies need to find ways to retain their customers and thus compete better with their rivals. Regardless of the effort, one aspect remains the same, service businesses need to gain trust from their customers. Extant of literature has discussed various factors affecting trust, but none has touched on the dimensions and effect of respect. Earlier study on respect has been conducted by[1]. However, we feel that the dimensions and measurement in the study were not comprehensive. In order to improve the service operationalization, this paper is committed to provide a strong theoretical and empirical support on respect. Only with strong dimensions of respect, calculative effort in gaining customers’ trust can be determined. 2. Literature Review and Hypotheses Trust is selected due to its importance in building good relationship especially in addressing service day-to day dealings. The role is especially important in a multicultural country like Malaysia. As such, the issue of trust and * Corresponding author: sharyati@tganu.uitm.edu.my (Siti Haryati Shaikh Ali) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/hrmr Copyright © 2013 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved respect are not something that can be taken for granted. 2.1. Developing Trust Trust can be defined as one party’s confidence in an exchange partner’s reliability and integrity[2]. It is be considered as an important component in building good relationship with customers[3]. Trust is chosen in this case based on the work done by[4] which states that trusting the service provider is the most important relational outcome of long-term relationships for customers across service categories. The interpretation of trust varies from one author to another. However, the whole concept does not go far from the inner feelings developed towards one person or organization. For instance,[5] believe that there are three types of trust can be developed in organizations; namely trust in the salesperson, trust in the store and trust in branded products. In the similar manner,[6] describe the concept of trust as the participation of at least two parties, a trustor and a trustee. The trustor is the party who places him or herself in a vulnerable situation under uncertainty. On the other hand, the trustee is the party who places in whom the trust is placed, making him or her as the person who has the opportunity to take advantage of the trustor vulnerability. Besides that, extant of literature have shown how a mixed feeling of trust have developed due to situations and circumstances. For example[7] is more concerned towards the people desire to maintain their respectful relationship. On the other hand, there are authors who can prove the relationship between service provider also include their trust towards the store as well[8][9]. There are studies that show the association between tangible aspects of the store with trust. Those tangible aspects include store image[10] and branded items of products sold[11]. One thing for sure, it is