Abstract
This paper sheds light on how trust works in professional services encounters. Service delivery often takes place over time and this has led to a focus upon relationships developed during the cycle of service creation. One facet of a relationship is the need for trust to be present. This paper briefly reviews different understandings of trust across several strands of management literature and conceptualizes a novel distinction between the initiatory act of trusting (“placed trust”) and the response of trusting. This conceptualization is then applied to theory on the service encounter, and empirically demonstrated in the context of health care. The answers enable services management from a range of professional services settings, to map out routes for maintaining trust, creating trust and developing commitment.