Consumers purchasing new homes – trust and taste building through e-service and competence in the housing market.

Our study examines the issues of how service company and customer experiences meet each other in service innovation, and how trust is negotiated in their interaction. We focus on a customer-oriented interior decorating e-service for clients developed by a construction company. Through qualitative material we analyse what constructs trust in the company service encounter. E-service is seen by the customers as a playful tool for visualisation and decision-making conserning their future homes, and by the company as a cost-effective and affordable tool for their clients. Consumer trust is built through company personnel competence, expertise and integrity, alongside with company brand, reputation and personified customer relations. However, trust in taste seems to be an integral part of home-related consumption. A consumer’s individual taste contests with the ‘average taste’ of companies and industry.