<![CDATA[Client loyalty is critical to the sustainability of small businesses providing essential services such as water refilling stations, where regular services and customer trust are key to ensuring repeat patronage. The relationship between service quality and loyalty has been well established in banking, hospitality, and e-commerce industries, but less is known about how this relationship unfolds in crucial, health-sensitive service settings when customers are unable to independently verify product safety. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the association between service quality and customer loyalty through customer trust in a water refilling station in President Manuel Roxas, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. A survey was conducted with 400 customers based on the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman et al., 1988), trust-commitment theory (Morgan & Hunt, 1994), and Oliver's (1999) loyalty framework, using a quantitative correlational design. Spearman's rho correlation and Hayes' PROCESS Macro Model 4 were used to analyze the data. The results indicated high levels of perceived service quality (M = 4.11), customer trust (M = 4.13), and customer loyalty (M = 4.08). Responsiveness, trust, and cognitive loyalty were the strongest indicators within their respective domains. The relationship between service quality and loyalty was partially mediated by customer trust, which accounted for 45.5% of the total effect (B = 0.408, p < .001), while the direct effect accounted for the remaining 54.5% (B = 0.489, p < .001). These findings contribute to service marketing theory by showing that in essential, localized service settings, trust is a key relational mechanism connecting perceptions of quality and loyalty. Strengthening operational and trust-building strategies is recommended to sustain customer relationships for small-scale essential service providers.]]>
