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Great Customer Service Quotes and What You Can Learn From Them

13 min read
May 17, 2024
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Short quotes can be super powerful. They can capture big ideas in just a few words. Whether it's something touching, thoughtful, or just a reminder about something important, quotes are like little nuggets of wisdom.

In this article, we're exploring inspirational customer service quotes. They come from various places, from famous business leaders to everyday interactions. We hope they’ll help you provide great customer service. 

Inspirational customer service quotes

These quotes are like guiding stars, helping us improve our customer service and reminding us why it matters. 

Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a booming business, you have to create raving fans.

Ken Blanchard, American author and business professional

Simply meeting customer needs may not be enough. Instead, you need to aim higher and strive to create raving fans who are so enthusiastic about your products or services that they actively promote your business through word-of-mouth marketing and positive reviews. This approach can lead to exponential growth and increased customer loyalty.

Customer service should not be a department. It should be the entire company.

Tony Hsieh, Former CEO of Zappos

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A strong customer service culture goes beyond designated departments. It requires a company-wide commitment to prioritizing customer satisfaction. Every employee, from executives to frontline staff, plays a role in delivering the best customer service.

Customers long to interact with — even relate to — employees who act like there is still a light on inside.

Chip Bell, Founder of Chip Bell Group

Employees who maintain a "light on inside" mindset create meaningful connections with customers through genuine warmth, empathy, and positivity. This authenticity builds trust, fosters loyalty, and enhances the customer experience.

When a customer has a complaint, use the Italian Momma method: Think of your customer as the little bambino that took a spill on the sidewalk. Channel your inner Italian mother and shower your customers with attention and genuine concern when they come to you with an issue. Just as the bambino who survived his tumble largely unscathed, a customer's perspective of the situation will wind up getting reset. Essentially, the mountain shrinks into a molehill.

Micah Solomon, Author of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service

Providing personalized customer attention shows that their concerns are taken seriously and valued. Taking the time to listen attentively and address their needs helps reassure customers and make them feel heard and appreciated.

Just as the perspective of a child's minor injury is reset when showered with attention and care, customers' perceptions of their complaints can diminish when handled with empathy and genuine concern. This shift in perspective helps to de-escalate the situation and resolve conflicts more easily.

It's much harder to provide great customer service than I would have ever realized. It's much more art than science in some of these other areas and not just about the facts but about how you are conveying them.

David Yu, CEO of Betfair

Excellent customer service is the number one job in any company. It is the personality of the company and the reason customers come back. Without customers, there is no company.

Connie Elder, CEO & Founder of PEAK 10 SKIN

Every business wants to provide great customer service, but only some find the right motivation to do so. Placing customer service at the forefront of business operations is essential. It’s not just a departmental function but the core responsibility of every employee, from top executives to frontline staff.

The best customer service shapes a company's personality and reputation. Positive customer interactions create a lasting impression and contribute to the company's overall image and brand perception.

Sales without customer service is like stuffing money into a pocket full of holes.

David Tooman, Customer Service Professional

Best customer service is essential for maximizing the value of sales efforts. Focusing solely on sales without addressing customer needs and concerns is futile. Ultimately, investing in customer service enhances sales effectiveness and contributes to long-term business success.

Our greatest asset is the customer! Treat each customer as if they are the only one!

Laurice Leitao, Customer Service Professional at SeraCare Life Sciences

Adopting a customer-centric approach can enhance customer satisfaction, retention, and advocacy while fostering employee engagement and loyalty.

Prioritizing the best customer service treatment cultivates strong customer relationships, leading to higher retention rates and increased customer lifetime value.

Good customer service costs less than bad customer service.

Sally Gronow, Services Manager

Providing good customer service is cost-effective and beneficial for customer satisfaction. It reduces the need for damage control and fosters loyalty, ultimately saving money compared to the repercussions of bad service, like customers leaving your business for competitors. 

You are serving a customer, not a life sentence. Learn how to enjoy your work.

Laurie McIntosh, Facilitator, Writer, and Editor at Business Training Works, Inc.

Serving customers shouldn't feel like an endless burden. It’s a tough and emotional job at times, so cultivating a positive attitude is important. Although it’s easier to dwell on the negative interactions with customers, you need to focus on the positive aspects of the job and hold on to them. 

Read more about online communication with customers.

How many times did you make a customer’s day? How many times did you solve a problem, find the perfect product, or help them fix something? Remember that they would probably still be struggling if you hadn't helped them.

Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design.

Clare Muscutt, Founder and CEO of Women in CX 

You can’t rely solely on chance or luck to deliver exceptional service. (Read Why is Customer Service Important?) It requires planning and designing your processes. This involves the right tools to provide the best service and building a strong customer service culture. 

Leaders from different departments must identify pain points and propose strategies to address them effectively. By approaching customer experience with intentionality and design thinking, you can create memorable and satisfying interactions that differentiate you from competitors and foster customer loyalty.

It’s not your customer's job to remember you, it’s your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the chance to forget you.

Patricia Fripp, Presentation and Skills Expert

It's best to achieve this by being attentive, friendly, and helpful. To do so, you need to understand customer preferences and pain points, and strive to deliver personalized service.

customer service quote Sam Walton

When marketing products or services, focus on the benefits customers will gain from using them rather than just listing features. This helps customers understand how the product or service will improve their lives, making it more memorable. 

If the shopper feels like it was poor service, then it was poor service. We are in the customer perception business.

Mark Perrault, a board member and former Foundation Board Chair of Discover Goodwill of Southern & Western Colorado 

Prioritize the customer's experience and feelings over your internal processes or metrics. Delivering a positive customer experience that aligns with their perceptions is crucial. Customer perception is the foundation of business success, and you must be relentlessly focused on understanding, managing, and improving the customer experience to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Customer perception business can lead to increased sales, brand loyalty, and a competitive edge, while negative perception can deter potential customers and damage the company's reputation.

Even your most loyal customers always have a choice about where to take their business.

Marilyn Suttle, Founder of Suttle Enterprises LLC,

Never take your loyal customers for granted. You must continuously work to retain and strengthen those customer relationships, as they can still defect to competitors. Even the most loyal customers can choose where to spend their money. Their loyalty can be lost if you fail to continue meeting their needs.

Customers perceive service in their own unique, idiosyncratic, emotional, irrational, end-of-the-day, and totally human terms. Perception is all there is!

Tom Peters, Best-Selling Author

How customers perceive a company's service is based on their personal feelings and unique experiences, which may not always be logical. Recognize and address the emotional aspects that influence how customers perceive your service.

Customers' overall perception is shaped by their emotional responses, not just by objective quality measures. You should pay attention to and meet customers' emotional needs to create positive experiences.

The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.

Richard Branson, Co-founder of The Virgin Group

Businesses should focus on setting realistic customer expectations. This involves being transparent about what customers can expect from the product or service and ensuring that promises are aligned with what can be delivered.

We are superior to the competition because we hire employees who work in an environment of belonging and purpose. We foster a climate where the employee can deliver what the customer wants. You cannot deliver what the customer wants by controlling the employee.

Horst Schulze, Former Ritz Carlton President

Effective customer service managers must model the behaviors and values they want to see in their team, building trust and credibility through their actions. Customer service management oversees tasks and metrics, sets the right tone, provides guidance, and inspires the team to deliver excellent customer experiences. 

Successful customer service managers recognize that their team will follow their lead, so they must embody the principles of integrity, empathy, and a commitment to going above and beyond for customers.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft

Unhappy customers are not just a source of frustration but also an opportunity for growth and learning. It encourages businesses to be receptive to customer feedback, especially the negative kind, and to use customer experience to make improvements that can ultimately lead to better customer loyalty and satisfaction.

When a customer complains, he’s doing you a special favor; he’s giving you another chance to serve him to his satisfaction. You will appreciate the importance of this opportunity when you consider that the customer's alternative option was to desert you for a competitor.

Seymour Fine, Author

Customer complaints should be viewed as valuable feedback and an opportunity to improve your service. Instead of being defensive or dismissive of complaints, enhance customer satisfaction and retain loyalty. Customer feedback helps guide you towards better service delivery and ultimately strengthening customer relationships.

There is a big difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer. Never settle for ‘satisfied'.

Shep Hyken, Customer Service Expert

While satisfied customers may be content with a transaction, loyal customers are emotionally connected to the brand, repeatedly choose it over competitors, and actively advocate for it. This customer service quote emphasizes the importance of exceeding basic expectations to build strong customer relationships, foster loyalty, and create brand advocates who contribute to long-term success and growth.

There’s only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Sam Walton, Founder of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

The customer is the real boss of any business, no matter who is in charge within the company. At the end of the day, it's the customer's decision of where to spend their money that determines whether a business succeeds or fails.

This quote emphasizes how much power customers hold. They can easily take their business elsewhere if they're not happy with a company's products or services. And that can have serious consequences for the company, potentially even putting its survival at risk.

Funny customer service quotes

All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you're Woolworths.

Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

Businesses must continuously innovate and adapt to remain relevant and attract new customers. This customer service quote emphasizes the importance of staying dynamic, fresh, and in tune with evolving customer needs and preferences. 

Suppose you fail to appeal to new generations or adapt to changing market trends. In that case, you risk becoming outdated and losing your competitive edge, similar to the fate of Woolworths, a once-popular retail chain that struggled to evolve with the times. 

Jeff Bezos' quote underscores the word-of-mouth marketing to embrace change, innovation, and a customer-centric approach to ensure longevity and success in a rapidly evolving marketplace. 

Customers are like teeth. Ignore them and they'll go away.

Jerry Flanagan, State Farm Agent

Just like teeth, customers need regular attention and maintenance. Ignoring or taking them for granted will cause them to "go away" - in other words, they will stop doing business with the company. The quote emphasizes the importance of customer engagement, as losing them can be detrimental to the business. Customers have choices, and if a company fails to prioritize their needs, they will take their business elsewhere.

Thank you for calling customer service. If you're calm and rational, press 1. If you're a whiner, press 2. If you're a hot head, press 3.

Randy Glasbergen, Cartoonist

Customer service representatives should be emotionally intelligent and able to handle different types of customers, from calm and rational to whiny or hot-headed. However, it requires empathy, patience, and practical communication skills.

A brand not responding on Twitter is like hanging up the phone on customers. With millions watching.

Dave Kerpen, Co-founder of Likeable Media

A brand's presence and responsiveness on social media platforms are critical. Failing to engage with customers who reach out on these public forums is akin to simply hanging up the phone on them—it's the equivalent of turning your back on your customers when they're trying to connect with you.

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The thing is, these interactions on social media aren't happening in a vacuum. They're happening in full view of potentially millions of people. So when a brand chooses to ignore or dismiss customer inquiries, complaints, or feedback, it's not just that individual customer they're letting down - it's their entire online audience.

Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: If the customer is ever wrong, re-read Rule 1.

Stew Leonard, founder of Stew Leonard’s supermarket chains

Prioritize the satisfaction and needs of the customer, even if they may only sometimes be factually correct. This quote underscores the significance of placing the customer at the forefront, actively listening to their concerns, and making every effort to meet their expectations. It highlights the value of exceptional customer service, aimed at building trust and nurturing positive relationships with customers to secure their loyalty and ensure their ongoing satisfaction.

It takes months to find a customer… seconds to lose one.

Vince Lombardi, American football coach and executive in the National Football League

Acquiring new customers is time-consuming—it can take months of hard work to build up that customer base. But the sad truth is you can lose a customer in the blink of an eye. This shows how delicate the customer-business relationship can be.

It's a sobering reminder that you can never afford to be complacent regarding your customers. You must keep working tirelessly to maintain those relationships and deliver the kind of experience that keeps them returning.

It’s not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It’s the customer who pays the wages.

Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company 

Customers are like the heartbeat of any business. Without them buying products or services, there wouldn't be money coming in to keep the business running. This quote clearly reminds us that a business's main purpose is to serve its customers well and exceed customer expectations effectively.

Keeping customers happy

The key takeaway from these customer service quotes is that at the end of the day, the customer's feelings and emotions matter most, not just the facts about your products or services. So provide your customer service in a unique and personal way, and always strive to exceed customer expectations.