Customer Service Quotes Database

800+ bits of wisdom to delight and inspire your team

  • "You are what you do, not what you say you'll do."
    • Carl Jung
  • "The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people."
    • Tom Peters, Speaker and Author
  • "To keep a customer demands as much skill as to win one."
American Proverb
  • "There is a spiritual aspect to our lives — when we give, we receive — when a business does something good for somebody, that somebody feels good about them!"
    • Ben Cohen, Co-Founder Ben & Jerry's
  • "Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
    • Benjamin Franklin
  • "A man without a smiling face must not open a shop."
Chinese Proverb
  • "You can buy a person's time; you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of their skilled muscular motions per hour. But you cannot buy enthusiasm ... You cannot buy loyalty ... You cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these."
    • Clarence Francis, Former Chairman of the Board General Foods Corporation
  • "Care more than others think wise. Risk more than others think safe. Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible."
    • Claude Bissell, Author and Educator
  • "The single most important thing is to make people happy. If you are making people happy, as a side effect, they will be happy to open up their wallets and pay you."
    • Derek Sivers, Founder CD Baby
  • "It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
  • "Sometimes one can become lost in a big company and lose sight of how what one does truly helps or impacts the end customer. If you are one of those, think of a fire brigade, a line of people passing buckets of water from one to the other from a source of water to the site of the fire. An individual in the brigade may not be able to see the end result, i.e., the water being thrown on the fire to put it out, but the contribution of the individual is indispensable to the final outcome."
    • Grant Bright, Former Project Lead IBM
  • "The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed."
    • Henry Ford, Founder Ford Motor Company
  • "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
  • "Employees who are controlled cannot respond caringly; you need superior knowledge and real leadership, not management. Because of this we specifically developed a selection process for leaders; we don't hire managers."
    • Horst Schulze, Former Ritz Carlton President
  • "Two important things are to have a genuine interest in people and to be kind to them. Kindness, I've discovered, is everything."
    • Isaac Bashevis Singer, Author
  • "One kind word can warm three winter months."
Japanese Proverb
  • "Trust: The reputation of a thousand years may be undermined by the conduct of one hour."
Japanese Proverb
  • "We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job to make the customer experience a little bit better."
    • Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon
  • "A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well."
    • Jeff Bezos, Founder Amazon
  • "There are many who subscribe to the convention that service is a business cost, but our data demonstrates that superior service is an investment that can help drive business growth. Investing in quality talent, and ensuring they have the skills, training and tools that enable them to empathize and actively listen to customers are central to providing consistently excellent service experiences."
    • Jim Bush, EVP American Express
  • "A lot of people have fancy things to say about customer service, but it's just a day-in, day-out, ongoing, never-ending, persevering, compassionate kind of activity."
    • Christopher McCormick, CEO of L.L Bean
  • "Face the simple fact before it comes involved. Solve the small problem before it becomes big."
    • Lao Tzu, Philosopher
  • "Words of comfort, skillfully administered, are the oldest therapy known to man."
    • Lous Nizer, Lawyer
  • "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."
    • Mahatma Gandhi
  • "Always do what is right. It will gratify most of the people, and astound the rest."
    • Mark Twain, Author
  • "If you don't care, your customer never will."
Marlene Blaszczyk, Motivational Specialist
  • "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
    • Maya Angelou
  • "Bottom-line obsession comes from turning the pursuit of money into a God and forgetting the real master your business serves: The Customer."
Michael Shevack, Executive Coach
  • "Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier."
    • Mother Teresa
  • "Great teams need great leaders — leaders who inspire, motivate, instil pride, loyalty and a sense of fun at work."
Natalie Calvert, Customer Service and Sales Strategist
  • "To understand the man, you must first walk a mile in his moccasin."
Native American Indian Proverb
  • "Nordstrom's Rules for Employees: Rule # 1: Use your good judgment in all situations. There are no additional rules"
    • Nordstrom Employee Rules
  • "Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again."
    • Og Mandino, Author The Greatest Salesman in the World
  • "Customers are an investment. Maximize your return."
    • PeopleSoft Ad
  • "Never underestimate the power of the human element. Whether it's assisting a guest with a special request or a friendly greeting from staff members in the hallway, the people aspect plays a key role in guest satisfaction and loyalty."
Ramez Faza, Sr. Account Manager at J.D. Power and Associates
  • "If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours."
    • Ray Kroc, Founder McDonald's
  • "Ritz Carlton Hotel has a policy that any employee can spend up to $2000 a day (without requiring any authorization from management) to solve the need or concern of any of their customers. On his way to Hawaii to deliver an important presentation, a businessman realized he had accidentally left his portable computer at a Ritz Carlton in Atlanta. His presentation was stored on the computer. He placed a frantic call to the hotel and was routed to housekeeping. They had found his computer. Please send by Federal Express, he requested. I absolutely need it tomorrow morning for my presentation. Imagine his surprise when Mary from housekeeping showed up in Hawaii early the next morning to hand deliver his computer. Mary was quoted as saying, 'This was too important to trust FedEx with, so I decided to deliver it myself!'"
    • Ritz Carlton Company Policy
  • "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
    • Samuel Johnson, Poet
  • "Your best customers leave quite an impression. Do the same, and they won't leave at all."
    • SAP Advertising
  • "When a customer complains, he is doing you a special favor; he is 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 The Marketing of Ideas and Social Issues
  • "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work."
    • Steve Jobs, Co-founder Apple
  • "Be helpful — even if there's no immediate profit in it."
Susan Ward, Small Business Expert and Writer
  • "The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
    • Thomas Jefferson
  • "We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for. We didn't want to just sell shoes. I wasn't even into shoes — but I was passionate about customer service."
    • Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos
  • "Businesses often forget about the culture, and ultimately, they suffer for it because you can't deliver good service from unhappy employees."
    • Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos
  • "Our customers call and e-mail us to say that's how it feels when a Zappos box arrives. And that's how we view this company."
    • Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos
  • "I view my role more as trying to set up an environment where the personalities, creativity and individuality of all the different employees come out and can shine."
    • Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos
  • "If we don't take care of our customers, someone else will."
Unknown
  • "The customer is king."
Unknown
  • "A sale is not something you pursue; it's what happens to you while you are immersed in serving your customer."
Unknown
  • "The purpose of business should be to make life better for people."
Unknown
  • "Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your employees."
Unknown
  • "Unfortunately, some companies worry more about broken machines than they do broken people."
Unknown
  • "Professionalism: It's NOT the job you DO, It's HOW you DO the job."
Unknown
  • "A smile is a curve that sets things straight."
Unknown
  • "Trust is the residue of promises fulfilled."
Unknown
  • "Swallowing your pride occasionally will never give you indigestion."
Unknown
  • "Treat others the way they want to be treated. (Sometimes called the 'Platinum Rule')"
Unknown
  • "Respect can not be learned, chased or acquired — it can only be earned."
Unknown
  • "Customer service is not a department, it's an attitude!"
Unknown
  • "When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree."
Vietnamese saying
  • "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

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