Customer Quotes & Sayings

Starla, when you work in a restaurant, it's not called 'pie with ice cream on top.' It's called pie a la mode. Try saying it one time."
"A-la-mo," she pronounced.
"There's a good girl," Darius said, grinning. "The next time you ask a customer if he wants some dessert, you ask him if he wants pie Alamo. — Erin O'Riordan

I did everything in my power to give my brokers brand identity and clout in the market. I saw my job as parent to build them up and if I took care of them, then they would take care of their customer. — Barbara Corcoran

People need to understand: Businesses are going to make mistakes. They shouldn't be shot and hung every time. We should apologize for it. We should make up for it. My shareholders paid for it. No customer was hurt, which is critical to me. But I hurt my shareholders, and I wish I hadn't. — Jamie Dimon

The definition of an 'operating system' is bound to evolve with customer demands and technological possibilities. — Virginia Postrel

The oil industry is a stunning example of how science, technology, and mass production can divert an entire group of companies from their main task ... No oil company gets as excited about the customers in its own backyard as about the oil in the Sahara Desert ... But the truth is, it seems to me, that the industry begins with the needs of the customer for its products. From that primal position its definition moves steadily back stream to areas of progressively lesser importance until it finally comes to rest at the search for oil. — Theodore Levitt

Research on the Internet, research what people say about the vintage stores, look online to see if customer service is good because that's really important. Also to see online what other customers say. — Karen Elson

Have always found it to be one of the more intriguing idiosyncrasies of the human condition that a problem that is handled quickly and effectively will almost always serve to generate more long-term customer loyalty than when the original service was delivered satisfactorily. — Richard Branson

One plus one makes two but two monologues do not make a dialogue. Of all the traits, characteristics, attributes and habits of today's customers, the one that has serious consequences for businesses is this - today's customer does not want to be just spoken to. She wants to be engaged in a dialogue. Today's consumer expects to be part of the conversation about the product and/or service on offer. Today's customer does not want to be fed with advertisements. Collaboration is what excites today's customer. — J. N. HALM

2) Asking For The Order Doesn't Motivate People To Buy. What motivates people to buy is when they get that you "get" them - that you understand their world, and have shown how your product/service will impact their company in ways important to them. In most cases, the salesperson that wins the deal isn't the one with the best product or lowest price, but the one who best articulates the customer's point of view. — Peter Bowerman

The service in L.A. is the best. You don't get sarcastic, surly, fed-up waiters and waitresses like you do in England. They're good at their job and they're there for the customer. The only depressing thing is a lot of them have written more screenplays than me. — Ricky Gervais

Their eyes met at the same instant moment, Therese glancing up from a box she was opening, and the woman just turning her head so she looked directly at Therese. She was tall and fair, her long figure graceful in the loose fur coat that she held open with a hand on her waist, her eyes were grey, colorless, yet dominant as light or fire, and, caught by them, Therese could not look away. She heard the customer in front of her repeat a question, and Therese stood there, mute. The woman was looking at Therese, too, with a preoccupied expression, as if half her mind were on whatever is was she meant to buy here, and though there were a number of salesgirls between them, There felt sure the woman would come to her, Then, Then Therese saw her walk slowly towards the counter, heard her heart stumble to catch up with the moment it had let pass, and felt her face grow hot as the woman came nearer and nearer. — Patricia Highsmith

In software, we rarely have meaningful requirements. Even if we do, the only measure of success that matters is whether our solution solves the customer's shifting idea of what their problem is. — Jeff Atwood

Companies cannot really see beyond their current customer base. They explicitly or implicitly do things to protect their current customers. And the last person to want real change is your customer. This is why most new ideas come from small companies that have nothing to lose. — Nicholas Negroponte

When it comes to lead referral generation,
the customer experience is it. — John Jantsch

The customer is an object to be manipulated, not a concrete person whose aims the businessman is interested to satisfy. — Erich Fromm

Quality planning consists of developing the products and processes required to meet customer's needs — Joseph M. Juran

Be very clear about your own offerings so you know exactly what kind of client or customer you want to work with (and the ones you don't.) — Lisa A. Mininni

There are multiple ways to be externally focused that are very successful. You can be customer-focused or competitor-focused. Some people are internally focused, and if they reach critical mass, they can tip the whole company. — Jeff Bezos

Amazon webhosting dropped Wikileaks as a customer after receiving a complaint from U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, despite the fact that Wikileaks had not been charged, let alone convicted, of any crime. — Rebecca MacKinnon

When the alarm bell rings, you'd better wake up and realize that the customer expects more from you today than he did the day before. You'd better find ways to be better. — Gary L. Tooker

The issue is not to ask your customers what they want today, but to try to imagine what the customer is going to want in a world where, for instance, their cellphone is in their glasses. — Jay S. Walker

This is an important rule: a good design is one that changes customer behavior for the better. — Eric Ries

What makes a good salesperson? Let me be clear that it's not the person who can talk someone into anything. It's not the hustler who is a smooth talker. The best salespeople are the ones who put themselves in their customer's shoes and provide a solution that makes the customer happy. — Mark Cuban

Even if someone is already in your market space, ask yourself whether you can approach it from a different angle and thereby secure your own customer base. — Benjamin Cohen

Let's hold insurance companies accountable the right way by making them put their whole customer base on the line. — Ron Wyden

The question is not how to get managers' emotional commitment but why manager's don't give it even if they like their company. — Stan Slap

At work, he pretended every woman customer was a floozy with a hard-luck story who only needed a good slapping. — Tim Dorsey

We've had three big ideas at Amazon that we've stuck with for 18 years, and they're the reason we're successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. — Jeff Bezos

One of the things that gets me up in the morning is knowing that customer expectations are always rising, and I find that very exciting. — Jeff Bezos

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

Are we going to say sorry for our lack of customer service? Absolutely not. — Michael O'Leary

We continuously enhance our knowledge base be it latest in technology, market scenario or customer requirements. — UAE Exchange

In the case of maternal health care, you look at, well naturally, it's the mother who's the customer, who makes the decisions. But in truth, the mother in many areas, in certain parts of India, the mother has very little decision-making power at all. The real decision-maker is the mother-in-law. — Jacqueline Novogratz

Innovation comes from the producer - not from the customer. — W. Edwards Deming

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which highlights customer satisfaction, workforce empowerment, and increased productivity, has come to symbolize America's commitment to excellence. — William J. Clinton

While everyone's focusing on keeping the boss happy, who's focusing on keeping the customer happy? — James Hunter

In the new American ghetto, the nightmare engine is bubble economics, a kind of high-tech casino scam that kills neighborhoods just like dope does, only the product is credit, not crack or heroin. It concentrates the money of the population in just a few hands with brutal efficiency, just like narco-business, and just as in narco-business the product itself, debt, steadily demoralizes the customer to the point where he's unable to prevent himself from being continually dominated. — Matt Taibbi

Start With the Customer and Work Backward — Jeff Bezos

The more a prospective customer clicks on you and your stuff, the easier it is for them to make a buying decision in your favor. — Jeffrey Gitomer

Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it. — Timothy R. Clark

Proper business planning demands that you focus on the self-interest of the customer at all times. — Brian Tracy

It applies in any business. Shoemakers should be run by shoe guys, and software firms by software guys, and supermarkets by supermarket guys. With the advice and support of their bean counters, absolutely, but with the final word going to those who live and breathe the customer experience. Passion and drive for excellence will win over the computer-like, dispassionate, analysis-driven philosophy every time. — Bob Lutz

Just do what's right for the customer, and you'll be okay. — Guy Kawasaki

It's not enough to be close to the customer. You've got to be glued to the customer. — Tom Peters

I think a lot of people overlook the importance of the menu as a marketing tool and a way of communicating to the customer what the ambition of their restaurant is. Not only the typeface and the design, but what is it printed on? Is it cheap-looking? Is it the right kind of paper for that restaurant? — Joe Bastianich

They believed that the customer's exact wishes mattered only as far as they were necessary to capture the initial order. Beyond that, they figured, what an importer didn't know couldn't hurt it. — Paul Midler

In writing advertising it must always be kept in mind that the customer often knows more about the goods than the advertising writers because they have had experience in buying them ... — John Wanamaker

Nasty Gal Obsessed: We keep the customer at the center of everything we do. Without customers, we have nothing. Own It: Take the ball and run with it. We make smart decisions, put the business first, and do more with less. People Are Important: Reach out, make friends, build trust. No Assholes: We leave our egos at the door. We are respectful, collaborative, curious, and open-minded. Learn On: What we're building has never been built before - the future is ours to write. We get excited about growth, take intelligent risks, and learn from our mistakes. Have Fun and Keep It Weird. — Sophia Amoruso

No one bill will cure the problem of spam. It will take a combined effort of legislation, litigation, enforcement, customer education, and technology solutions. — David Baker

Customers are a great way to finance a business for many reasons. First, customer financing is typically non dilutive. They want something from you other than equity in your business. Customers also help you fit your product to the market. And customers will help debug and improve the quality of the product. — Fred Wilson

Don't pitch or shove your products down people's throat. Don't be a greasy salesman. Listen to your customer. — Timi Nadela

Thank you," Simon said. "It's a joke, Isabelle. He's the Count. He likes counting. You know. 'What did the Count eat today, children? One chocolate chip cookie, two chocolate chip cookies, three chocolate chip cookies . . .'"

There was a rush of cold air as the door of the restaurant opened, letting in another customer. Isabelle shivered and reached for her black silk scarf. "It's not realistic."

"What would you prefer? 'What did the Count eat today, children? One helpless villager, two helpless villagers, three helpless villagers . . . — Cassandra Clare

How many evangelism programs have you encountered in which sharing the gospel assumes no relationship with the customer and Jesus is sold like soap? — Reggie McNeal

What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it. — Edna St. Vincent Millay

CUSTOMER: I don't know why she wants it, but my wife asked for a copy of The Dinosaur Cookbook.
BOOKSELLER: The Dinah Shore Cookbook? — Jen Campbell

Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right. And that is why you must seize the control of the circumstance and dominate every last detail: to guarantee that they're going to have a far better time than they ever would have had if they tried to control it themselves. — Charlie Trotter

Each customer has unique deployment needs, and as a result, CIOs value the flexibility that our hybrid cloud offerings provide. — Amy Hood

Understanding the mythology of your partner, your customer and your audience is far more important than watching the instant replay of what actually happened. — Seth Godin

One of the most important elements in the evolution of human institutions is the emergence of the difficult customer within the system itself, the radical who starts to question its very being, the reformer who calls for changes in the way it runs. — Richard Holloway

The ultimate compliment a customer can make to an organization about one of its marketing people is: "I'm not sure whether your sales rep works for me or for you." — Buck Rodgers

There are many advantages to a customer-centric approach, but here's the big one: customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don't yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf.
Jeff Bezos
From 7 insightful quotes to shareholders via letter. 2017 — Malini Chaudhri

If employees need to stay late in order to curry favor with the boss, what motivation do they have to get work done during normal business hours? After all, they can put in the requisite 'face time' whether they are surfing the Internet or analyzing customer data. — Robert Pozen

I've entered the looney bin," I told another unwitting customer, this one female.
"It's always like that around here," the customer replied. "That's why I come, it's like walking into a sitcom that could only air on HBO. — Kristen Ashely

Then one day Chip showed up with the back of his pickup truck just loaded with old metal letters he'd found at a flea market--big, oddly shaped letters taken from various old signs. They were mismatched and rusty and dented--and I loved them. We tacked them up on the front of the shop, spelling out the name that would come to mean so much: Magnolia. The letters were uneven and looked a little handmade and ragged, but it seemed to work. I loved this sign because Chip designed it and made it with his own two hands. It came together in such an imperfectly perfect way, and I hoped people would get it.

To this day that sign is one of my proudest accomplishments. I'm no Joanna Gaines, but I certainly see things differently and love design in my own unique way. That first sign really reflected that for me. I would glow when I would hear a customer come in the shop and say, "I saw the sign and just had to stop in. — Joanna Gaines

Screw the competition - focus on good customer service. — Richard Branson

It's odd to imagine, of course: you pass a car on a lonely rural highway; you sit beside a man in a diner and share views with him; you wait behind a customer checking into a motel, a friendly man with a winning smile and twinkling hazel eyes, who's happy to fill you in on his life's story and wants you to like him - odd to think this man is cruising around with a loaded pistol, making up his mind about which bank he'll soon rob.' - Richard Ford, Canada — Richard Ford

What the fashion system says and what the fashion customer says are really two different things. — Stefano Gabbana

As an Old Navy style attendant, I'm all about upgrading your bare basics and presenting them to your customer as basics you need to have in your wardrobe. — Brad Goreski

My dad continually reminded salespeople that their main job was to help the customer win. When you speak the account's language and frame the sales story around what is most meaningful to the client, you stand out from the competition. Customers see you differently because the words you choose demonstrate a commitment to their success. — Mike Weinberg

What makes someone an artist? I don't think is has anything to do with a paintbrush. There are painters who follow the numbers, or paint billboards, or work in a small village in China, painting reproductions. These folks, while swell people, aren't artists. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artist who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances. — Seth Godin

Chrysler invented rebates, I'm sorry to say. I didn't have anything to do with that. A lot of flaky deals were made in order to give the customer enough cash for a down payment. — Lee Iacocca

The customer service agents who accepted the defaults of Internet Explorer and Safari approached their job the same way. They stayed on script in sales calls and followed standard operating procedures for handling customer complaints. They saw their job descriptions as fixed, so when they were unhappy with their work, they started missing days, and eventually just quit. The employees who took the initiative to change their browsers to Firefox or Chrome approached their jobs differently. They looked for novel ways of selling to customers and addressing their concerns. When — Adam M. Grant

It's like the commercial, "Once you pop you can't stop." Once you pop a pill, you can't stop. They have you hooked and they know it. Like a drug dealer, they are so happy they have won another loyal customer. Not loyal because you want to be, but loyal because your body is now completely dependent on them and their legal prescription "drugs." — Lisa Bedrick

The overall organizational health needs to be measured via employee engagement, culture readiness, business agility, and customer-centricity, etc. — Pearl Zhu

The job can't be finished only improved to please the customer. — W. Edwards Deming

Rule #1: The customer is always right. Rule #2: If the customer is wrong, please refer to rule #1.
-Duncan Howe — Ann Brashares

5) "lost" prescriptions (for example, a customer dropped off a prescription on Tuesday and returned on Wednesday only to find that the pharmacy staff can find no trace of that prescription - it happens more often than you think!). — Dennis Miller

The customer is the most important part of the production line. — W. Edwards Deming

User habits are a competitive advantage. Products that change customer routines are less susceptible to attacks from other companies. — Nir Eyal

A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all. — Michael LeBoeuf

We innovate by starting with the customer and working backwards. That becomes the touchstone for how we invent. — Jeff Bezos

It is well worth remembering that the customer is the most important factor in any business. If you don't think so, try getting along without him for a while. — Napoleon Hill

Getting service right is more than just a nice to do; it's a must do. American consumers are willing to spend more with companies that provide outstanding service - ultimately, great service can drive sales and customer loyalty. — Jim Bush

A "sales process" typically refers to a teachable, repeatable set of steps that you or a sales team could use when working with a potential client or customer to move them from a 'lead' to a 'closed' sales or customer. — Todd Parker

My friends and the people I know understand that I'm going to ask them what they're doing, how they're dating, who they're dating, where they're going and what they're doing. I'm constantly asking those questions and making sure I'm in touch with the customer. — Sam Yagan

Instead, a disruptive innovation typically solves a customer problem in a better, more convenient, or cheaper way than existing alternatives. A disruptive product also creates a new market by addressing nonconsumption: it attracts people who did not take advantage of similar products. But — Roman Pichler

You can't just tell your team, 'Think long term.' It doesn't work that way. When you are starting out, you have to always think about trying to build something of value for the customer: something they can use all the time, something of use. — Ram Shriram

The Apple Marketing Philosophy" that stressed three points. The first was empathy, an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer: "We will truly understand their needs better than any other company." The second was focus: "In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities." The third and equally important principle, awkwardly named, was impute. It emphasized that people form an opinion about a company or product based on the signals that it conveys. "People DO judge a book by its cover," he wrote. "We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities. — Walter Isaacson

Customer research produces bland products. We're producing a piece of art. — Michael Arrington

Treat customer support as a product. — Keith Rabois

Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand or empowering passionate employees and customers, will happen on its own. — Tony Hsieh

While paying attention to positive and negative feedback is very important, it is not enough. What also matters is acknowledging and responding to this feedback. This is how you nurture your relationship with your audience. — Cendrine Marrouat

Everyone is not your customer. — Seth Godin

Biggest question: Isn't it really 'customer helping' rather than customer service? And wouldn't you deliver better service if you thought of it that way? — Jeffrey Gitomer

Service standards keep rising. As competitors render better and better service, customers become more demanding. Their expectations grow. When every company's service is shoddy, doing a few things well can earn you a reputation as the customer's savior. But when a competitor emerges from the pack as a service leader, you have to do a lot of things right. Suddenly achieving service leadership costs more and takes longer. It may even be impossible if the competition has too much of a head start. The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding service. — Bill Davidow

The toughest thing about the power of trust is that it's very difficult to build and very easy to destroy. The essence of trust building is to emphasize the similarities between you and the customer. — Thomas J. Watson

I'm making a case against how money managers are handling customers' money. The objective of the customer is not being met if the fund managers are diversifying their assets into hundreds of businesses. If they do this, they are typically performing close to the indexes. But that's not the way wealth is created. — Michael Lee-Chin

We're all somebody's prospect; we're all somebody's customer. — Chris Murray

We all need to become more customer-focused and recognize the power of marketing to sell more diamonds. — Nicky Oppenheimer

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