Notable quotes about customers: Difference between revisions

| text = There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.<ref>{{cite book |last=Drucker |first=Peter F. |title=Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices |publisher=Harper & Row |date=1973}}</ref>

| text = There is 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Walton |first=Sam |title=Sam Walton: Made in America |publisher=Doubleday |date=1992}}</ref>

| text = The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that results exist only on the outside. The result of a business is a satisfied customer. The result of a hospital is a healed patient. The result of a school is a student who has learned something and puts it to work ten years later. Inside an enterprise, there are only costs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Drucker |first=Peter F. |title=Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices |publisher=Harper & Row |date=1973}}</ref>

| text = Customers first, employees second, and shareholders third.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letter from Jack Ma |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577552/000119312514347620/d709111d424b4.htm |website=SEC.gov |publisher=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |access-date=2023-10-27 |date=2014-09-19 |author=Jack Ma}}</ref>

| text = A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.<ref>{{cite book |last=LeBoeuf |first=Michael |title=How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life |publisher=Putnam |date=1987}}</ref>

| text = Make a customer, not a sale.<ref>{{cite news |title=40 Eye-Opening Customer Service Quotes |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2014/03/04/40-eye-opening-customer-service-quotes/ |work=Forbes |date=2014-03-04 |access-date=2025-12-24 |author=Ekaterina Walter}}</ref>

| text = The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gandhi |first=Mahatma |title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi |publisher=Publications Division, Government of India |date=1967}}</ref>

| text = The biggest needle movers will be things that customers don’t know to ask for. We must invent on their behalf.<ref>{{cite web |title=2018 Letter to Shareholders |url=https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2018-letter-to-shareholders |website=About Amazon |publisher=Amazon.com |date=2019-04-11 |access-date=2023-10-27 |author=Jeff Bezos}}</ref>

| text = You've got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try to sell it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Steve Jobs at WWDC 1997 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE |website=YouTube |publisher=Apple Inc. |access-date=2023-10-27 |date=1997-05-13 |author=Steve Jobs}}</ref>

| text = We needed to build deeper empathy for our customers and their unarticulated and unmet needs.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nadella |first=Satya |title=Hit Refresh |publisher=HarperCollins |date=2017}}</ref>

| text = You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Entrepreneur of the Decade Award |url=https://www.inc.com/magazine/19890401/5602.html |work=Inc. Magazine |date=1989-04-01 |access-date=2023-10-27 |author=George Gendron}}</ref>

| text = Don't find customers for your products, find products for your customers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Godin |first=Seth |title=This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See |publisher=Portfolio |date=2018}}</ref>

| text = We see a lot of feature-driven product design in which the cost of features is not properly accounted. Features can have a negative value to customers because they make the products more difficult to understand and use. We are finding that people like products that just work. It turns out that designs that just work are much harder to produce that designs that assemble long lists of features.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crockford |first=Douglas |title=JavaScript: The Good Parts |publisher=O'Reilly Media |date=2008}}</ref>

| text = As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.<ref>{{cite book |last=Raskin |first=Jef |title=The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |date=2000}}</ref>

| text = If we can keep our competitors focused on us while we stay focused on the customer, ultimately we'll turn out all right.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bezos |first=Jeff |title=Invent & Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos |publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |date=2020}}</ref>

| text = Customer service shouldn't just be a department, it should be the entire company.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hsieh |first=Tony |title=Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |date=2010}}</ref>

| text = Sham Harga had run a successful eatery for many years by always smiling, never extending credit, and realizingrealising that most of his customers wanted meals properly balanced between the four food groups: sugar, starch, grease, and burnt crunchy bits.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pratchett |first=Terry |title=Men at Arms |publisher=Gollancz |date=1993}}</ref>

| text = The golden rule for every business man is this: 'Put yourself in your customer's place.'<ref>{{cite book |last=Marden |first=Orison Swett |title=The Optimistic Life |publisher=T.Y. Crowell & Co |date=1907}}</ref>

| text = Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ash |first=Mary Kay |title=Mary Kay |publisher=Harper & Row |date=1981}}</ref>

| text = It also involves romancing the customer and romancing all the senses in the store experience.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schultz |first=Howard |title=Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time |publisher=Hyperion |date=1997}}</ref>

| text = Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.<ref>{{cite book |last=Disney Institute |first= |title=The Quotable Walt Disney |publisher=Disney Editions |date=2001}}</ref>

| text = They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.<ref>{{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard L. |title=Richard Evans' Quote Book |publisher=Publishers Press |date=1971}}</ref>

| text = 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.<ref>{{cite news |title=Richard Branson on How to Attract Customers |url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/richard-branson-on-how-to-attract-customers/226639 |work=Entrepreneur |date=2013-05-13 |access-date=2023-10-27 |author=Richard Branson}}</ref>

| text = Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for.<ref>{{cite book |last=Drucker |first=Peter F. |title=Innovation and Entrepreneurship |publisher=Harper & Row |date=1985}}</ref>

| text = The best way to hold customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kotler |first=Philip |title=Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2003}}</ref>

| text = Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cuban |first=Mark |title=How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It |publisher=Diversion Books |date=2011}}</ref>

| text = We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stone |first=Brad |title=The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=2013}}</ref>

| text = Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gates |first=Bill |title=Business @ the Speed of Thought |publisher=Warner Books |date=1999}}</ref>

| text = If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stone |first=Brad |title=The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=2013}}</ref>

| text = It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buffett |first=Mary |title=The Tao of Warren Buffett |publisher=Scribner |date=2006}}</ref>

| text = The best customer service is if the customer doesn't need to call you, doesn't need to talk to you. It just works.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stone |first=Brad |title=The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=2013}}</ref>

| text = If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs and improving our products and services, we gain strength.<ref>{{cite web |title=2005 Shareholder Letter |url=https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2005ltr.pdf |website=BerkshireHathaway.com |publisher=Berkshire Hathaway |access-date=2023-10-27 |date=2006-02-28 |author=Warren Buffett}}</ref>

| text = If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Customer Experience Is The Future Of Marketing |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/10/13/customer-experience-is-the-future-of-marketing/ |website=Forbes |publisher=Forbes Media |access-date=2025-12-24 |date=2015-10-13 |author=Daniel Newman}}</ref>

| text = Delighted customers are the only advertisement everyone believes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaufman |first=Ron |title=Uplifting Service |publisher=Evolve Publishing |date=2012}}</ref>