Notable quotes about customers: Difference between revisions
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| ⚫ | | 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.eu/news/company-news/2018-letter-to-shareholders |website=About Amazon Europe |publisher=Amazon |access-date=18 December 2025 |date=11 April 2019 |author=Jeff Bezos}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | | 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: Apple WWDC 1997 Closing Keynote |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE |website=YouTube |publisher=Apple Inc. |access-date=18 December 2025 |date=13 May 1997 |author=Steve Jobs}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | | 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: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone |publisher=HarperCollins |date=2017 |isbn=978-0062652508 |pages=141}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | | text = Customers first, employees second, and shareholders third.<ref>{{cite web |title=Registration Statement (Form F-1): Alibaba Group Holding Limited |url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1577552/000119312514184994/d709111df1.htm |website=SEC.gov |publisher=U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission |access-date=18 December 2025 |date=6 May 2014 |author=Jack Ma}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | | text = If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs and improving our products and services, we gain strength.<ref>{{cite web |title=2005 Letter to Shareholders |url=https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2005ltr.pdf |website=BerkshireHathaway.com |publisher=Berkshire Hathaway Inc. |access-date=18 December 2025 |date=28 February 2006 |author=Warren Buffett}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | | text = The customer is sometimes wrong. We don't carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say "Fly somebody else."<ref>{{cite book |last=Freiberg |first=Kevin |title=Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success |publisher=Bard Press |date=1996 |isbn=978-1885167187 |pages=269–270}}</ref> |
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| 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=Soderquist |first=Don |title=The Wal-Mart Way |publisher=Thomas Nelson |date=2005 |isbn=978-0785261193 |pages=55 |chapter=The Customer is the Boss}}</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=Soderquist |first=Don |title=The Wal-Mart Way |publisher=Thomas Nelson |date=2005 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |date=2005 |isbn=978-0785261193 |pages=55 |chapter=The Customer is the Boss}}</ref> |
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| 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, Inc. |date=2008 |isbn=978-0596517748 |pages=111 |chapter=Appendix C: The Bad Parts}}</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, Inc. |date=2008 |isbn=978-0596517748 |pages=111 |chapter=Appendix C: The Bad Parts}}</ref> |
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| author = Douglas Crockford, Software Engineer and Architect {{Douglas Crockford/attribution}} |
| author = Douglas Crockford, Software Engineer and Architect {{Douglas Crockford/attribution}} |
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| 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=Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service |publisher=Disney Editions |date=2001 |isbn=978-0786854752 |pages=32}}</ref> |
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| author = Walt Disney, Founder of The Walt Disney Company {{Walt Disney/attribution}} |
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| 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=Business Plus |date=2010 |isbn=978-0446563048 |pages=152}}</ref> |
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| author = Tony Hsieh, Former CEO of Zappos {{Tony Hsieh/attribution}} |
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Revision as of 11:45, 19 December 2025
The biggest needle movers will be things that customers don’t know to ask for. We must invent on their behalf.[1]
— Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon
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.[2]
— Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.[3]
— Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft
There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.[4]
— Peter Drucker, Management Consultant and Author
It also involves romancing the customer and romancing all the senses in the store experience.[5]
— Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks
We needed to build deeper empathy for our customers and their unarticulated and unmet needs.[6]
— Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
Customers first, employees second, and shareholders third.[7]
— Jack Ma, Co-founder of Alibaba Group
If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs and improving our products and services, we gain strength.[8]
— Warren Buffett, American investor and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
The customer is sometimes wrong. We don't carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say "Fly somebody else."[9]
— Herb Kelleher, Co-founder of Southwest Airlines
A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.[10]
— Michael LeBoeuf, Business Author and Professor
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.[11]
— Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple
As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.[12]
— Jef Raskin, Interface Designer and Author
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.[13]
— Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart
Delighted customers are the only advertisement everyone believes.[14]
— Ron Kaufman, Customer Service Consultant and Author
Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.[15]
— Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur and Investor Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur and Investor
The best way to hold customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less.[16]
— Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing
Sham Harga had run a successful eatery for many years by always smiling, never extending credit, and realizing that most of his customers wanted meals properly balanced between the four food groups: sugar, starch, grease, and burnt crunchy bits.[17]
— Terry Pratchett, Author and Satirist Terry Pratchett, Author and Satirist
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.[18]
— Douglas Crockford, Software Engineer and Architect Douglas Crockford, Software Engineer and Architect
Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.[19]
— Walt Disney, Founder of The Walt Disney Company Walt Disney, Founder of The Walt Disney Company
Customer service shouldn't just be a department, it should be the entire company.[20]
— Tony Hsieh, Former CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh, Former CEO of Zappos
References
- ↑ Jeff Bezos (11 April 2019). "2018 Letter to Shareholders". About Amazon Europe. Amazon. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
- ↑ Steve Jobs (13 May 1997). "Steve Jobs: Apple WWDC 1997 Closing Keynote". YouTube. Apple Inc. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
- ↑ Gates, Bill (1999). Business @ the Speed of Thought: Using a Digital Nervous System. Warner Books. p. 5. ISBN 978-0446525688.
- ↑ Drucker, Peter F. (1954). The Practice of Management. Harper & Row. p. 37. ISBN 978-0060878979.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ↑ Schultz, Howard (1997). Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time. Hyperion. p. 250. ISBN 978-0786883561.
- ↑ Nadella, Satya (2017). Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone. HarperCollins. p. 141. ISBN 978-0062652508.
- ↑ Jack Ma (6 May 2014). "Registration Statement (Form F-1): Alibaba Group Holding Limited". SEC.gov. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
- ↑ Warren Buffett (28 February 2006). "2005 Letter to Shareholders" (PDF). BerkshireHathaway.com. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
- ↑ Freiberg, Kevin (1996). Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. Bard Press. pp. 269–270. ISBN 978-1885167187.
- ↑ LeBoeuf, Michael (1987). How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life. G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 17. ISBN 978-0399132612.
- ↑ Gendron, George (1989-04-01). "Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing". Inc. Retrieved 2025-12-19.
- ↑ Raskin, Jef (2000). The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems. Addison-Wesley Professional. p. 5. ISBN 978-0201379372.
- ↑ Soderquist, Don (2005). "The Customer is the Boss". The Wal-Mart Way. Thomas Nelson. p. 55. ISBN 978-0785261193.
- ↑ Kaufman, Ron (2005). Lift Me Up! Service with a Smile: 101 Bright Ideas to Make Your Customers Smile. UP! Your Service. p. 84. ISBN 978-9810527655.
- ↑ Cuban, Mark (2011). "The Sport of Business". How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It. Diversion Books. p. 24. ISBN 978-1626810914.
- ↑ Kotler, Philip (2003). "Customers". Marketing Insights from A to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 43. ISBN 978-0471268673.
- ↑ Pratchett, Terry (1993). Men at Arms. Victor Gollancz Ltd. p. 34. ISBN 978-0575055032.
- ↑ Crockford, Douglas (2008). "Appendix C: The Bad Parts". JavaScript: The Good Parts. O'Reilly Media, Inc. p. 111. ISBN 978-0596517748.
- ↑ Disney Institute (2001). Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service. Disney Editions. p. 32. ISBN 978-0786854752.
- ↑ Hsieh, Tony (2010). Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Business Plus. p. 152. ISBN 978-0446563048.