Notable quotes about customers
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
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.