10 inspiring customer service quotes to motivate your team for 2022!

Excellent customer service doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of strong customer-centric strategies, commitment, and dedicated hard work across the whole enterprise.

Some days will be challenging, but as Jeff Bezos, says, “Reputations are earned by doing the hard things well”. Here are some inspirational customer service quotes and actionable tips to inspire you and your team in the new year!

1.   “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.” – Mahatma Gandhi

The idea that the customer is important is not a new one, but the Internet has brought it into renewed focus. With social media at their fingertips, today’s customers have the power to help or harm businesses profoundly, and businesses had better know it!

Here’s Gandhi’s full quote from 1890:

“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 of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.”

That says it all, doesn’t it? Your whole organisation should be imbued with the idea that the customer must be welcomed, made to feel valued, and be treated with courtesy, respect, and empathy.

2.   “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

This is how Bill Gates, business magnate extraordinaire and former Microsoft supremo, sums up this crucial truth. An unhappy, angry customer is more often than not a vital wake-up call to draw your attention to a problem area. You should be grateful to have this brought to your attention as it gives you the opportunity to fix it before it becomes a major and costly issue.

3.    “Thank your customer for complaining and mean it. Most will never bother to complain. They’ll just walk away.” – Marilyn Suttle

As a customer service and communication expert, Marilyn Suttle, CEO of Suttle Enterprises, knows of what she speaks! Taking customers’ complaints seriously gives you a chance to turn negative feedback into a positive change that will benefit your brand in the long run.

4.   “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.” – Jeff Bezos

Treating guests with courtesy and consideration is a human value that is almost as old as the human race. By extending this same courtesy and consideration to your customers, you start building a relationship and loyalty to your brand. By actively listening to the message behind a customer’s frustrations, you can learn where your business is going wrong – and put it right.

5.   “Exceed your customer’s expectations. If you do, they’ll come back over and over. Give them what they want – and a little more.” – Sam Walton

Exceeding your customer’s expectations is one of the most powerful ways of building customer loyalty. How? Here are some ideas:

• Start off by improving your response time. This is the easiest way to show customer’s you take their concerns seriously.
• Ensure customer interaction on all your channels is easy, straightforward, and seamless.
• Make it easy for customers to help themselves by supplying self-help options.
• Never, ever, make promises you can’t keep!
• Involve your customers by asking their feedback about promotions and strategies.
• Stay in contact with customers and personalise the interaction you have with them.
• Establish a loyalty programme for regular customers that allows them to access discounts and rewards.

6.   “The most important adage and the only adage is, the customer comes first, whatever the business, the customer comes first.” – Kerry Stokes

First of all, know who your target market is. Create a persona of the customers that your business strategies and promotions are aimed at. Then put that customer at the heart of a customer-centric approach that informs all your strategies and systems.

Focus closely on ensuring that your customers experience outstanding CX by personalising the interaction they have with your brand, and offering them stellar customer service. And voilà- happy customers, successful brand!

7.   “Good customer service costs less than bad customer service.” – Sally Gronow

Make it easy for customers to engage with you and air their grievances. Ensure that your customer service agents are trained and empowered to turn negative interactions into positive CX.

It’s really simple – if your customers can’t complain and have their complaints positively addressed, they will take their business to your competitors. And your competitors will smile all the way to the bank as they welcome earnings that should have gone into your coffers.

8.   “Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: If the customer is ever wrong, read Rule 1.” – Stew Leonard

“The customer is always right” is a phrase ascribed to Harry Gordon Selfridge in the early 1900s. It is as true now as it was then. At its heart is the idea that you can never prove a customer wrong without losing that customer.

In practical terms, this means that you and your staff must do your utmost to make all interactions with customers positive, wherever possible.

9.   “Courteous treatment will make a customer a walking advertisement.” – JCPenney

JC Penney, the founder of the JCPenney department stores, established the so-called ‘Golden Rule’ in running a business – “to treat others as we would like to be treated”. Penney’s principles are as valid today as they ever were.

A business should be a principle-centred organisation with values that go beyond simply generating profits. Public confidence should be won through outstanding customer service, fair dealing, and honest value. Employees should be recognised and empowered to motivate them towards the same goal.

10.   “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffet

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has built one of the most highly rated reputations in the business world by rating integrity above all else. If you foster honesty and transparency in your business, your enterprise will have the essential core of a great company.

Remember that people trust recommendations from friends more than any other form of promotion or advertising. Your customers tell people if they’ve had a great experience with your company. Unfortunately, they’re even more likely to tell people if they’ve had bad CX – and that’s how reputations are damaged.

Ready to reboot your CS in 2022? Digital Customer Care Company can help.

We offer comprehensive, multilingual outsourced customer service – including telephone, live chat, social media support, and much more. If you’re ready to delight your customers in 2022, get in touch!