40 customer service quotes to get you motivated

Customer-facing jobs are hard. While some days are satisfying and rewarding, others can be frustrating. Great customer service requires time, constant attention, and not every customer walks away with a smile on their face. In those challenging moments, it's easy to feel drained and forget the importance of your work.

That's why we collected motivational customer service quotes from leaders in the business and original quotes from experts at Zendesk. Read these quotes for an inspirational boost when the going gets tough.

40 motivational customer service quotes

"When I think about great service, it's about how you are every interaction you have with the customer and use that as a way to improve their perception of your organization."

— Jon Herstein, SVP of customer success at Box

“Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.”

— Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos



"Your Support team is the hidden gem in your business. They are there with your customers throughout their entire lifecycle. They are bonded."

— Delores Cooper, senior scaled customer success manager at Zendesk

“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game."

— Dr. Tony Alessandra, author and business expert

"There are no traffic jams on the extra mile."

— Roger Staubach, NFL Hall of Famer



"Sales without customer service is like stuffing money into a pocket full of holes."

— David Tooman, customer service professional

"Success is not defined by the ability to have no complaints, it is defined by the ability to deal with them."

— Mikkel Svane, founder and CEO of Zendesk

"If you work just for money, you'll never make it, but if you love what you're doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours."

— Ray Kroc, former CEO of McDonalds



"To be great at something, you have to come at it with passion, or not at all."

— Peachy Garcia, senior customer advocate at Zendesk

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

— Bill Gates, CEO and founder of Microsoft

"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, CEO and founder of Amazon



"Always keep in mind the old retail adage: customers remember the service a lot longer than they remember the price."

— Lauren Freedman, author and retail veteran

"Don’t find fault. Find a remedy."

— Henry Ford

"People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how they made you feel."

— Maya Angelou

"The customer’s perception is your reality."

— Kate Zabriskie, President of Business Training Works, Inc.



"The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways."

— Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group

"We have a mantra, don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone."

— Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet

"Make a customer, not a sale."

— Katherine Barchetti, author and former owner of K. Barchetti Shops

"It's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better."

— Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and founder of SpaceX



"Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her to solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service."

— Brian Tracy, author and public speaker

"Customer experience is so much more than improving what's not working. It can be about creating more meaningful experiences that transform an organization. Innovating around the customer journey can lead to impressive results and help customers in ways that provide not just fewer ruined days, but incredibly positive experiences that better their lives."

— Jeannie Walters, CEO of Experience Investigators and CX speaker

"The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is that you haven’t given them anything else to care about."

— Seth Godin, author and entrepreneur

"Customers don't expect you to be perfect. They expect you to fix things when they go wrong."

— Donald Porter, VP of British Airways



"Service, in short, is not what you do, but who you are. It is a way of living that you need to bring to everything you do, if you are to bring it to your customer interactions."

— Betsy Sanders, author of Fabled Service

"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, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

"Loyal customers, they don't just come back, they don't simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you."

— Chip Bell, author and keynote speaker

"The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary."

— Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club



"Customer service is the hardest job. But good customer service defines your business and creates loyalty."

— Heather Rommel, support systems analyst at Zendesk

"Customer service represents the heart of a brand in the hearts of its customers."

— Kate Nassar, The People-Skills Coach

"Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet."

— Kevin Stirtz, author



"Make the customer the hero of your story."

— Ann Handley, keynote speaker, writer, and marketer

"Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends."

— Walt Disney

"You can’t transform something you don’t understand. If you don’t know what’s going well and what’s not in the current experience, how will you know what to redesign and what to continue doing in the future?"

— Annette Franz, founder and CEO of CX Journey

"If you make a sale, you can make a living. If you make an investment of time and good service, you can make a fortune."

— Jim Rohn, entrepreneur and author



"People will sit up and take notice of you if you will sit up and take notice of what makes them sit up and take notice."

— Harry Selfridge, retail magnate and founder of Selfridges

"Get closer than ever to your customers. So close, in fact, that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves."

— Steve Jobs

"Your customer does not care how much you know until they know how much you care."

— Damon Richards, customer care expert

"What it comes down to is treating each and every interaction the way you would if a good friend were calling and asking for help. You’d go that extra distance to make sure they have what they need and put in the effort to give them all of the helpful information."

— Nicole Saunders, director of communities at Zendesk

"The customer experience is the next competitive battleground."

— Jerry Gregoire, former CIO of Dell Computers

"There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work ... there are no limits."

— Michael Phelps, Olympic swimmer

Drive your customer service forward with inspiring quotes

Delivering great customer service isn’t always easy. Moments of frustration and low motivation are bound to happen and can make it hard to move forward. Sometimes, all it takes is a quick reminder of the importance of your work. Keep these customer service quotes in your back pocket whenever you need an inspirational kick.