The best ones are short and tie to something your team does every day. Peter Drucker's "There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer" and Benjamin Franklin's "Well done is better than well said" both work at the start of a shift. Read one quote, then ask your team what it looks like in practice this week.
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Customer Service Quotes for Leaders and Their Teams
These customer service quotes are for leaders of the people who serve customers every day, whether that's a call center, a bank branch, a hotel front desk or a customer support line.
A good quote gives your team a picture of the point you're making, and a picture is easier to hold onto on a hectic afternoon than another reminder about policy.
Use one to open a huddle or to back up a point in a training session, and let your own words connect it to what your team is dealing with this week. The quote sets up the idea, and your example makes it stick.
The quotes are grouped by the situations leaders run into most, so you can go straight to the one that fits. Click Copy quote on any card to paste the quote and the name into a slide or an email.
Jump To: Open a Huddle | After a Complaint | Your People First | Recognizing Great Service | Training New Hires | Using a Quote | FAQ
Customer Focus Quotes to Open a Team Huddle
The first few minutes of a shift tend to set the tone for how your team greets the first customer, and a quote gives those minutes a focus. These work when you want everyone thinking about the customer before the doors open or the phones start ringing. They fit moments like these:
- Monday morning after a weekend backlog, with a full queue waiting.
- The first day of a promotion or a price change, when customers will have questions.
- A slow stretch where the team has drifted into side conversations.
- A new system goes live, and everyone's attention is on the screen.
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"There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer."
Peter Drucker
Management writer and professor
"The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer."
Theodore Levitt
Harvard Business School professor
"Customer service shouldn't just be a department, it should be the entire company."
Attributed to Tony Hsieh
Former CEO of Zappos
"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."
Attributed to Jeff Bezos
Founder of Amazon
"Well done is better than well said."
Benjamin Franklin
Printer, writer and statesman
On the first day of a price change, Levitt's line is a good reminder that the job is keeping the customers you already have, even when they're unhappy about the new number. Franklin's line is short enough for a sticky note by the register or the phone, and it suits the week a new system goes live.
One line I've used with teams throughout my career is to encourage them to respond to every customer inquiry or concern with, "Yes, I can help you with that." It's a promise to own the customer's issue, whether you can solve it yourself or need to get them to the person who can, and it works as a huddle opener because everyone can picture saying it to the next customer.
Quotes About Customer Service for After a Complaint
A complaint that turns personal can stay with the person who took it for the rest of the shift. These quotes help you move the conversation from who got yelled at to what the team can learn from it. They fit moments like these:
- A customer posts a one-star review that names one of your people.
- The same billing question has come in a dozen times this week, and the team is tired of answering it.
- A new hire handles an angry caller well but is shaken afterward.
- A longtime customer moves their business to a competitor and tells you why on the way out.
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"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
Bill Gates
Cofounder of Microsoft
"Customers don't expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong."
Attributed to Donald Porter
British Airways executive
"A complaint is a gift."
Janelle Barlow and Claus Møller
Authors of A Complaint Is a Gift
"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."
Attributed to Warren Buffett
Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
"The customer is always right."
Attributed to Marshall Field
Chicago retailer
For the billing question, open the next huddle with Bill Gates's line and ask the team to list what customers say most often when they call about it. The answers will often point to one fix that cuts the calls down.
For the new hire, Barlow and Møller's "A complaint is a gift" as it frames how you can remain positive when faced with a complaint as you now have the opportunity to fix it. This works best in a one on one conversation, after you've told them what they did well to assist the customer.
Customer Care Quotes About Putting Your People First
Many leaders find that customers get treated about as well as the people serving them. These quotes fit the weeks when your team is stretched thin and you're asking them to stay patient anyway. A few places they work:
- Two people are out sick, and the rest of the team has covered their calls all week.
- Holiday hours have the team working extra shifts.
- A team member snaps at a customer, and you suspect something else is going on.
- You're asking for budget for more staff or better tools, and you need a line for the slide.
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"You put your employees first. If you truly treat your employees that way, they will treat your customers well, your customers will come back, and that's what makes your shareholders happy."
Herb Kelleher
Cofounder of Southwest Airlines
"If you have a happy staff, then you have happy customers and thus, you have happy shareholders."
Richard Branson
Founder of Virgin Group
"We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen."
Horst Schulze
Cofounder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
"Take care of associates and they'll take care of your customers."
Attributed to J. Willard Marriott
Founder of Marriott
"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."
Attributed to Sam Walton
Founder of Walmart
Kelleher's quote fits the budget slide, because it ties your people to the results your own manager is focused on. Walton's line and Kelleher's also makes a good pair for a team discussion. Put both on a slide and ask which one your customers would say you follow.
Great Customer Service Quotes for Recognizing Your Team
When someone goes out of their way for a customer, saying so in front of the team shows everyone what excellent customer service looks like. The quote opens the thank-you, and the specific thing the person did is what people remember. Times when one fits:
- A customer emails to thank one of your people by name.
- Someone stays past closing to finish helping a customer.
- A team member spots a problem with an order and fixes it before the customer knows.
- A quiet performer has gone a month with no complaints and a stack of good surveys.
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"Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise."
Sam Walton
Founder of Walmart
"Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right."
Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
Authors of The One Minute Manager
"The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."
William James
Psychologist and philosopher
"If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise."
Charles Schwab
Steel executive, quoted by Dale Carnegie
"There are no traffic jams along the extra mile."
Attributed to Roger Staubach
Hall of Fame quarterback and businessman
For the customer email, read it out at the huddle, then add Walton's line about praise. For the quiet performer, a handwritten note with Blanchard and Johnson's line may mean more than a shout-out in front of the group. If you'd like to send your thanks in writing, the free recognition ecards give you a place to put the quote and your note together.
Customer Service Quotes for Training New Hires
New team members take in a lot during their first week, and a short line is often what they remember after the new employee policy binder goes back on the shelf. These quotes work on the first slide of an orientation or at the top of a training handout, in moments like these:
- Day one of orientation, before the systems training starts.
- A new hire's first week on the phones or at the counter.
- A refresher session after a run of complaints.
- Cross-training someone from another department who hasn't worked with customers before.
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"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
Carl W. Buehner
Church leader and speaker
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Will Durant
Historian and philosopher
"Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules."
Attributed to the Nordstrom employee handbook
Nordstrom department stores
"Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game."
Attributed to Tony Alessandra
Author and speaker
"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."
Attributed to Walt Disney
Founder of The Walt Disney Company
Buehner's line works well right before a new hire's first live call, because it puts the focus on how the customer feels when they hang up. Durant's line fits the refresher session, where the point is the small habits the team repeats on every call.
How to Use a Quote With Your Team
One quote can open a conversation that leads somewhere, as long as you come back to it.
MARIA'S TUESDAY HUDDLE
Maria runs a branch with six people. After a week of long lines and short tempers, she opened Tuesday's huddle with Herb Kelleher's quote about putting employees first and asked one question: what's one thing that would make this week easier for you?
Two answers came back, a second cash drawer at lunch and ten minutes to restock before the doors open. She had both in place by Thursday, and the next week's huddle started with Richard Branson's line about happy staff and a thank-you.
The quote opened the conversation, and the two fixes gave the team a reason to believe it.
Maria kept it to one quote and one question, and she came back the next week to show what changed. That follow-up is what gave the second quote its weight.
Before you put any quote on a slide, check who said it. Step 8: Leverage Wise Words to Make Your Point walks through how to pick a quote that fits your message and how to check its source.
More for Customer Service Leaders
If your team is building its own rallying line, the customer service slogans page has examples and a way to write one together.
For tools that help you coach the people who serve your customers, start with the Leading People tools. And for quotes that fit a team meeting about working together, see the team building quotes.
Customer Service Quotes FAQ
The questions below address what leaders most commonly ask about the customer service quotes.
Click on the (+) sign below to expand each question. Click the (-) sign to collapse it again.
What are the best customer service quotes for a team meeting?
Who said "the customer is always right"?
Nobody knows for sure. The saying is most often credited to Chicago retailer Marshall Field, and Boston newspapers described it as his store's policy in 1905. An older version, "a client is always right," was already called an old saying in 1884, and César Ritz used a French version around the same time.
Did Maya Angelou say "they will never forget how you made them feel"?
There's no evidence she did. The earliest printed version comes from Carl W. Buehner in 1971, and the credit to Maya Angelou began circulating around 2003. That's why the quote carries Buehner's name on this page.
What does "Attributed to" mean on these quotes?
It means the quote is widely credited to that person, but there's no dated source behind it, like a book or an interview. Every quote without it traces back to a source you can cite.
Can I use these quotes in my training materials?
Yes. Click Copy quote on any card, and the quote and the name go to your clipboard together, ready to paste into a slide or a handout. Keep the name with the quote when you use it.
How do I use a quote in a team huddle?
Pick one quote that fits what's happening on your team this week, read it out, and ask one question about it. Then follow up at the next huddle with what changed, so the quote connects to something your team did.
More Leadership Quotes
Richard Gorham has led teams in financial services for more than 30 years, from retail branches and operations to investments and insurance, and he still leads a team today.
He founded Leadership-Tools.com in 2002 to give managers free, practical tools like the ones he used in his various leadership roles. Every tool here has been used in a real workplace and comes with a filled-in example you can follow.
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