Behind every beloved brand is a customer service team at work, ensuring no issue goes unaddressed. And companies that earn above-average customer satisfaction scores see the benefits, outperforming competitors financially.
The challenge is, while companies see the value in building a customer-centric culture, many have a long way to go towards boosting motivation among front-line team members. In fact, less than half of customer service agents rate their workplace as “optimistic and positive.”
That’s unsustainable, and not just for customer service professionals, but for companies, too. Just as it’s important for companies to cultivate customer satisfaction, it’s equally important to invest in employee motivation. That’s because there’s a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer happiness.
See what top business and world leaders have had to say about the importance of service and empathy from our 18 favorite motivational customer services quotes.
Our Top 18 Favorite Customer Service Motivational Quotes
Listen well
1. “Listen to your customers and your employees, they are the most important thing and define your business.” —Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft
2. “One of the greatest gifts you can give is your undivided attention.” —Oprah Winfrey, chair and CEO of the Oprah Winfrey Network
3. “Tone is often the most important part of a conversation, and listening is so much more important than what you say.” —Hoda Kotb, TV anchor
4. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” —Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
Make people feel good
5. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou, award-winning author
6. “It’s amazing what doors can open if you reach out to people with a smile, friendly attitude, and a desire to make a positive impact.” —Richard Branson, founder Virgin Group
Keep your customers satisfied
7. “There are many advantages to a customer-centric approach, but here’s the big one: customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf.” —Jeff Bezos, founder, CEO, and president of Amazon
8. “There is only one boss. The customer. And [they] can fire everybody in the company, from the chair[person] on down, simply by spending [their] money somewhere else.” —Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club
Be patient and kind
9. “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” —Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize winner
10. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States
Love what you do
11. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” —Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc.
12. “Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” —Walt Disney, co-founder of the Walt Disney Company
13. “Motivation comes from working on things we care about. It also comes from working with people we care about.” —Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook and founder of LeanIn.org
Think before you speak
14. “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”―Benjamin Franklin, inventor and politician
15. “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 Buffett, chair and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
Keep trying
16. “If I don’t get it right, I don’t stop until I do.” —Serena Williams, tennis champion and founder of Serena Ventures
17. “If everything was perfect, you would never learn, and you would never grow.” —Beyoncé, entertainer and founder of Parkwood Entertainment
Customer service is a mindset
18. “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.” —Tony Hsieh, former CEO Of Zappos
Take Your Customer Service Team Motivation to the Next Level
Beyond customer service training, coaching and effective 1:1 meetings are key to inspiring team members to bring their A game. In our “Customer Service Coaching Guide” get practical coaching examples from Williams-Sonoma and more.
