“If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness — don’t waste the opportunity!”

“In order to survive, the organization must have an objective that appeals to its customers, so that they will make the contributions necessary to sustain it. Hence, organization objectives are constantly adapted to conform to the changing values of customers, or to secure new groups of customers in place of customers who have dropped away. The organization may also undertake special activities to induce acceptance of its objectives by customers - advertising, missionary work, and propaganda of all sorts.”

“Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make! It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers, and benefits for the stakeholders. Market innovation is gained by creating customer satisfaction through product innovation, product quality, and customer service. It these are absent, no amount of advertising, sales promotion, or salesmanship can compensate.”

“If customers leave without a purchase, you have not failed. But if customers leave without a smile, you have.”

“For if one should propose to all men a choice, bidding them select the best customs from all the customs that there are, each race of men, after examining them all, would select those of his own people; thus all think that their own customs are by far the best”

“I always want to know whether the customers are satisfied; customer satisfaction is, after all, my ultimate goal!”

“I'm a businessman. I've made my money supplying a popular demand. If I break the law, my customers are as guilty as I am.”

“When customers' expectations change faster than your willingness or ability to serve them, you can be sure they'll be someone else's customers soon.”

“Solve customer problems and make sure that the customer is representative of a large market and then you will have a pretty good formula.”

“If you want to stay in business, satisfy customers. If you want to excel in business, delight customers.”