20 Funny Customer Service Quotes

For all those special individuals working in customer service, there are many quotes out there that will make you laugh about your job. While customers can be difficult at times, some experienced experts have come up with wise words that shine a light on the true nature of customer service. 

These quotes are funny because they also happen to be true. Each quote underlines the importance of excellent customer service, without which your business will be doomed to failure. Customers may be drawn to your business because of your appealing prices or product, but they stay for the service and that means they tell their friends about you. 

Funny quotes can also be inspirational and motivate you to do better at your job. At the end of the day, a customer service representative is the business’s customer-facing role and they are a key influence in how your customers feel about you. 

Now, on to the quotes! 

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20 Funny Customer Service Quotes

1. “All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you’re Woolworth’s.” – Jeff Bezos

This is a quote that highlights the importance of always being able to bring in a fresh wave of customers. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with appealing to an older demographic, you need to keep your offering fresh in order to attract new customers. Businesses who think young, stay young. 

2. “Right or wrong, the customer is always right.” – Marshall Field

No matter what demands your customers place on you, you should always strive to show them how important they are – even when you think they are wrong. It doesn’t make sense to try to meet unreasonable customer demands, but you should never make a customer feel stupid. Make the effort to validate their concerns and demonstrate that your business cares. 

3. “Although your customers won’t love you if you give bad service, your competitors will.” – Kate Zabriskie

Other companies are often rooting for you to fail, and many will be secretly (or not so secretly) gleeful when you mess up. Failing to provide exceptional customer services means you’re falling behind your competitors and losing customers as a result. If customers think they can get a better service from another brand, they won’t hesitate to switch. 

4. “A brand not responding on Twitter is like hanging up the phone on customers. With millions watching.” – Dave Kerpen

This quote teaches us that it’s important to create and execute a plan for your social media customer service because it involves customers seeking help in a public forum. It’s critical for reputation management and ensures your customers feel heard. You wouldn’t ignore customers who call into your business for help, so don’t do the same on Twitter. 

5. “I don’t like customer service, because I don’t believe the customer should have to pay and help out too.” – Jarod Kintz

Here we have a play on the idea that customer service means asking customers to help your business. In reality, customer service means helping customers and ensuring they find the assistance they need from your business. Looking after customers post-sale is equally, if not more, important than helping them before the sale. 

6. “The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works.” – Jeff Bezos

It sounds counterintuitive but businesses must remember that customers don’t want to contact you. If a customer has to get in touch, it means you’ve already failed in some way. The most successful businesses empower customers through self-service, or operate so smoothly that customers don’t need any help. This requires anticipating their needs and fulfilling them before they have to ask. 

7. “A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” – Henry Ford

Some companies can view customer service as a cost center, and believe that delivering great customer service is something they simply can’t afford. The truth is that taking care of your customers will actually boost profits because you will retain more customers in the long-term. If you can provide a memorable enough experience, customers will tell others about you and you’ll acquire even more customers. 

8. “It’s not the customer’s job to know what they want.” – Steve Jobs

At the end of the day it’s up to the business to provide outstanding experiences to customers. The best customer service figures out what customers want and gives it to them, instead of expecting customers to spell everything out. Of course, this is a very hard thing to achieve and you won’t always get it right, but it’s important that you try. 

9. “Customers are like teeth. Ignore them and they’ll go away.” – Jerry Flanagan

This quote warns against the perils of ignoring your customers. Show your customers you appreciate their business and treat them like a real person. If a customer can’t access customer service then they are going to start looking for alternatives. When you offer a product or service to customers, it’s the least you can do to provide them with customer service whenever they have a problem. 

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

Respecting your customers is crucial if you want to deliver a great standard of customer service. Some seasoned customer service reps might find this quote outrageous, but it’s a good one to remember if you want to please your customers. It’s critically important never to tell customers they are wrong. 

11. “Always do what is best for your customer…if the business doesn’t agree…start looking for a new place to provide excellent customer service.” – Unknown

As a customer service rep it’s important to try to work for businesses that strive to do what is best for your customer. Great customer service isn’t possible if the company doesn’t back its agents to perform their best work. Businesses need to empower their employees to help customers or customer service will fail. 

12. “It’s sad that we have become so accustomed to bad service that we’re shocked when we get good service.” – Neil Cavuto

It’s true that it’s more the norm for companies to do badly when they offer customer service, and customers begin to expect poor service. The good news is that the bar is generally quite low and businesses don’t even have to try that hard to offer good customer service. When you outdo your customer’s expectations, they’ll keep coming back for more. 

13. “It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” – Henry Ford

This well-known quote highlights the fact that it’s customers who keep businesses afloat. Without customers, you literally have nothing and your business will not grow. This means companies should remember to place their focus on having a customer-centric culture, which means their employees will be able to stay in their job. 

14. “It takes months to find a customer… seconds to lose one.” –  Vince Lombardi

Businesses spend all this effort in acquiring customers only to lose their customers through poor service. And bad service really can happen in just a few seconds so you need to be careful that you are putting every effort into retaining customers. If you don’t, all that work you put into attracting new customers will go to waste. 

15. “Stop doing dumb things to customers.” – Peter Massey

It’s hard to put it any more plainly – businesses need to put a lot of thought into how they are treating customers or those customers will leave. Don’t treat your customers badly or it will give them an excuse to turn to your competitors. A dumb thing could consist of making your phone number hard to find, or making it difficult to return faulty items. 

16. “The customer is often wrong, but it’s our job to help them become right.” – Jeff Toister

This quote is a little at odds with some of the earlier quotes, but it’s interesting to think that maybe customers need our help more than they think. Ultimately, businesses are the experts in their products and services and it’s the business’s job to help customers become successful. 

17. “Customer service, they say, is dead. Actually, it isn’t. It’s just hiding behind a call center in Manila.” – Timothy Noah

Businesses often outsource their customer service operations overseas in order to save money. This is fine if you can still offer a quality standard of service and you aren’t using agents who are poorly trained with limited English skills. It makes you seem like you don’t care about customer service and you consider it a necessary evil. 

18. “Sales without Customer Service is like stuffing money into a pocket full of holes.” – David Tooman

It’s all well and good making big promises to customers during the sales stage but if you don’t have the customer service to back it up then it’s all for nothing. This means you might attract customers initially but if your customer service is lacking then customers will regret their decision to do business with you. 

19. “Customer: A person who indirectly pays for all your vacations, hobbies, and golf games and gives you the opportunity to better yourself.” – Unknown

Customers make the world go round. Employees have no income if there are no customers around to keep the company going. Everyone needs employment and customers who are willing to spend money make up the backbone of the economy. 

20. “Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game.” – Tony Alessandra

It’s not enough anymore for businesses to offer quality products at reasonable prices. In order to outshine the competition, you have to deliver superior service and make your customers feel special. Service is what makes customers choose your business and stay customers in the long-term. 

Wrapping up

These funny customer service quotes will hopefully inspire you to do better at your own customer service. If you run a business yourself, then investing in customer service is one of the best decisions you can make. 

If you’re in the mood for more laughter, then be sure to check out these popular customer service memes. Remember, no matter how difficult customer service may seem at times, we can always take a moment to see the funny side and focus on the positives. 

What all these quotes have in common is that they get us to see how important customers are to helping a business thrive. Without customers, you’re business won’t be successful and your profits will massively decrease.