Customer experience is defined as the overall experience of a customer, with a company or a brand, across various touchpoints during the entire customer lifecycle. It determines how long, or if a customer will stay loyal to the company. No doubt, its importance has been reinforced by industry experts time and again. This article brings to you the top 20 CX quotes by the who’s who of business and marketing.
A Forrester research says, ‘Business success is always defined by the quality of the overall customer experience’. Since it’s the secret juice behind most successful brands, a lot of business leaders have spoken about it. Hundreds of quotes on customer experienceOpens a new window are available on the internet, but a few are thought-provoking enough to make you want to relook at your CX efforts.
Here are the best 20 CX quotes by leading industry experts, handpicked for you.
1. Steve Jobs, Founder of the iconic brand, Apple, and whose last words were ‘Oh Wow’, always worked on wowing his customers as well. Here’s one of his famous quotes on CX:
“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around.”
2. Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in the world, and the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has shared several quotes on business. However, there’s this one that indirectly speaks volumes about the importance of customer experience.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
3. Steve Curtin, an author who likes to call himself a ‘customer enthusiast’ cracks the CX code in an equation. He puts a logical formula to customer experience management which is this:
“CXM = The art and science of coaxing lifetime loyalty from daily transactions.”
4. Shashi Seth, Sr. Vice President of Oracle Marketing Cloud, is a 28-year veteran of the tech industry with roughly 20 years in Silicon Valley focused on the internet space. One of our MarTech Mavens, he spills the beans on the importance of data and analytics in cracking the customer experience code here.
“The secret to developing personalized campaigns that will reach the right customers in the right moments is data. In the digital age in which we live, we must live and breathe data.”
5. Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon. Who doesn’t know him and his customer-centric business outlook? Here’s one of his famous CX quotes.
“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.”
6. Richard Branson, or Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, is a British business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist and the Founder of the Virgin Group. He’s known for his knack for business from an early age, his customer centricity and has numerous books and quotes in his name. Here’s one that stands out for CX.
“The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them—preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.”
7. Mark Floisand, Chief Marketing Officer at Coveo, a marketing expert and one of MTA’s MarTech Maven, shares a cutting-edge thought on the importance of relevance to customer experience.
“Customers and prospects are in the driver’s seat and our job is to enable, not interfere. The fact of the matter is that every single person’s experience is different – and we need to start trusting our customers to build their own experiences and journeys.”
8. Tony Hsieh, CEO of the online shoe and clothing company Zappos and someone who’s not just created the happiest workplace for his employees but a brand that truly cares for his customers. There are many quotes from him, on customer experience, but here’s one that is a must-have in this list.
“We take most of the money that we could have spent on paid advertising and instead put it back into the customer experience. Then we let the customers be our marketing.”
9. Penny Wilson, is the chief marketing officer of Hootsuite and one of MTA’s MarTech Mavens. This quote of her’s is an eye-opener for marketers still living in the comfortable bubble of viral advertisem*nts, which no longer have the same impact on customers, as personalization of marketing campaigns takes the front seat.
“No longer will people accept viral marketing. What consumers are expecting — and craving — is a more personalized, curated experience.”
10. Walt Disney, or Walter Elias Disney, was a pioneer of the American animation industry. His works have won many hearts over these years. He stresses on doing everything so well that people keep coming back for you and that is important for CX as well. Here’s what he said:
“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.”
11. Bob Hooey, or Bob ‘Idea Man’ Hooey, is a celebrated author and an accredited speaker. Through this one quote on customer experience, he makes it as simple as it gets.
“If you are not taking care of your customers, your competitor will.”
12. Steve Cannon, the President & CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, said this during a CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) webinar.
“Customer experience better be at the top of your list when it comes to priorities in your organization. Customer experience is the new marketing.”
13. Clare Muscutt, is a customer experience entrepreneur and the Founder and Director of CMXperience. Here’s what she says.
“Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design.”
14. Stan Phelps, is an Experience Architect at 9 INCH, and a well-established speaker, author and workshop facilitator. He is also a a Forbes Contributor and a TEDx Speaker. Here’s one from him.
“Customer experience isn’t an expense. Managing customer experience bolsters your brand.”
15. Meghan Keaney Anderson is the Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot and one of the MarTech Mavens at Martech Advisor. In her role at HubSpot, she leads the content, product marketing and customer marketing teams. This quote by her, portrays the importance of customer experience in the simplest way possible.
“All the search engine optimization in the world can’t outweigh the impact of a successful and happy customer.”
16. Jes Kirkwood is a marketing consultant for B2B SaaS start-ups. She says:
“Customer experience is one of the two core pillars of customer retention; the thing is, you can’t grow if your customers don’t stick around.”
17. Kerry Bodine is the CEO of Bodine & Co., an author and a customer experience expert. She says:
“Exceptional customer experiences are the only sustainable platform for competitive differentiation.”
18. Kevin Stirtz is an established author and a digital marketing expert. His quote explains why every touchpoint is important in creating a great customer experience.
“Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them.”
19. Valeria Maltoni is a popular writer, speaker and business advisor, whose work has appeared in Fast Company, Forbes, Business Week, Inc. and the likes. Here’s a thought-provoking quote from her.
“The way to a customer’s heart is much more than a loyalty program. Making customer evangelists is about creating experiences worth talking about.”
20. Eric Philip Cowell was a record company executive with EMI and father of Simon Cowell, a businessman, talent manager, television producer, and entrepreneur. Here’s a CX relevant quote from him to literally – always remember!
“Always remember that everyone with whom you have a relationship has an invisible sign on their forehead that says ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Treat them accordingly”
