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"Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves." Apple’s mission through the very words of its mastermind Steve Jobs. Some of the most successful companies have one thing in common – they offer an amazing customer experience. If you’re working on improving your strategy, get inspired by these eye-opening customer experience quotes, to help you foster client engagement.

What Steve Jobs is teaching us is that the secret of truly customer-centric companies lies in the ability to predict their clients’ needs and wants, and to build around it an omni-channel customer journey. To stay top of mind and stand out in competitive markets, you need to evolve one step beyond your customers. Taking advantage of technological innovation to create compelling connections everywhere and anytime.

“Everything starts with the customer”: this quote is attributed to Louis XIV. Even the Sun King was well-aware of the importance of ‘clients’. Unlike traditional business differentiators like quality or price, a great customer experience is not something that you can just buy with big budgets or new methods/tools; it's a competitive advantage that can only be earned with a continous improvement cycle.

How could you start? Learning from companies that have already taken a further step into the Age of the Customer.

Here's our selection of 10 inspirationalcustomer experience quotes, to understand how they can help you in shaping an innovative client engagement strategy. Of course, they are not truth carved in stone, but you can use these quotes to drive further debate and action around your organisation.

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." (Bill Gates) - Mistakes are part of the game. Track and measure to understand what to change, where and how.

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology, not the other way around.” (Steve Jobs) - The customer, not technology, must be the core of your strategy.

“It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money ... It is the customer who pays the wages." (Henry Ford) - Consider customers not just as a passive target but as an empowered partner.

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk ... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” (Mark Zuckerberg) - In an ever-evolving scenario, digital transformation is not an option, if you want to be customers' first choice.

“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.” (Jeff Bezos) - In highly competitive environments, brands are judged not for product price or quality, but for the experience they build around it.

“Innovation needs to be part of your culture. Customers are transforming faster than we are, and if we don’t catch up, we’re in trouble.” (Ian Schafer) - Customer experience management becomes mandatory to keep pace with clients.

“How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?” (Seth Godin) - The conversion path starts with a compelling storytelling across all touch points, from awareness to post-purchase.

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” (Jeff Bezos) - Use customer experience statistics to plan an efficient business and content marketing strategy for your clients.

“Each business is a victim of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than the ability to exploit it.” (Brian Solis) - The fact that you are not planning a technology-aware customer centric strategy doesn't mean that your competitors are not doing it either.

“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” (Mahatma Gandhi) - You are what your customers perceive.

All these different quotes bring to the same conclusion: improving customer experience not only provides a means of differentiating your brand, but also leads to greater customer and employee engagement, loyalty, and retention. Ultimately encouraging a connection that goes deeper than the usual ‘brand-consumer’ relationship.

If you're looking for more insightful customer experience quotes, check '10 Voice of the Customer Quotes' by Steve Bernstein.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 10 Useful Customer Experience Statistics For Your 2015 Strategy

To help you ensure a strategic advantage to your organization, learn about the DCX 7-Steps Checklist crafted by Neosperience, with requirements and insights for a successful digital transformation.