Eric Fraterman has listed quite a few customer service quotes. Below are those that appealed to me –

• Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it.It is what the client or customer gets out of it. -PETER DRUCKER
• If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will. -UNKNOWN
• Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify!HENRY DAVID THOREAU
• Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game. -TONY ALESSANDRA
• Our greatest asset is the customer! Treat each customer as if they are the only one! -LAURICE LEITAO
• People expect good service but few are willing to give it. -ROBERT GATELY
• Well done is better than well said. -BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
• To my customer:I may not have the answer, but I’ll find it.I may not have the time, but I’ll make it. -UNKNOWN
• In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want. -ALICE MACDOUGALL
• You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied. -JERRY FRITZ

Source: http://customerfocusconsult.blogspot.com/2007/09/customer-service-quotes-for-inspiration.html

Kano does seem to be in the air! I have come across atleast 4 blogs in the last few weeks bringing the Kano Model to the surface in the context of customer focus.

A few take aways & additional resources (at the end of this post) –

• the model forces design teams to think from a customer perspective & helps bring a balance of what can be delivered & what is expected to be delivered
• like a healthy food diet, service or product design too should allow for a proper mix of threshold, performance & excitement attributes

Such basic stuff ..yet needs to be reminded yet so often.

Resources:

• Kano Customer Satisfaction Model – http://www.12manage.com/methods_kano_customer_satisfaction_model.html
• Kano model on Wikipeida – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model
• A nice 8 minute animated tutorial introducing the Kano Model – http://www.c2c-solutions.com/tutorial.htm
• Kano’s Methods for Understanding Customer-defined Quality – http://cqmextra.cqm.org/cqmjournal.nsf/2fff9754b9deecf5852566340064a8e6/489c0fea64a3f1838525684700552126/$FILE/RP02700.pdf
• The Kano Model: How to Delight your Customers – http://www.competence-site.de/dienstleistung.nsf/3397D512929D8241C1256AD8004B0027/$File/kano-model.pdf

Chanced upon this article on 1000Ventures. Some take aways –

• “Being good enough, is not good enough – give customers a reason to be faithful.” – Graham Roberts-Phelps
• The Tao of customer value creation — YIN (passive, accepting side) ETDBW (easy to do business with) ..looking at your business from the customers’ point of view, understanding customer perceptions and making it easy for your customers to do business with you. YANG (active, aggressive side) MVA (more value-added) …giving your customer more than you ever have before and more than they expect from you.
• “The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.” – Henry Ford

Source: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/customer_value_creation.html