It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

-Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia"

Consider everything as a work in progress and don't panic if it doesn't work right yet.  Remember Mosher's Law: "If everything worked right, you'd be out of a job."

-Pablo Guevara

Hey, despite my many research-backed rants on why you should spend more time with customers, the bottom line is that there is a limit, and you need to be concerned with getting customers what they want in an efficient manner.  The trick here is that this should also be applied when realizing when you simply cannot help a customer. If you don't know the solution to a problem, the best kind of support member will get a customer over to someone who does.  Don't waste time trying to go above and beyond for a customer in an area where you will just end up wasting both of your time!

- Gregory Ciotti for HelpScout 

After you apologize, tell the customer what happened.  Stick to the facts.  Keep emotion out of it.  Be truthful, even when your company made a mistake.  The customer may not like the answer, but your honesty will be appreciated.  In the end, a customer is going to respect an employee who is frank and honest over one who evades, covers up, or lies.

- Renee Evenson, Customer Service Training 101

The most compelling selling message you can deliver in any medium is not that you have something wonderful to sell.  It is: "I understand what you need."  The selling message "I have" is about you.  The message "I understand" is about the only person involved in the sale who really matters: the buyer.

-Harry Beckwith, Selling the Invisible

Samsung had a problem.  Its culture was static and inward-looking.  Then, in the early 1990s, Lee Kun-Hee, chairman of the South Korean electronics giant, made a decision that would reshape his organization and create a blueprint for globalization.  He sent a handful of the brightest young employees to far-away corners of the globe to immerse themselves in the culture, learn the language, and build networks so that someday Samsung would know how to supply those markets.  What an amazing investment in the future.

- Verne Harnish, The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time