We never thought of it as customer service. We just treat people how we would want to be treated.

Strebel contrasts a formal, transactional idea of “customer service” with an ethical, relational approach grounded in the Golden Rule. The point is that good service is not primarily a scripted corporate function but a habit of empathy: imagining oneself in the other person’s position and acting accordingly. The quote also implies that organizations can lose something when they professionalize care into a department or metric—what matters is a culture where respect and consideration are ordinary, not performative. Read this way, the line advocates for values-driven practice: consistency, humility, and attentiveness as the foundation of trust and long-term loyalty.