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A customer, also client, buyer or purchaser is the buyer or user of the paid products of an individual or organization, mostly called the supplier or seller. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services.

The word derives from "custom," meaning "habit"; a customer was someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods of the sort the shop sold there rather than elsewhere, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her "custom," meaning expected purchases in the future. The word did not refer to those who purchased things at a fair or bazaar, or from a street vendor.^{citation needed}

In commercial, market driven or oriented organizations, the customer is increasingly seen as the 'raison d'être' of the supplier. This view only gained general adherence in USA from the 1950s,^{citation needed} among others through the work of Philip Kotler. In the Toyota Production System it has been pushed to the forefront of all deliberations, in connection with added value.^{citation needed}

In Europe the position of the customer has been recognized somewhat later, mainly due to the after effects of the Second World War and the necessary reconstruction.^{citation needed}

Since the 1980s the term customer is also use by non-commercial organizations (local governments, hospitals), usually in a top-down effort to institute greater awareness of the goal of the organization: a shift from self-centered to serving.^{citation needed} This shift however is often criticized, as the customer in a commercial organization has the freedom of choice, which is often absent when he deals with public services.^{citation needed}

With the rise of better defined ideas on customers came the customer unions, in general organizations wiith members that help them make choices in an increasingly growing and ever more complicated market.^{citation needed}

Types of customer

Customers can be classified into two main groups: old and new. In marketing, these two types of customers require different approaches.^{citation needed} In general, the expense neeeded for acquiring new customers is relatively high, while the cost of retaining old customers is much lower, although their imnportance is often underestimated.^{citation needed}

A further distinction is often made since the 1990s in internal and external customers.^{citation needed} Internal customers work for the same organization, possibly in another department or another branch. Their leverage is often restricted, but the phrase is use to identify their needs better. External customers are essentially all others.

See also

• Consultative selling
• Customer centricity
• Customer relationship management
• Guided selling
• Service level agreement

References