Customers, Clients and Consumers: Who’s Buying What?

English has lots of words for people who buy things: customers and clients; consumers and users; purchasers and buyers; prospects and advocates. What’s the difference between them?

Customers and clients

In theory, the difference between customers and clients is very simple: customers buy products; clients buy services. When you go to a store or a supermarket, you’re a customer; when you visit your lawyer or accountant, you’re a client.

But in practice, life is a little more complicated — both words are often correct. Different businesses use different names for the same thing, and sometimes they even use both words in the same sentence.

Sometimes it depends on the level of service. The word “customer” suggests a quick transaction without too much thought. So for example, when you go to McDonald’s for a burger, or to the movie theater to watch a film, you feel more like a customer than a client. But when you go to a high-class restaurant, or you have a long meeting with your marketing agency, you feel more like a client. For clients, it’s all about the slow, careful experience and the long-term relationship with the seller.

Consumers and users

A consumer is a person who consumes a product (e.g. by eating or wearing it), so that it can’t be sold to another person. Very often, the consumer is the same person as the customer, but that’s not always the case. When you buy a toy for your nephew, you’re the customer but he’s the consumer.

When we talk about websites, apps, and software, we often use the word “user” instead of “consumer.” After all, when you use Microsoft Word, Facebook, or iTunes, you’re not stopping anybody else from using them too. You’re a user, not a consumer, because you’re not consuming anything.

Purchasers and buyers

A purchaser is a person whose job is to buy things for his/her company. This could be a simple administrative job (e.g. a purchasing assistant spends his/her time placing orders for goods and making sure they arrive on time), or a more high-powered management job (e.g. a purchasing manager spends his/her time finding new suppliers and negotiating deals).

Some companies use the word “buyer” to refer to their purchasers, especially for the more high-powered roles. But there’s no important difference between buyers and purchasers.

However, there is a second meaning of “buyer.” It can describe a person’s role in a particular transaction, especially a big transaction involving lots of money. When you’re buying a house or a business, it’s not like buying a sandwich or a pair of shoes. In this situation, you’re the buyer, not a customer.

Prospects and advocates

If you work in sales, it’s important to distinguish between several types of customer. Somebody who is not yet your customer, but who might one day start buying from you, is called a prospect. When you think there’s a very good chance that your prospect will become a customer, you call it a lead. Salespeople spend a lot of their time trying to identify good leads from the sea of prospects, and then turning those leads into paying customers.

But that’s only half the story. The best salespeople spend at least as much time keeping their existing customers happy. After all, a satisfied customer will keep coming back for more. If you’re very lucky, your customer then becomes an advocate — a person who recommends your products and services to other potential customers. If you can turn your customers into advocates, they’ll do most of the selling for you.

Photo credit: Jodi Jacobson/iStock

Originally published at www.getnewsmart.com.