Customer service is widely recognized as an key aspect of business success.
However, one needs to know who one's customer is, before one can start serving them.

Some people believe that the users of one's product or service are customers. By this definition:
- The customers of a children's book publisher are the children who read the books.
- The customers of a free-to-air TV station like STV are the people who tune in to watch their programmes.
- The customers of an ad-supported website like Google or Nairaland are the people who use it for free.

However, I believe that a customer is someone who put money into your hands or bank account. That is:
- The customers of a children's book publisher are the parents that buy the books for their kids.
- The customers of a free-to-air TV station are the advertisers that sponsor its programmes.
- The customers of an ad-supported website are its advertisers or advertising networks it belongs to!

In other words, you are not my customer unless you are responsible for my revenue. Is this right?

custom as the word goes means to do something regularly or being part of you, ur customer could be those that bring money on one hand like you said and also those that patronise u on the other hand.

Lets look at it this way, if parents buy books for their children by paying for it, and the children in turn refuses to study or read those books, what do u think would happen? do u think parents would continue throwing away money?

Same thing applies to other businesses, if u people advertise and no one takes time to watch or read the advert, the products wouldnt be known and sales will be low, if we dont visit ur web site, the interest wouldnt be there to want to invest or tell others about it.

If we dont visit ur site, we wouldnt see adverts and those bringing money woukd stop cos they dont get the expected result.

Seun:

Customer service is widely recognized as an key aspect of business success.
In other words, you are not my customer unless you are responsible for my revenue. Is this right?

Seun, we are indirectly responsible for your revenue as we produce the volume that makes you attractive to advertisers.

You know how much MySpace sold for? Over $500Million - this could only happen as a result of the huge volume of 'customers' that pulled in the advertisers and subsequent investors.

[b]PS - [/b]I think Nairaland has enough users to where you can begin to invite quality businesses and/or politicians (or any other interested group for that matter) that are looking to reach Nigerians from across the diaspora for a little fee

@Seun,

Seun:

In other words, you are not my customer unless you are responsible for my revenue. Is this right?

You can definitely look at it in these terms but you won’t unearth the intricate web of associations that tells the full story. For instance, your definition does not address the issue of Pester Power which is when children repeatedly nag their parents to purchase products and/or services that these parents wouldn’t ordinarily consider. Toy manufacturers all over the world are fully aware of this power. They not only arrange focus groups comprising their target segment (children), but also direct advertising communication at these children.

Moving to the matter of customers, delineation is necessary. Customers are those who purchase goods and services while consumers are the ultimate end-users of these goods and services. Therefore, customers can also be consumers while consumers are not always customers. Going by the purchase of children’s books you mentioned, the children are the consumers (end-users) while their parents are customers. Another example: If you buy lingerie for your girlfriend or wife, you are a customer. If you also wear these items to satisfy your sexual proclivities, you immediately become a consumer as well.

This site provides what is called a pure intangible service. As membership is free, all those who join (in other words, make the effort to register) are your customers. They also double as consumers of the service. Even though no monetary investment was made, our continual non-monetary commitment keeps this site running. It is this commitment that guarantees your income from advertisers. Were your members to go elsewhere, so also would your advertising revenue. Of this be in no doubt. Therefore, your primary focus should be on these members who (in our roundabout manner) ensure your steady flow of income. I find it necessary to point this out because at another time, you were vociferous in your refusal to accept that we are your customers. Customers do not always have to show commitment by parting with money (cost to customer/consumer). Our commitment to Nairaland is demonstrated through several non-monetary costs such as convenience, time/effort and other costs to us of a psychic nature.

You provide what I think is a superior service because it directly addresses the strong need of many (especially those outside Nigeria) who want to keep in touch with the goings-on back home, meet others, seek advice, and expose their core beliefs on a broad range of issues to challenge and/or endorsement. The mistake you are making thus far is your stance on the position of this site’s members in the general scheme of things. The sooner you begin to see us as the customers/consumers that we are, the sooner you can better articulate your business model to ensure an even greater flow of income.

Hi Seun i will limit myself to your last question. Who is my Customer? Strangely this is usually the starting point where we begin our Customer service training course "Achieving Excellence in Customer service".

As you rightly noted, if you don't know your customer(s), you can't serve them.

Customers are simply those to whom you provide one form of service or another. Whether you receive revenue in return or not, is not a determinant of who your customer is.

Customers are divided into internal and external customers. unfortunately, most of the time, people only limit their description of who a customer is to the external ones.

For example a receptionist receives a visitor at the lobby. The visitor is there to see Mr A who works for the company. The receptionist greets the visitor properly, offers the visitor a cup of coffee, and tells the visitor Mr A will see you shortly but refuses to tell Mr A that there is a visitor waiting at the lobby for him.

What is missing is that she also needs "to serve" Mr A properly by providing information as at when due. The visitor is the external customer while Mr A is the internal visitor who also requires the service of the receptionist.

This is very helpful and often highlighted in organisations that run along team structures as processes are often interlinked and if one part is lacking, it affects the whole structure.

In other words, you are not my customer unless you are responsible for my revenue. Is this right?

My bad. I meant to say, "you are not my customer unless you are directly responsible for my revenue. That is, unless you are the one who makes the decision to pay (or not to pay) me money.

Nutter has rightly identified the distinction between customer and consumer, but his desire to be treated as a king on Nairaland has led him to insist that he is a customer of Nairaland when he's not. My proper understanding of the difference between a site user and a customer is one reason why I make money from this site.

My customer is Google. Google is ready to pay me to display its own customers' ads on my site. The more the traffic I can deliver, the more my customer (Google) willing to pay, which is why I care about the traffic this site recieves. My customer does not like to display its site on dirty or useless pages. So I guide the discussion in a direction that favors my customer (Google). If your posts are harmful to my customer - dirty or pointless - you get banned!

Dictionary.com Says A Customer Is:
- "One that buys goods or services."
- "A person or business that purchases a commodity or service."
- "Someone who pays for goods or services"

If you don't pay me for any good or service, you're not my customer. It's that simple!

No matter how much the visitors of this site love Nairaland, I cannot use them to pay for hosting. I cannot use their love to pay for Internet access or buy ice cream. For business to be sustained, I need money. The person that makes the decision to give me cash, write me a check, or wire money into my account is a the customer.

So why should I, as a businessman, care about the members of the my forum? Because without members, I cannot generate much content. And without content, I cannot generate traffic. And without traffic, my customer (the advertising network) won't be able to satisfy its own customers by driving traffic to their websites. It's so simple!

Why should a school proprietor care about the way her school treats students? If students are mistreated, they will complain to their parents and if the complaints reach a certain level the parents will withdraw them from the school. Same logic applies to a publisher of childrens' books. If children hate your book, parents won't buy it.

Consumers are only important to the extent that they are important to the goals of the customer!

Just so this doesn’t become overly prolonged, see this article from a Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/1999/06/21/smallb2.html

The article reads in part: “As you plan your loyalty system, start by outlining the distribution path by which your products and services get to the market and consider each member of that distribution path your "customer," too.”

And,

“Whenever you're creating an overall loyalty strategy for your company, you need to be sensitive to all of those "intermediate customers" who are part of your company's distribution chain. If your company fails to meet the needs of any of these critical links in the customer chain, it will surely affect the satisfaction and loyalty of the end customer.”

A customer is someone who purchases or rents something from an individual or organisation.


e.g If you are trying to sell a service to a hospital every staff and patients in the hospital are your customers.


Definition of Consumer

refers to a particular individual who acquires or imports property or a service for his or her personal consumption, use, or enjoyment, or for the personal consumption, use, or enjoyment of another individual at the particular individual's expense. The particular individual does not use the property or service in commercial activity or to make an exempt supply.

Nutter, you're making this personal, but it needs not me. The challenge to my authority is unecessary.

You are saying that every free user of Google and Yahoo search and email is a customer. That every couch potato is a TV network customer. That every random teenager that stumbles upon my site is a Nairaland customer. That every Nigerian that uses a pirated copy of Microsoft Windows is a Microsoft customer. That's absurd.

Apart from being plainly wrong - "a customer has to purchase something" - it's not practical. You cannot provide excellent customer service to someone who is not contributing directly to your bottom line. That's not customer service, that's parasitism. No one can afford to bend backwards to serve someone who just chops for free.

You have seen my take as an attempt to obtain ‘special’ treatment for members instead of seeing the ultimate goal of the further development of your business. I have also provided a link to a business article which gives credence to my opinion on the customer-chain. I’m surprised you didn’t make any reference to it in your last entry. Didn’t you read it?

Seun:

Customer service is widely recognized as an key aspect of business success.
However, one needs to know who one's customer is, before one can start serving them.

Some people believe that the users of one's product or service are customers. By this definition:
- The customers of a children's book publisher are the children who read the books.
- The customers of a free-to-air TV station like STV are the people who tune in to watch their programmes.
- The customers of an ad-supported website like Google or Nairaland are the people who use it for free.

However, I believe that a customer is someone who put money into your hands or bank account. That is:
- The customers of a children's book publisher are the parents that buy the books for their kids.
- The customers of a free-to-air TV station are the advertisers that sponsor its programmes.
- The customers of an ad-supported website are its advertisers or advertising networks it belongs to!

In other words, you are not my customer unless you are responsible for my revenue. Is this right?

hmmm cool

Keep editing my posts, Seun. That's the perfect way to conduct a debate.

That's because you're trying to turn the debate into a brawl.

@Seun,

On this thread I have not uttered one insulting or uncharitable word. Not one. I have only spoken the truth. You, however, were the one who maliciously accused me falsely. To your mind, raising views contrary to yours = brawling. I hear you. Hopefully, the time will come when you will begin to value contrary opinions instead of basking in the false security that is provided by people who reply to your every post with a smiley, regardless of how inapplicable your opinion is to theory or practice.

Ultimately, you seem to be unable to concede gracefully when you are proved wrong. That is your failing, not mine. Now, go ahead and edit! You know you want to.

You need to take a sleeping pill or something. You messed up my thread.

I think you guys should take it easy on yourselves. I think we are your customers indirectly, since the success of your business depends largely on the traffic you attract. That implies that without us your business won't be able to expand and therefore you need more of us to make more money. But if we are not customers then what are we ? .
Honestly i think its all kind of mutual.Since i think you are offering on us a service as well. I understand that you are a business man and you are more concerned about the people that put money in your pocket. But would it have been possible without us??

Anything you mind can conceive, you can achieve

Yes as Nutter rightly said, Consumers do not necessarily have to exchange monetary units before they can be qualified as customers, they can also be those that participate in service rendering, such as contribution to a source of the primary source of income by participating directly to the revenue generating process.

Its like a tv channel, the audience to that particular tv channel, are the customers of that tv channel, because they contribute to creating the revenue of that tv station by watching that tv channel. Although the revenue is generated through the means of advertisement, but who would advertise without the existence of the tv audience in the first place?

So the audience create revenues for that tv channel and thus the same apply to this forum, whereby the forum members are the customers, that aid in generating revenue through showing interest in the advertisement on this forum. If they do not show interest in the advertisement, would you generate revenue? I doubt so,

My customers are the private sector,public sectors,government,manufacturing coys,Oil and gas etc

Yes as Nutter rightly said, Consumers do not necessarily have to exchange monetary units before they can be qualified as customers

The dictionary states otherwise. A customer is someone who pays you for a service rendered.

Its like a tv channel, the audience to that particular tv channel, are the customers of that tv channel

Absolutely wrong. Unless you are a paying subscriber to a TV channel, you're not their customer.
For free-to-air television, the advertisers are the customers. You cannot pay your employees with 'audience'!

So the audience create revenues for that tv channel and thus the same apply to this forum, whereby the forum members are the customers, that aid in generating revenue through showing interest in the advertisement on this forum. If they do not show interest in the advertisement, would you generate revenue? I doubt so,

This is faulty logic. Unless I eat in the morning, I would not be able to run my business. Does that make all farmers my customers? No! Unless burglars refrain from stealing my server, I won't be able to run this website. Does that make burglars my customers? Hell no! Without Internet access and an office, I would not be able to manage my website. Does that make my landlord and ISP my customers? Definitely not!

What belongs to everybody belongs to nobody. If we are all customers, then there are no customers. What separates a customer from the rest of the world is the money he/she puts in your bank account. Period.

OFF TOPIC BUT PLS ANSWER AND DON'T INSULT ME.

Seun how does Google pay you. By web or do they send u a check in nigeria? Just curious.

@ Seun,

Whoever told you that payment must always be associated with [b]monetary [/b]exchange ?

what an interesting topic,  here's an ex·cerpt from a chat conversation i had with a friend. im shollsman, and xterxone's nairaland id is iam_seun


Shollsman: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-19769.0.html
Shollsman: tell me what u think about the topic

xterzone: that is interesting, funny enough: iv never bared taught resource on it, but d guy kind of has a point, /

Shollsman: but na the users dey create the link to the advertisers

xterzone: i think its ol about differentiating users from customers, /

Shollsman: did u see the guy that talked about toys, the customer might seem like the parent that bought the toy, but its actually the baby, thats y toy shops are always loyal to children and their ads targeted to them

xterzone: users consume, customers pay,  a customer can (or m ay not be a customer), d manufacturer however values both users n customers, because either drives, brings, or generates revenue, /
xterzone: the parent in that case is d customer, d baby d user, /
xterzone: if u buy a book 4 yourself: you're d customer n user, /
xterzone: again: one customer can generate many users, n stimulate many buyers to become customers n generally increase d revenue base of the manufacturer, /
xterzone: for example:
xterzone: if u buy a book (you're d customer n user), u give mi n ezra 2 read(we both become users too), we like d book n decide 2 own a copy too, when we get our copies(we both each become customers) n d chain of spread continues, /

Shollsman: simple qquestion. .who is the customer for a skuul? the parent or the student ??

xterzone: d parent, /


xterzone: wot d forum question borders on in my own mind is ds: "we all so often confuse users(benefactors) n customers"
xterzone: let mi refine wot i said earlier:
xterzone: its a case for distinction between customer n end-user, /
xterzone: end-user(s), i mean, /

Shollsman: okay  i get,  who should you be loyal to, the customer or the user ??

xterzone: that is a controversial question, /
xterzone: i will however answer looking at d ground 2 avoid any pithole, /
xterzone: Manufacturers r smart n work n base deir overall marketing strategy on human behavioural pattern n physcology, /
xterzone: like i earlier said: Both Customers n End-user(s) drive sales, /
xterzone: So my answer, /
xterzone: Manufacturers r loyal not to Customers or End-Users, /
xterzone: But to:
xterzone: ANYTHING DAT DRIVE SALES, /

Shollsman: okay,  last question,  who should u be more loyal to,  the customer or the end user ??

xterzone: ANYTHING DAT DRIVE SALES, /
xterzone: Anything or Anyone or any condition or any innovative marketing, beta put, /
xterzone: if making a clown doll will make children happy(AND MOST IMPORTANTLY DRIVE SALES), then lets produce it in large quantities n act like we love children so much, /

Quite evasive to straightforward answer, nevertheless, as far as I know the qualifications of a customer does not only involve monetary affiliations.


According to "heehawmarketing" a blog in a post "Brewing Debate, User vs. Consumer", who I agree to, he says and I quote.

A USER is a person who uses your product or service.

A CONSUMER is someone who consumes your brand. For example, the consumer may be on different levels of the purchasing cycle, including pre-purchase. A consumer is not necessarily a user or a customer. They may just not be there, yet. The consumer absorbs some aspect of your brand, whether it's the product itself, your brand messaging, their sister-in-law's experience, general word-of-mouth, overall impression of brand, what charities you are involved with, some accounting scandal they read about in the paper, etc.

The point is a consumer is not just a customer or a user, because it is also a potential customer, or a former customer you've already lost. Only using the terms customer or user immediately eliminates your potential growth areas.


According to another blog, "consumerpop" in a post titled "Consumer vs. Customer" it says and I agree and quote

Customers buy the products you make from you and consumers buy the products from the customers and use the products. Thus, retailers are your customers and the people who hopefully will love and embrace your products with passionate fervor are your consumers. Although there are customer marketing folks at CPG companies and brand marketers partner with sales to meet customer needs, the primary focus of brand management is consumer marketing. This is the lens through which I view my definitions.

Certainly you must understand and respect your customers and their needs. However, if you do not create products that delight the consumer and you don't make consumers aware of your delightful products through clever marketing built on true insight into the hearts and minds of your consumers then you will not have the opportunity to meet your customer needs. Because even if you paid a boatload of slotting and managed to get on every grocery shelf in America, if it doesn't turn, it will be red tagged and sitting in a clearance bin in a matter of weeks.

If consumers demand your product, customers will buy your product. If your consumer and customer are one in the same it just makes your job a bit easier. Even if you are in the B2B space and the ultimate consumers of your products have no say in the choice (I'm thinking things like office furniture or software that gets deployed across companies to thousands of users) - in this day and age, you cannot think you can continue to sell a product that doesn't please the end user. Trust me - they'll blog about it, they'll post it on a compliant website, they'll find another job where they aren't forced to use stuff that just doesn't work.

If you make consumers happy you make customers happy. If you make customers happy then you are doing something right and your business should be making money. Everybody wins. But only if you make the consumer happy. I'm all about making the consumer happy. And that's why I blog about them.

Nice One, /

Very Interesting Topic, /

To further butress ds point, Shollzman n I ad ds further Chat.

**********************************************************************************************
*************************************************************************************
**************************************************************************

[b]chatwitshola: nice one
chatwitshola: final question:
xterzone: last must be different from final den, /
xterzone: bring it on, /
chatwitshola: if a child points to a toy and says daddy i want this thing, and the father pays for it . , who is the customer
xterzone: dats a crafty one, /
xterzone: realizing dat d question makes mi understand somethings much more beta, /
xterzone: like i said: Manufacturers shld focus on Anything or Anyone (n ol on my list) dat drives sales, /
xterzone: in ds case now, d child drove d sales (from d point of view of d Manufactures Environment - as from an outsiders view) d father however paid for it,
xterzone: Again: d father is d customer, d child d end-users, /
xterzone: Reinforcing my earlier point, d manuf. can not afford 2 focus on d end-user alone or d customers alone, coz either could actually drive sales, /
chatwitshola: if a child points to a toy and says daddy i want this thing, and the father pays for it . , who is the customer
xterzone: focusing on either of doz things i earlier mentioned is like focusing on some subset, /
xterzone: Anything or Anyone or any condition or any innovative marketing (n odas dat further taught process might reveal in d future) r ol part of a universal Class of Objects dat drive sales, d Universal Class as a whole is wot d manuf.shld focus on and just work on factors dat might affect any from time to time based on a given circumstance, d ultimate goal being 2 generate revenue, /
xterzone: ur last question, did d father get something else oda dan wot d child asked 4, /
xterzone: some basic definitions might help:
xterzone: Customer: Pays 4 goods and services
xterzone: End-Users: user, benefactor of goods and or services, can also be or may not be d Customer, /
xterzone: Both along wit oda factors drive sales, /
xterzone: d Manuf. shld focus on Factor(s) dat drive sales, /
xterzone: and be loyal 2 such factors, /
xterzone: look at ds scenario, /
xterzone: On a normal Monday,
xterzone: Ran just started pouring abruptly, /
chatwitshola: ,
xterzone: a sharp marketer will quickly make Umbrellas available for sale, /
xterzone: coz d rain in ds case is d current factor dat can drive sales, /
xterzone: people get 2 buy, /
chatwitshola: nice one ,
xterzone: do u call d rain(analogical 2 d babies in ur earlier) d customer, /
chatwitshola: nice analogy,
chatwitshola: cisa at worrk
xterzone: d manuf. shld be focused 2 be attentive n loyal 2 ol such factors dat can drive sales, /
chatwitshola: nice one, i'll post the first part of the chat,
xterzone: d people buyin d umbrellas r definitely d customers n d rain (d something in d case) drivin d sales, /
chatwitshola: then you can explain ur point after that
xterzone: k!
xterzone: d customers r d end-users 2 in ds case, /[/b]

**************************************************************************
*************************************************************************************
**********************************************************************************************

Reations pls, /

I think the analogy of the rain does not stand. Why?

Well environmental factors that drive demand does not equate with an object, in this case here the child that motivates the father to buy the product.

The question is, do environmental factors that determine demand for a product a likely referential as the direct customer that aid in generating revenue? Maybe, we might say yes, but so is advertisement, the law of demand and supply, besides other factors.

I think who pays for that product is not the customer, but who has interest in the product being paid for, that generates that revenue for that product is the customer.

Its like telling me that, because someone else chooses to pay for my meals, even though i am the one patronizing a particular restaurant, that someone facilitating the payment is the customer. It just doesn't make sense.

As I said before, The customer does not have to be the person paying for that product. The customers are those that have interest and need for that product, and always demand for that product, not those that decide to fund the demand.

The person that shows the interest is the buyer, the person that pays for it is the facilitator for that demand not the buyer.

When a company does advertisement for example to drive demand for a particular product, who do they target?

kazey i tink u need 2 answer ur last question b4 i say anything,

again, u wont do well in the analysis by being pathetic, nobody is sick neither is anybody cheating d oda, so keep being pathetic,

imagine u get u a eatry, n u send ur broda 2 get d stuffs, while u sit n wait(perharps scoping one of d waitress)

in d eyes of d person selling ova d counter, who is d customer,

tink about it, dont add sentiments,

Just remember that I said "I think", and I am Literally challenging what the dictionary says, and this is an opinion based on justified reasons. And why do you say, I shouldn't be pathetic? or share sentiments? You got me lost there for real, because I don't see what me and my opinions relate, help me here?

opinion.

i think the customer, the consumer/end-user must all be mutually entwined to make complete business.
if u eliminate the consumer, u probably want to prove how stupid a customer can be (buying without need).
if u remove the customer then the manufacturer won't really be stupid but have a very good heart (donations, charity et al).

before u acquire an item, there must be a need for it somewhere.
i don't think anyone will just buttress a manufacturer just for nothing. there must be a motivating factor.

if i remembered very well, all the adverts i've seen in life are targeted at the consumer/end-user. why ?
because they are the only motivation to getting sales on any product.

u don't go marketing a potential customer and say "hey, i really want you to buy this product because it's worth your money and more! " you must explain how he is going to profit from the purchase - that is consumption.
when u make a product or service, ur target is the consumer. u must make someone want ur product else u'll have to use it urself.

logically, u can't have a customer if there are no consumers whereas - though it doesn't make complete business, u can actually have consumers without customers ( donation).

seun, do u think google will be throwing ads here if consumers were absent ?

my opinion.

cheers

I'm not saying that we shouldn't care about consumers. From the business-person's point of view, we only need to care about the user because our customer cares about them. They are important, but customers are more important.

From a business angle, I'm hosting a big crowd on Nairaland because Google likes the traffic. Period. If I have to choose between satisfying a user and satisfying a customer, I ought to choose the customer everyt time.

Sometimes, customers don't fully understand what they want, but one must be committed to their satisfaction.

how do you satisfy a customer that is not consuming ?

I think a customer is always consuming something direcly or indirectly. My customers consume web traffic.

What a nice arguement, @Seun I will want you to go streght to your point.