Customer
A customer (sometimes referred to as a ‘purchaser’, 'consumer', 'employer' ‘client’ or ‘buyer’) is an individual, group or organisation which buys goods or services from a supplier which may also be an individual, group or organisation.
Customers typcially act to maximise their well-being and satisfaction: they should know what they want and – in a free-market economy, and subject to the availability of adequate funds – are more-or-less free to select what they want.
A customer makes the decision to purchase certain goods and/or services once they are satisfied their purchase will satisfy a particular need, following which a transaction occurs: this will involve a payment of money – or some other consideration – flowing from the customer to the seller. There may also be some form of contract between the customer and the supplier, and there may also be legal righs governing the relationship between the customer and supplier, such as the Consumer Rights Act.
A distinction should be made between a customer and a consumer as they are not necessarily synonymous: a product may be purchased by an individual who is not the ultimate consumer e.g a cinema owner who buys ice-cream in bulk quantities: in this case, the consumer is the cinema goer, not the cinema owner.
The phrase ‘caveat emptor’ (or ‘buyer beware’) refers to the general principle that the seller of an item will generally know more about it than the purchaser and so the purchaser must take care to check the item before agreeing a price and purchasing it.
NB BS EN 9145 defines a customer as an: “Organization, legal entity, or person that receives a product or service (e.g., consumer, client, end-user, retailer, beneficiary, purchaser).”
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
Designing sustainability and performance into buildings
Specifying and selecting sustainable resilient timber products.
Modifying wood to improve resistance to decay and movement.
A last minute, long look for built environment professionals.
The architecture of creative reuse. Book review.
Installing solar panels on listed structures.
Sustainable development global goals, history in progress?
"Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been."
Mike Kagioglou FCIOB named CIOB President
'Sustainable Development Goals must be focus for construction'
BSRIA training; a look at what's on offer
From energy management to compliance training.
TESP video warns to beware of rogue trainers.
Highlighting the slippery tactics of non-approved providers.
New Building Safety Wiki launched
Boosting awareness and understanding of the new fire safety regime.
New playbook on AI in construction published by CIOB
How to get to grips with, and the best from AI.
Digital Construction Report NBS
BIM, cloud, off-site, immersive tech, AI, twins and sustainability.
ECA learning zone and industry focus video series
From updates and amendments to circular economy, emergency lighting and much more.
The Building People Communities Network
Celebrating and amplifying voices of the under-represented, this refugee week and pride month.
Pride of Place: queer heritage
Acknowledging and taking pride in LGBTQ histories.