Client or Customer?

True, accountants have clients, lawyers have clients, and real estate buyers are clients. Yet can a frequent customer become a client? Lets say, Berney Mac, enjoys his local sandwich shop, he passes by for lunch everyday, and then suddenly on Fridays, he picks up a 6 or 7 sandwiches for his office every Friday, and then every Saturday he purchases sandwiches for PTA meetings, and on Sunday for the sports team, does Berney Mac remain a customer or turns into a client if he continues to purchase for different events? If he is still just a customer, what if the PTA enjoys the natural fresh sandwiches, and estimates the cost cutting, 1 sandwich can be cut into three and feed three students, since its fresh and organic they offer it 2 days a week for the students. The sandwich shop agrees because it becomes a guarantee sale each week. Since the deal went smooth Berney Mac offers the same deal to the sports team, and even the opponents for snacks after practice. Since Berney Mac brought these nice deals, the shop offers him more sandwiches at a sweet price for his office. Thus this will cater to more business.

The key is to never underestimated the value of each customer, and respect them to the extent that each are an individual client. In most retail companies, the pinnacle point is the "sale", they get customers to the point of sale and send them packing out the door. This even occurs in the hotel industry, even lawyers and accountants do this. Sometimes staff does get very redundant and focus on the next or the "other" customer instead of the value of each customer. Staff does view the process as an endless task, day in and day out, so they can not grasp the importance of each customer. This is when good managment should step in to boost up moral to ensue quality services.

Veronica,

Your point about valuing and respecting customers/clients is 100% correct. No matter what you call your customers if you don't treat them well, provide good value and fulfill a need they will leave.
Josef

well, your right too....if your dealing with a few then those are your clients, if your dealing with a few hundred-thousand then those are customers.
:D

Berney Mac was on the show Jimmy Kimal tonight, i have no idea why i used that name in the example. bizarr. i dont know.

I agree that the difference between thinking of them as clients or customers is crucial, but it doesn't go far enough these days. What about stakeholders who haven't yet become customers or clients? They're an important part of your community. Maybe they're prospects who've opted in to receive communications from you. Registered users of your site. Bloggers who cover your industry segment. Or evangelists who believe in your product or your organization even if they're not a customer. (I'm not a Ferrari customer, but I am a huge fan, and I've converted quite a few Lamborghini fans to the right path!) If you shift to building a community from just selling a product, then you're in a better position to deepen your relationship with community members and quite possibly turn them into a client/customer.

very true Mr. Simons, i agree, and that reminds me about something on NPR, buzz word marketing. How people are paid to tell people about products. Like college girls convert people to buy or not to buy products, or mom's at soccer practice, and everytime they say a brand, on their list they are paid for it. As of now, people that talk about products dont have to disclose they are paid. There are no regulations, it embarks on free-speech v.s. paid sponsorship.

its fun to discuss. I have seen new marketing campaigns recently that entice customers to be clients. Do you market to your customers or do you market to your clients?

You bring up an interesting point, Veronica.
Buzz (word of mouth) marketing can be done well or poorly, honestly or dishonestly. The bar girls shilling drinks without disclosure give the segment a bad name. But there are honest practitioners out there, like Dave Balter's BzzAgent http://www.bzzagent.com/ and Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association http://www.womma.org/ . The good WOM marketers disclose any relationships. Of course, the best WOM is still real advice from friends, and therein lies the importance of building community.