A customer is someone who purchases a product or hires a service.
From the Latin cliens , the term client is a term that can have different meanings, according to the perspective in which it is analyzed.
In economics, the concept allows us to refer to the person who accesses a product or service based on a payment. There are constant clients, who access said good regularly, or occasional, those who do so at a certain time, for a specific need.
In this context, the term is used as a synonym for buyer (the person who buys the product), user (the person who uses the service) or consumer (who consumes a product or service).
Types of clients
It is worth mentioning that marketing and sales specialists often distinguish between different classes of customers. Active customers are those who currently make frequent purchases. Inactive customers , on the other hand, have not made a purchase for a long time so it is likely that they are satisfying their needs with the competition.
On the other hand, there are satisfied customers or dissatisfied customers , depending on the type of result that the commercial exchange has had. Customers have needs that the company or seller must satisfy. These needs generate in the individual a series of expectations regarding the product or service. If these expectations are frustrated, that is, if the needs are not satisfied, it is very likely that the customer will stop purchasing from that site or, more specifically, the product in question.
This basic principle of marketing gave rise to the famous postulate that “the customer is always right.” The company, therefore, must focus its efforts on customer satisfaction, since a satisfied customer will continue to buy and spend their money with the company.
Customer service is very important in all companies.
The term in law
In the field of law , meanwhile, the client is a person who is under the guardianship, representation or protection of another (such as a lawyer): "My client refuses to testify." In these cases, the lawyer is the spokesperson for the individual, who will direct the script of what he must express when taking the stand and will be in charge of studying the case so that he can achieve, through the use of his own resources, that the person obtains a favorable result in the jury 's verdict.
In Ancient Rome, a person who depended on a patron or benefactor was known as a client. In this way, an individual who could not legally achieve citizenship had a kind of protection.
Client in computing, politics, art and psychology
On the other hand, in the field of computing, the computer that uses the resources provided by another computer, which is called a server, is known as a client; This is done remotely .
In politics , in turn, the term refers to someone who receives rewards in exchange for votes or any type of political favor.
In the art sector there are various ways of understanding the concept. It can be the one who commissions a work of art from a certain artist and offers him a sum of money in exchange for his work (he can also be called a commissionor or patron ); It can also refer to someone who buys a work (in some places it is called a collector ). Someone who works as a promoter of works of art can also be called this way (in turn, they can also be called a dealer or gallery owner ).
Finally, in psychology , there is a type of therapy known as client-centered that serves to treat a person taking into account their relationships, that is, their way of establishing contact with their environment . This is a type of non-directive therapy.