Clients, Customers, or Users

Who does your business serve? You know, the people that spend money on your product or service. Do you consider them to be “clients”, “customers”, or “users”?

They all sound similar, and they are, but there are subtle and important differences between them. I see it roughly like this:

Clients are people you know and work with. You talk to them frequently, know them by name, and have a solid relationship.

Customers are people that buy from you, and you might recognize their face, but each transaction is a one-off, and you hope they come back again.

Users are people that subscribe to your service and pay for access, but you rarely (often never) have direct communication with them.

All can be good, but it really depends on what your business does and who you really want to serve.

Comparing them

An episode of The Long and The Short Of It podcast dug into this a bit, and I loved how the hosts both framed these types of people.

Jen’s thought was pretty simple:

“And I recognize that I want clients, and I have no interest in customers.”

She’s not against people being customers, per se, but for her kind of work she needs a deeper relationship, and it was a good way…