Customer vs Consumer: Thoughts and Opinions

[Jack21222]

When you're in a retail establishment, would you rather be called a customer or a consumer? At my place of employment, upper management has started an effort to move away from using the word "customer" and toward the word "consumer."

This makes me cringe a little, because when I hear the word "consumer," I think of a ravenous creature going out and consuming things. Meanwhile, to me, "customer" has a completely neutral connotation.

I've occasionally referred to my customers as "guests," but that came off sounding a little phony, I think.

So, am I the crazy person here? Is everybody else alright with the word "consumer?" Or do you share my thoughts?

 

[Evo]

I would not like to be labeled a consumer. That makes me a mindlesss purchasing drone. I'd probably stop shopping at a place that referred to me that way. At least if they call me a customer, I can believe that they don't see me as a number on a spreadsheet.

 

[hypatia]

I also consider myself a customer. In these difficult times, customer service is very important. I choose carefully where I spend my money.

Consumer, should be saved for reports.

 

[BobG]

Consumer sounds like an item to be processed through the retail establishment as efficiently as possible with as little interaction as possible. A consumer should be handled via an automated system, such as having the consumer pay for gas at the pump via credit card, or pay for their groceries at the automated checkout, or via an automated phone system, or via an online purchasing/billing system.

A customer requires actual person to person interaction and means the retail establishment has to hire employees to deal with the customer's problems and complaints. A customer could even be referred to by their name (that's one advantage of having your shopper card scanned).

Obviously they would prefer consumers to customers.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

They just want to get out of admiting that their client are alway right.

 

[Jack21222]

It turns out there is actually a technical difference between the two.

A customer is the one that purchases a product, a consumer is the one that uses the product. So for the people I deal with (selling mattresses), customer is a more accurate term, because many people buy mattresses for guest rooms or their children. The guests or the children would be the actual consumers.

So, in case anybody wanted to point that out, I'm talking about the colloquial usage.

 

[DaveC426913]

I agree with the masses. Customer is about the person; consumer is about the behaviour. I prefer they think of me as a person, not just a behaviour.

 

[GeorginaS]

I agree with with Dave's agreement.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

This reminds me of the time that a bunch of people in the medical industry decided that it would be better to call a stroke, a brain attack.

Tsu came home shaking her head in disbelief. There are certainly bigger fish to fry - like making sure they have respirators for babies, in the ER.

 

[collinsmark]

When you're in a retail establishment, would you rather be called a customer or a consumer? At my place of employment, upper management has started an effort to move away from using the word "customer" and toward the word "consumer."

That's about the silliest thing I have heard all weekend. Is the upper management actually suggesting that actual retail customers be referred to as consumers directly to their face? Are the upper management out of there minds?

There is also a different way to interpret the different connotations between customer and consumer, in addition to what others have brought up.

• It is an understood connotation that a customer is someone who purchases your company's product.
• A consumer might purchases your company's product, a competitor's product, or some different product altogether.

It actually is more appropriate to use the word 'consumer' when discussing industry trends, market trends, and macroeconomics -- a broader set than just the subset that purchase your company's products in particular.

But calling one of your particular customers a 'consumer' directly is just silly. It kind of implies that they are a statistic in a market trend.

But if you must call your customers consumers, it might help take the edge off by preceding it with the word 'human'. 'Just make sure you pronounce the last syllable 'on' as in 'humon'. Try to talk in a monotone, robot like voice,

"Hello humon consumers. Please stand motionless and in single file to maximize lobby space. A representative will be with you after a short time interval." ​

 

[Jack21222]

I don't know that they want us to start saying the word "consumer," but on the company voicemail, a few have corrected themselves mid-sentence, such as,

"When a custom... I mean, consumer... they're consumers... when a consumer is in your showroom, " and then they continue. The word "customer" has been eliminated from the lexicon of upper management. Though, we (the salespeople) don't have any specific directive to use the word ourselves.

Of course, we have over 1000 salespeople listening in on these voicemails, it's inevitable that at least one will start using "consumer" his or herself.

 

[Mathnomalous]

"The customer is always right" but no one says anything about the consumer.

 

[DaveC426913]

"When a custom... I mean, consumer... they're consumers... when a consumer is in your showroom, " and then they continue. The word "customer" has been eliminated from the lexicon of upper management. Though, we (the salespeople) don't have any specific directive to use the word ourselves.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the point is as you say: to shed light on the end-user, not the person in the store.

When picking out a camera or other product for a customer, I know it is important to get a clear idea who it is for, and not just assume the buyer is the user. Perhaps in your case a company inititiave will be forthcoming outlining how to ask the customer intelligent questions about the consumer.

 

[collinsmark]

I don't know that they want us to start saying the word "consumer," but on the company voicemail, a few have corrected themselves mid-sentence, such as,

"When a custom... I mean, consumer... they're consumers... when a consumer is in your showroom, " and then they continue. The word "customer" has been eliminated from the lexicon of upper management.

That tells me that perhaps upper management does not have a good grasp of the English language. Of if they do it tells me that they have lost their minds.

The use of the word would be appropriate if they said something like, "due to recent international economic trends, it is predicted that consumers will show a significant shift from high-end versions to smaller, low-end versions of the product, along with a 15% decline in overall product purchases, at least for the next three fiscal quarters."

But to say that a 'consumer' is in the showroom is just silly. "Hel-lo hu-mon."

 

[Jack21222]

Giving them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps the point is as you say: to shed light on the end-user, not the person in the store.

When picking out a camera or other product for a customer, I know it is important to get a clear idea who it is for, and not just assume the buyer is the user. Perhaps in your case a company inititiave will be forthcoming outlining how to ask the customer intelligent questions about the consumer.

Except the actual line is "when the consumer is in your store," which rules out your suggestion of "not the person in the store."

 

[DaveC426913]

Except the actual line is "when the consumer is in your store," which rules out your suggestion of "not the person in the store."

OK. They're dufuses.

Have you considered asking them?

 

[FlexGunship]

I agree with with Dave's agreement.

We're getting fractal here.

 

[lisab]

We're getting fractal here.

I agree.

 

[FlexGunship]

I agree.

I agree with your agreement regarding my assessment of prior nested agreements.

 

[cobalt124]

Out of the choice given, I prefer customer, as the label refers to my puropses rather than theirs. I find these labels annoying. Public transport doesn't ferry passengers anymore, they are customers, residential homes now have clients, not residents (why isn't it a cliential home then?), and so on and so on.