The Difference Between a Customer vs. Client

Both customers and clients are essential parts of the business structure. While both concepts are similar, they still have distinct differences that can affect how your business caters its operations to them. Learning the difference between a customer vs. client can help you better understand how to tailor your operations and communicate with your consumers. In this article, we’ll discuss 

To best understand the differences between customer vs. client, it’s helpful to define what each type of consumer is. Both consumers play a large role in the business cycle and businesses tailor a large part of business operations towards the two. Using methods that target the wrong type of consumer can lead to ineffective marketing, higher expenses, and costly mistakes. 

Customers 

Customers are the ones that purchase the products or services from a business. Typically, customers aren’t loyal to one specific store, but focus their loyalty on brands. For example, a consumer may purchase fresh produce from their local fruit stand, household goods from Walmart, and cleaning supplies from Costco because that is the most economical way to do so. If Walmart has a promotion on their fresh produce, that consumer may shop for their produce at a different location the week of the promotion. 

Clients 

Clients require more personal interaction and their relationship with a business is long term. You are working together with a client to create something collaboratively that they request as opposed to simply selling a product or service. Businesses tailor products and services to the client, and each one is unique to other buyers. 

Establishing if your consumers are customers or clients can be difficult, but it’s important to understand which your business attracts. Analyzing the buying factors that your customers hold can help you distinguish if your consumers are customers or clients. Buying factors can include: 

Price

Price is a large indicator of whether a consumer is a client or a customer. Typically, customers place a higher emphasis on the price of a product or service as clients do. Clients are looking at the overall product or service and whether it suits their needs. If the product or service suits their needs, they will then decide which price they will pay. If your business caters to clients, your prices are typically negotiable, while if you cater to customers, your prices are more firm. 

Advertising and promotions

When deciding if your business attracts a customer vs. client, it's helpful to look at the promotions you launch and what they aim to achieve. If your business attracts clients, your promotions are typically aimed at attracting new clients and focus on your reputation and ability to handle problems similar to that of potential clients. If your business attracts customers, your promotions are typically focused on specific products and services and are based around pricing models. For example, while a grocery store may run discounts on their produce section, a cleaning service may highlight their years of experience and prior experience. 

Relationship

The depth of your relationship with your consumers is a great indicator of whether they are consumers or clients. Business interactions with consumers are typically transactional in nature, while businesses build client relationships over time and require more effort to maintain. While having customer relationships doesn’t mean a short-term relationship, they are focused more on the product or service as opposed to the value and trust of the relationship.  

Product

If you’re trying to establish whether you have customers or clients, you can look at your products. If each product is unique to the buyer and they have provided guidance and insight how they want the product to look or service to be complete, you are likely working with a client. If you mass produce or sell one product or service to multiple buyers, you are likely dealing with customers. 

Consider following these tips when attempting to attract customers to make purchases from your business:

Focus on your product

Customers are primarily looking to purchase a product and place less emphasis on your company, your branding, or your business practices and standards. While customers still care about these aspects and they affect the purchasing decision, the bulk of customers are simply looking to purchase a product. When marketing to customers, place greater focus on your product and the details of your product as opposed to your company details, such as years in business, your corporate policies, or your partner brands.

Create value based incentives

It’s important to remember that the primary purchasing incentive held by customers is price. Customers are less focused on which brand they purchase, and more on the best deal they can find for the quality they are looking for. When marketing to customers, focus on the value proposition of your product and highlight aspects such as quality, ingredients, and price. You might run promotions such as buy one get one specials or reduce pricing during certain weeks of the month. These value based incentives drive customers to purchase your product and try it which can lead to repeat purchases. 

Know your position in the market

Your competitors and the promotions they are running highly influence customers looking to purchase a product. Analyze your customers and find out where you are positioned in the market by looking at factors such as price, quality, and stores that carry your product. By finding your place in the market, you can identify your top competitors and monitor their business actions and promotions. This can allow you to better market yourself to the same consumers and give you a competitive edge. Consider running your promotions when your competitors aren’t and launching new products during different times of the year.

Build trust with your clients

Clients aren’t just looking at the product you sell, they’re looking at the overall business relationship that will exist if they use you to complete work. When looking to attract clients, focus your efforts on building a trusting relationship. This can come from regularly maintaining relationships with your contacts, reaching out to them about promotions directly, and having an excellent reputation in the industry. Clients place more emphasis on your overall business and operations as opposed to the work you complete on products or the services you deliver.

Emphasize business ethics and operations 

With building trust, highlight your business operations. Factors such as eco-conscious operations, industry compliance, and fair internal business operations can influence a client’s perception of your business. These factors all can contribute to whether a client chooses your business to commission work for them. Clients are looking for business partners that share their values and business beliefs, so conducting research on potential clients can help you tailor your marketing outreach to suit their standards.

Focus on past clients

A great way to build a trusting relationship with clients is to showcase your previous work with clients. Having reputable previous business partners can help show potential clients that they can trust you to complete work and meet deadlines. Consider highlighting a portfolio of work on your website and inviting potential clients to view it prior to making business arrangements. 

Search for contacts, not clients

Clients rarely respond well to be directly targeted for promotions and ads like customers do. Clients focus more on building relationships with vendors, producers, and service companies, so focusing on building a network of contacts can be more beneficial than directly offering your services to clients. Maintaining regular communication with your contacts can help them remember you when they need work completed, but doesn’t make them feel you’re trying to sell them something.