Customer
A customer (sometimes referred to as a ‘purchaser’, 'consumer', 'employer' ‘client’ or ‘buyer’) is an individual, group or organisation which buys goods or services from a supplier which may also be an individual, group or organisation.
Customers typcially act to maximise their well-being and satisfaction: they should know what they want and – in a free-market economy, and subject to the availability of adequate funds – are more-or-less free to select what they want.
A customer makes the decision to purchase certain goods and/or services once they are satisfied their purchase will satisfy a particular need, following which a transaction occurs: this will involve a payment of money – or some other consideration – flowing from the customer to the seller. There may also be some form of contract between the customer and the supplier, and there may also be legal righs governing the relationship between the customer and supplier, such as the Consumer Rights Act.
A distinction should be made between a customer and a consumer as they are not necessarily synonymous: a product may be purchased by an individual who is not the ultimate consumer e.g a cinema owner who buys ice-cream in bulk quantities: in this case, the consumer is the cinema goer, not the cinema owner.
The phrase ‘caveat emptor’ (or ‘buyer beware’) refers to the general principle that the seller of an item will generally know more about it than the purchaser and so the purchaser must take care to check the item before agreeing a price and purchasing it.
NB BS EN 9145 defines a customer as an: “Organization, legal entity, or person that receives a product or service (e.g., consumer, client, end-user, retailer, beneficiary, purchaser).”
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
Plumbing and heating for sustainability in new properties
Technical Engineer runs through changes in regulations, innovations in materials, and product systems.
Awareness of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
What CBAM is and what to do about it.
The new towns and strategic environmental assessments
12 locations of the New Towns Taskforce reduced to 7 within the new towns draft programme and open consultation.
Buildings that changed the future of architecture. Book review.
The Sustainability Pathfinder© Handbook
Built environment agency launches free Pathfinder© tool to help businesses progress sustainability strategies.
Government outcome to the late payment consultation, ECA reacts.
IHBC 2025 Gus Astley Student Award winners
Work on the role of hewing in UK historic conservation a win for Jack Parker of Oxford Brookes University.
Future Homes Building Standards and plug-in solar
Parts F and L amendments, the availability of solar panels and industry responses.
How later living housing can help solve the housing crisis
Unlocking homes, unlocking lives.
Preparing safety case reports for HRBs under the BSA
A new practical guide to preparing structural inputs for safety cases and safety case reports published by IStructE.
Male construction workers and prostate cancer
CIOB and Prostate Cancer UK encourage awareness of prostate cancer risks, and what to do about it.
The changed R&D tax landscape for Architects
Specialist gives a recap on tax changes for Research and Development, via the ACA newsletter.
Structured product data as a competitive advantage
NBS explain why accessible product data that works across digital systems is key.
Welsh retrofit workforce assessment
Welsh Government report confirms Wales faces major electrical skills shortage, warns ECA.
A now architectural practice looks back at its concept project for a sustainable oceanic settlement 25 years on.
Copyright and Artificial Intelligence
Government report and back track on copyright opt out for AI training but no clear preferred alternative as yet.