Customers, Consumers, and Clients

There are different ways to talk about people who buy things.

Customers are individuals or organizations who buy things from other individuals, shops or organizations, pay for a service or order something from a company.

Consumers are people who buy goods and services for their own use or consumption and not for resale. Consumers are now recognized as an important group – the government has passed laws to safeguard the interests of the consumer. An organized movement (consumerism) for consumer protection has emerged in the last 40 years.

Consumerism consists of all those activities that are undertaken to protect the rights of consumers in their dealings with business. There exist four basic rights of consumers: the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose and the right to be heard. Manufacturers investigate consumer tastes using market research.

Clients are individuals or organizations who pay for services provided by a professional person or organization such as a lawyer, an accountant, a bank, advertising agency, etc.

A business may refer to its customers as its customer base or client base.

Exercises in Word Study

Ex.1. Form verbs from the following nouns:

consumer, protection, investigation, service, recognition, activity, manufacturer, choice, movement, customer.

Ex.2. Give the English for:

покупець, споживач, платити за послугу, споживання, перепродаж, приймати закон, охороняти інтереси споживача, захист прав споживача, смаки споживача, дослідження ринку, клієнт, бухгалтер, рекламна агенція.