| 词条 | Customer |
| 释义 |
In sales, commerce and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a good, service, product or an idea - obtained from a seller, vendor, or supplier via a financial transaction or exchange for money or some other valuable consideration.{{sfn|Reizenstein|2004|pp=119}}{{sfn|Kendall|2007|pp=3}} EtymologyEarly societies relied on a gift economy based on favours. Later, as commerce developed less permanent human relations were formed, depending more on transitory needs rather than enduring social desires. Although such distinctions have no contemporary semantic weight, certain (short term) sectors prefer client while more stable, repeat business operations tend to prefer customer ClientsThe term client is derived from Latin clientem or clinare meaning "to incline” or “to bend", and is related to the emotive idea of closure. It is widely believed that people only change their habits when motivated by greed and fear[1] Winning a client is therefore a singular event, which is why professional specialists who deal with particular problems tend to attract one-time clients rather than regular customers.{{vague|date=June 2018}} CustomersClients who habitually return to a seller develop customs that allow for regular, sustained commerce that allows the seller to develop statistical models to optimize production processes (which change the nature or form of goods or services) and supply chains (which changes the location or formalizes the changes of ownership or entitlement transactions). Customer segmentation{{main|Customer segmentation}}In the 21st century customers are generally categorized{{by whom?|date=August 2016}} into two types:
A customer may or may not also be a consumer, but the two notions are distinct.{{sfn|Frain|1999|p=161}}{{sfn|Reizenstein|2004|pp=119}} A customer purchases goods; a consumer uses them.{{sfn|Blythe|2008|pp=18}}{{sfn|Kansal|Rao|2006|pp=61}} An ultimate customer may be a consumer as well, but just as equally may have purchased items for someone else to consume. An intermediate customer is not a consumer at all.{{sfn|Frain|1999|p=161}}{{sfn|Reizenstein|2004|pp=119}} The situation is somewhat complicated in that ultimate customers of so-called industrial goods and services (who are entities such as government bodies, manufacturers, and educational and medical institutions) either themselves use up the goods and services that they buy, or incorporate them into other finished products, and so are technically consumers, too. However, they are rarely called that, but are rather called industrial customers or business-to-business customers.{{sfn|Frain|1999|p=161}} Similarly, customers who buy services rather than goods are rarely called consumers.{{sfn|Reizenstein|2004|pp=119}} Six Sigma doctrine places (active) customers in opposition to two other classes of people: not-customers and non-customers:
Geoff Tennant, a Six Sigma consultant from the United Kingdom, uses the following analogy to explain the difference: A supermarket's customer is the person buying milk at that supermarket; a not-customer buys milk from a competing supermarket, whereas a non-customer doesn't buy milk from supermarkets at all but rather "has milk delivered to the door in the traditional British way".{{sfn|Tennant|2001|pp=52}} Tennant also categorizes customers in another way that is employed outwith the fields of marketing.{{sfn|Tennant|2001|pp=52–53}} While marketers, market regulation, and economists use the intermediate/ultimate categorization, the field of customer service more often{{quantify|date=August 2016}} categorizes customers into two classes:
Before the introduction of the notion of an internal customer, external customers were, simply, customers.{{cn|date=August 2016}} Quality-management writer Joseph M. Juran popularized the concept, introducing it in 1988 in the fourth edition of his Quality Control Handbook {{harv|Juran|1988}}.{{sfn|Kelemen|2003|pp=28}}{{sfn|Stracke|2006|p=87}}{{sfn|Reeves|Bednar|2005|pp=335}} The idea has since gained wide acceptance in the literature on total quality management and service marketing;{{sfn|Kelemen|2003|pp=28}} and many organizations {{as of | 2016 | lc = on}} recognize the customer satisfaction of internal customers as a precursor to, and a prerequisite for, external customer satisfaction, with authors such as {{harvnb|Tansuhaj|Randall|McCullough|1991}} regarding service organizations which design products for internal customer satisfaction as better able to satisfy the needs of external customers.{{sfn|Papasolomou-Doukakis|2001|pp=71}} Research on the theory and practice of managing the internal customer continues {{as of | 2016 | lc = on}} in a variety of service-sector industries.[2][3]{{qn|date=August 2016}} Arguments against use of the term “internal customers”Leading authors in management and marketing, like Peter Drucker, Philip Kotler, W. Edwards Deming, etc., have not used the term “internal customer” in their works. They consider the “customer” as a very specific role in the society which represents a crucial part in the relationship between the demand and the supply. Some of the most important characteristics of any customer are that: any customer is never in a subordination line with any supplier; any customer has equal positions with the supplier within negotiations; and any customer can accept or reject any offer for a service or a product. Peter Drucker wrote “They are all people who can say no, people who have the choice to accept or reject what you offer.”[4] In opposition to the stated customer’s characteristics, relationships between colleagues in a company are always based on a subordination – direct or indirect. Company employees are obliged to follow processes of their companies. Company employees do not have the authority to choose a unit/colleague to fulfill any task. Company employees are obliged to use an existing unit/colleague by using the company’s structure and approved processes, therefore these internal relationships are not considered as an option. Many authors in ITIL and Six Sigma methodologies define “internal customer” as an internal part of a company which uses the output of another part of a company as its own input. But actually, this definition describes better a classical internal process rather than a relationship between a customer and a supplier. Peter Drucker considers that there are no customers inside organizations. He wrote “Inside an organization there are only cost centers. The only profit center is a customer whose check has not bounced.”[5] In addition, William Deming advises managers, in his 9-th point, to “Break down barriers between departments. They must work as a team”[6], which means that there have to be teamwork in a company rather than a supplier/customer relationship. One more argument, even the ITIL methodology admits that “the term ‘colleague’ may be more accurate in describing how two internal groups are related to one another.”[7]. See also
Notes1. ^{{cite web|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-pathways-experience/201708/greed-and-fear|title=Greed and Fear|author=|date=|website=Psychology Today|accessdate=9 May 2018}} 2. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.internalcustomer.com/ongoing-research/ |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2013-11-22 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222060247/http://www.internalcustomer.com/ongoing-research/ |archivedate=2014-02-22 |df= }} 3. ^https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2009&q=internal+customer+service+industry&hl=en&as_sdt=1,16 4. ^{{cite book|last1=Drucker|first1=Peter F.|last2=Collins|first2=Jim|last3=Kotler|first3=Philip|last4=Kouzes|first4=James|last5=Rodin|first5=Judith|last6=Rangan|first6=V. Kasturi|last7=Hesselbein|first7=Frances|title=The five most important questions you will ever ask about your organization|date=2008|publisher=Jossey-Bass|edition=Third|at=Under the chapter “Question 2: Who Is Our Customer?”, p. 25|isbn=978-0-470-22756-5}} 5. ^{{cite book|last1=Drucker|first1=Peter F.|title=Management Challenges for the 21st Century|date=2002|publisher=PerfectBound™, HarperCollins|at=4 Information Challenges, under the topic “Where the Results Are”|isbn=0-06-0546794}} 6. ^{{cite book|last=Deming|first=W. Edwards|title=Out of the crisis|date=2000|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.}} 7. ^{{cite book|title=ITIL® Service Strategy|date=2011|publisher=TSO (The Stationery Office)|edition=Second|at=Table 3.1 Differences between internal and external customers; under the line “Link to business strategy and objectives”|isbn=9780113313044}} References
Further reading
0636062813{{Wikiquote|0636062813 Koko|}} 2 : Sales|Supply chain management |
| 随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识，基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识，是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。