Type of Customer

What is a customer?

A customer is an individual or business that purchases another company's goods or services.

Customers are important because they drive revenues; without them, businesses cannot continue to
exist. All businesses compete with other companies to attract customers, either by aggressively
advertising their products, by lowering prices to expand their customer bases, or by developing unique
products and experiences that customers love.

Three Major Classification of Customer

1. In Relation to business
a. Internal Customer
- Internal customers have a relationship with, and within, your company, either through
employment or as partners who deliver your product or service to the end user or the
external customer
b. External Customer
- External Customer is a type of customer who does not have any direct relationship with
the company but buys and consumes the produced products and services. External
customer is what is commonly referred to as a ‘customer' in general. They purchase a
company’s products or services but are not employee or partner or vendor or part of
the organization in any other way.
2. In relation to support required
a. Novice Customer
- These are customers who are in the process of implementing the product and/or getting
training the first time round. These customers may already be a repeat purchasers (ie
they have bought more than one of your products/ services) but they are new to the
product/ service they have purchased.
b. Advance Customer
- Customers who have made one or more purchases from your store, and are currently
active. These are your ideal customers they have made more than one purchase and are
buying happily at their expected purchase frequency
c. Talkative customer
- These customers tend to drone on about topics to the product or service that the
business is offering.
d. Passive customer
- a passive customer is one who has not searched for information and therefore has
fewer conscious reasons for his or decision. Passive customers are not loyal to your
brand, passive customers are the quickest to switch brands as soon as something better
comes along
e. Special Need customer
- Customer with special needs. It can be pregnant woman, elderly or person with
disabilities. Each individual has different needs and different limitations. The best way to
understand a person’s needs is to get to know them, and ask questions. Never make an
assumption on a person’s disability. Be patient in dealing with special need customer,
 Many persons with disabilities require extra time when it comes to shopping or asking
questions. Take the time to respond to any needs that may come up.
f. Demanding customer
- A demanding customer may ask you to do something that you are not authorized or
otherwise able to do for them. With this type of customer, you can assure them that
you will do whatever you possibly can to meet their needs
3. Rapport-based
a. Stable/even-tempered customer
- they are usually calm and do not easily get angry. They can easily be talked to when
there is a problem with the product or service that a business is offering
b. logical/Rational customer
- A rational consumer is considered to be that person who makes rational consumption
decisions. They are costumer who makes his choices after considering all the other
alternative goods (and services) available in the market
c. Talkative/social customer
- They love to talk but can be distracting. They tend to repeat themselves and may just be
looking for human interaction.
d. Driver/doer customer
- They seem to know everything, including about the company, product, or service. In
order to show how smart they were, they could be very rude and critical. They also talk
a lot and try to take over every conversation. These type of customer are sure that they
are right. It can be hard to deal with this kind of customer because you can't really tell
what they want.

Customer as values

It is important to value customer because The more you appreciate customer value, the better
the customer satisfaction and performance will be. This leads to more profit and a higher market share
and of course, more loyal customers that will help the business growth

Customer as goals

Making customer as the most important part of the business is a way to make the business
grow. A company must put a specific goals and guidelines into place to ensure that every single
customer is 100% satisfied with the services the company provides.