Originally written in French. Translated by AI — the meaning has been preserved, not the prose.
Short definition
In B2B, the party that pays for the software, arbitrates between projects, carries this one to their management and bears the risk of the purchase decision — distinct from the party that uses the product day to day.
Full definition
The word circulates without qualification between a company's functions. In marketing, "the customer" is often the target segment; in support, the company under contract; in design, the person in front of the screen; in sales, whoever signs. Each uses it believing they are talking about the same thing.
In the articles on this blog, the term designates the purchase-decision side, and it is kept separate from the user. The customer pays, arbitrates, carries the project internally, has to reassure their management, fears risk and worries about whether the deployment will hold. Their criteria bear on a committing decision; the user's bear on daily work.
The distinction isn't always embodied by two people: in a small structure, the same person can occupy both roles. It is the two sets of criteria that stay distinct, not necessarily the individuals.
Usage in the field
Used to say what discovery must cover beyond usage, to analyse a sale lost despite satisfied users, and to distinguish two registers of context to document — customer context and user context.
Synonyms and variants
"The buyer", "the decision-maker", "whoever pays", "the sponsor" when the emphasis falls on carrying the project internally.
Not to be confused with
- user — the person who uses the product in their daily work, and whose criteria are usage, load and tolerance to friction. They are subject to the purchase decision, they don't take it.
- influencer — a person whose opinion weighs on the choice without their paying or using: a business expert, a technical directorate, a consultancy.
- Customer signal — information coming from a customer or a market indicating a need, a friction or a constraint. The signal is what comes up, the customer is where it comes from.
Examples
"In B2B, the customer isn't just 'the user'" — the usage that fixes the distinction retained here.
A product "liked by users and yet [which] doesn't sell": the two words there designate two separate evaluations of the same product.
Ambiguities / debates
Some teams use "customer" for the whole organization, users included, and then distinguish with qualifiers — end customer, paying customer, internal customer. The usage is common and not wrong; what the sense retained here refuses is the usage that suggests satisfying one satisfies the other.