Customers Versus Users
Posted by Ian Holsman
I forgot an important lesson yesterday.
Your Customers are not always the same group as your users.
This is especially relevant on ‘free’ web sites, or for people who offer ‘free’ services, and it sucks if you don’t realize this.
The customers are the ones who pay you (intrinsically or extrinsically). The users are the people who view your site. you need to remember (and I didn’t) that your site or service is also aimed at the customers.
I’m not saying the people who view the site aren’t important. The users are important as they perform a function the customer is willing to pay for, but so are the people paying the bills.
It can also help to remember this when you write your value proposition section of your business plan, as it opens up a line of thought and dialogue which you might not have had otherwise